Over the past few years, the entire web has moved from the optional secure HTTP (also known as HTTPS) to a scenario where today you cannot have a website without securing it with an SSL certificate.
This is because Google starts displaying a warning message in their Chrome browser whenever the user visits a website URL that was launched with HTTP and not HTTPS.
To make sure your website complies with web security standards, you need to purchase an SSL certificate and install it on your website.
Specify your dedicated IP address
For the SSL certificate to work, your web server must have a fixed dedicated IP address. If you have a dedicated web server, you can usually find this IP address in your web hosting account.
If you don’t see it there, you can also find the server IP in the left pane of the cPanel tool.
Make a note of this IP address as you will need it in the next step when you receive your new SSL certificate.
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Install an SSL certificate for your web host
The next step is to obtain an SSL certificate for your website.
Since all websites on the Internet these days must use SSL if you want users to trust your website, many web hosting providers have started packaging free SSL certificates with hosting packages.
If that’s your case, browse the cPanel menu and look for a tool icon that matches the brand of a well-known SSL certificate provider.
For example, Siteground web hosting offers customers a free subscription to Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.
If so, then you are in luck. Installing SSL on your site is as simple as clicking the SSL tool icon, selecting the domain you want to protect and enabling SSL for that site.
After installing it, SSL will be installed on your website and it will begin to appear as a secure website to visitors.
If you don’t see the SSL tool available in cPanel, check with your web host to make sure it doesn’t really offer SSL certificates.
Otherwise, you will need to purchase it yourself and install it manually by following the instructions below.
Purchase a new SSL certificate
You will need to find a good SSL certificate provider. The cost of this service is relatively cheap and ranges from $ 30 to $ 100 per year.
Some of the top SSL certificate providers today include:
- Let’s Encrypt: Free, but renewing often requires re-uploading the certificate.
- Comodo SSL: Expensive, but offers a long list of additional features.
- Digicert: Inexpensive basic SSL for professional edition for large websites.
- GoDaddy: Well known for its web domain services, GoDaddy also sells website certificates.
- Networked Solutions: Provides affordable basic SSL certificates for small sites as well as more expensive options for large organizations.
- RapidSSL: This service is provided by Symantec and offers some of the most affordable SSL options available.
To purchase an SSL certificate, you will need your domain name and the dedicated IP address of the web server you provided above.
After purchasing, you will receive three pieces of information.
A certificate (CRT) that verifies the identity of your secure website against the certificate provider’s servers. A private key (KEY) that serves as a “key” that is used to decrypt and encrypt your certificate data when visitors visit your site. The key encrypts the communication between the visitor’s web browser and your web server.
The CA Bundle is the third piece of information that brings together all the intermediate certificates that make the entire SSL encrypted certification work.
With these three pieces of information from your SSL provider, you’re ready to install an SSL certificate on your site.
How to install an SSL certificate
Login to your web hosting account and open cPanel. In the Security section, select SSL / TLS Manager.
In the SSL / TLS Manager window, select the Manage SSL Sites link below.
In the Manage SSL Hosts window, scroll down where you will find Set SSL Website. Use the dropdown in this section to select the host to which you want to apply the SSL certificate. Then, in each field for Certificate, Private Key, and Certification Authority Package (CA Package), enter the long text entries that you received when you originally purchased your SSL certificate.
When finished, click the Install Certificate button below.
Your SSL certificate is now installed for this domain and will work whenever visitors enter your domain with https in front of it.
Forcing website visitors to use SSL
At this point, all visitors who have already visited your site will still use the old http bookmark in front of the domain. These visitors will still see a security warning on Chrome that your site is insecure.
This can lead to the loss of a large number of visitors as they no longer trust your site and stop visiting it.
You can fix this by forcing the browser of all visitors to change the URL so that https is always in front.
In cPanel, under Files, double-click File Manager to open it. Go to the root level directory of your web directory. You will find the .htaccess file here. Right-click the file and select Modify from the drop-down menu.
.htaccess is a file that controls the behavior of the web server when people visit your site. You need to add some custom code to this file to make the visitor’s browser use https instead of http.
In edit mode, the .htaccess file will open in the default editor on your local machine.
At the top of the file, paste the following code:
# START FORCE HTTPS
RewriteEngine incl.
RewriteCond% {HTTPS} off.
RewriteRule ^ (. *) $ Https: //% {SERVER_NAME}% {REQUEST_URI} [R = 301, L]
# END HTTPS
When you close the file, it will ask if you want to save. Confirm saving. Your new .htaccess file is now active and users will be forced to access your site over HTTPS.
Open your browser and enter the domain of your site.
If the SSL certificate is working properly, you will see a lock icon in Chrome, which means that the site is loading over the encrypted HTTPS protocol.
Other SSL considerations
Even though your website is working fine, some features don’t work after switching to SSL.
One is if you are using a CDN service to serve images from different servers around the world. Large websites use the CDN service to speed up the loading of images no matter where the visitors are around the world.
Since your CDN is still serving images over HTTP, when visitors visit your site over HTTPS, all of those images will get corrupted.
To fix this, you need to log into your CDN account, access your SSL settings, and add a new SSL account. You can paste the same certificate, key and CA bundle into these fields.
Once you save this entry, all images on your site will be loaded over HTTPS and loaded correctly for all your visitors.
There are many benefits to updating your website to use SSL certificates. Most importantly, it encrypts and protects the communication between the visitor’s computer and your website from hackers.
Plus, it brings your site up to the latest web standards and ensures that no one sees any security errors every time they visit your site.
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