How to add SSL to WordPress

A Secure Sockets Layer, also known as SSL is a technology that encrypts the incoming and outgoing connection to a website so that hackers and malicious codes cannot intercept any of the website data.  SSL is a Digital Certificate that ensures that encryption of data between the web browser and the web server is seamless and also allows private and sensitive data to be transmitted without any interference from third-party users.  

Benefits of integrating SSL certificate in your website 

1. The most essential use of an SSL certificate is that it guarantees encryption of data and ensures that when a user attempts to fill sensitive or confidential information to the website,  the user’s browser accesses the servers Digital Certificate and provides a secure connection.  

2. It protects login credentials as well as email protection. 

3. It assures the identity of the remote computer as well as captures the user’s identity. 

4. It has a lot of benefit on websites which have payment gateways or allows transactions like E-commerce, Saas platform. SSL certificate enhances customer trust while purchasing the product or service from a website. 

5. An SSL certificate also protects your website from phishing attacks which interject malicious codes in your web server.  

6. Since 2017,  Chrome 56 and above versions have started to show “Not Secure” on the address bar if the website doesn’t have an SSL certificate.  It will also alert the user if they try to fill any credit card information for payment. Without an SSL certificate, it becomes easier for hackers to steal data from the web server.  

How to Add an SSL Certificate

An SSL Certificate usually contains the following data: –  

• Certificate holder’s name 
• Serial number and expiration date of the certificate 
• Certificate holder’s public key  
• A digital signature of the issuing authority. 

Integrating an SSL certificate is an easy process to set up. All you must do is route people to Https. Follow the below five steps:  

1. Host with a dedicated IP address 

2. Buy a certificate 

3. Activate the certificate 

4. Install the certificate 

5. Update your site to use HTTPS 

Once you have purchased an activated HTTPS for your website,  go to yoursite.com, and you should see it load with the prefix of HTTPS.   

That’s it! You have successfully installed SSL and enabled HTTPS protocol for your website. Make sure you also update your website on Google Webmaster, so it crawls the latest update of your website.   

For WordPress :  

Make a backup! 

2. Install your SSL certificate. 

3. Download the plugin Really Simple SSL 

4. Upload the plugin to the wp-content/plugins directory, 

5. Go to “plugins” in your WordPress admin, then click activate. 

6. You will now see a notice asking you to enable SSL. Click it and log in again. 

You can also add a code snippet inserted on the top of your secure page.  he is an example for PHP 

:// Require https 

if ($_SERVER[‘HTTPS’] != “on”) { 

   $url = “https://”. $_SERVER[‘SERVER_NAME’] . $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_URI’]; 

   header(“Location: $url”); 

  Exit; 

} 

 
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