Free SSL Certificate For Your Website – Easy Steps Guide

what is ssl certificate

An SSL certificate displays important information for verifying the owner of a website and encrypting web traffic with SSL/TLS, including the public key, the issuer of the certificate, and the associated subdomains. alternatively, The public key, the certificate’s issuer, and the associated subdomains are all displayed in an SSL certificate, which is crucial information for confirming a website’s owner and encrypting online traffic using SSL/TLS.

The transactional or membership-based website must encrypt sensitive data before sending it from a client to a server.

Increase the security of your website with an SSL/TLS certificate.

You might think about using HTTPS for your blog as well because it would improve its search engine ranking.

Here are a few Certificate Authority Houses (SSL providers) can aid you if you want to install a certificate on your website without spending any money.

How To Get A Free SSL Certificate For Your Website In Just A Few Simple Steps!

in this guide we will bwe using cloudflare
A CDN and security company is Cloudflare. They speed up and secure your website. Many well-known websites, such as Reddit, Yelp, Mozilla, StackOverflow, etc., are powered by Cloudflare.

The easiest way to get a free SSL certificate is to sign up for Cloudflare.

Step 1: Create an account on Cloudflare

Enter your information and then click on ‘Create Account’

Step 2: Configure your website/domain

Click on add site after adding your whole website address.

Your website will now be scanned by CloudFlare. Following the completion of the scan, click “Continue Setup.”

Step 3: Configure your Website DNS Records

Once the scan is done, you will see an orange cloud next to your main domain. That means the configuration is correct. Mail and FTP are bypassed by Cloudflare and should show grey clouds.
If you see the primary domain with an orange cloud, then click on ‘Continue’.
Step 4: Select a CloudFlare Plan

For most websites, the Free Plan would be enough. Just select it and click on ‘Continue’.

Step 5: Update your NameServers

You need to point your NameServers to Cloudflare. To do this you would have to log into your domain registrar account, find the setting to change the NameServer.
Delete the existing entries, and add the DNS that CloudFlare provided.

Once you have changed the NameServer, come back to CloudFlare and click on ‘Continue’. However, it may take up to 24 hours for the NameServers to propagate.

Step 6: Set up SSL for your website

While your nameservers are being setup, you can get to SSL configuration. Scroll down to Settings Summary and you will see SSL: Full. Click on Full and you will be directed to the ‘Crypto’ page.

Next, to the SSL option, there is a dropdown list. Select ‘Flexible’ from there. The SSL certificate will be issued in an hour or so. You can check the status from the ‘Crypto’ page once it is issued.

Step 7: Redirect traffic to HTTPS

This is the last step of the configuration. We will be setting up a page rule to redirect all traffic of your website to HTTPS.

Click on Page Rules at the top of the page in the website view. We now need to add a few rules to this.

Separately add www.mywebsite.com/* and mywebsite.com/*, then check the box next to “Always Use HTTPS” for each of these URL patterns. It’s important to keep in mind that this option won’t be accessible until the SSL certificate has been obtained.

It will take a few minutes for the setting to complete. After that, any page on your website can be opened and will do so via HTTPS.