Discover how to enhance website security by connecting SSL. Connect SSL to Your Website Help Learn about SSL certificate benefits, different methods for SSL integration, and steps to secure your website data through SSL encryption.
Securing your website is paramount to countering security risks and the overall success of your website. Connect SSL to Your Website adds a strong layer of security for data transferred through your website.
It also promotes privacy, and in some cases, anonymity. Anonymity can be amplified by purchasing hosting services or features with cryptocurrency. For example, you can opt for a cheap VPS Bitcoin purchase, and stay off the universal radar, since crypto payments are issued through channels secured from outside interference. The same goes for the SSL.
Going forward, we will talk about the reasons to add SSL to your website and different ways to do it.
Why connect SSL to your website?
Connect SSL to Your Website Help, which stands for Secure Sockets Layer, is an encryption protocol that makes the data transferred between the server and clients secure and impenetrable to anyone outside the connection. This means that nobody can access and read the data during a browsing session under SSL.
Experts say that Connect SSL to Your Website is ”one of the most important components of online business”, which makes sense since businesses that process a lot of various data from customers like, for example, e-commerce platforms, would benefit from an extra layer of security.
A couple of years ago browsers started putting up a warning notification if the website didn’t have Connect SSL to Your Website certificates; it said something like “Your connection isn’t private”. Hence, if your website doesn’t have SSL, the warning is likely to show up, which increases the chances of users exiting your webpage. In addition to this, your search engine rankings are likely to suffer in the absence of SSL certificates.
Connect SSL to Your Website Help One of the most important aspects to take into consideration when deciding to ignore connecting your website to SSL is the confidentiality status of the data your website processes, including sensitive data. If you’re ready to face the risk of your business’s vital data being compromised, then SSL connection is optional, but if not, it is better to connect your website to SSL.
How SSL certificates work
The Connect SSL to Your Website process has its steps. Here they are:
- A browser issues a request for a secure connection with the page on the web.
- A webpage shows its SSL certificate if it has one.
- Your browser checks the SSL certificate (or its absence), and “decides” whether to proceed with the website.
- If your browser “trusts” the given certificates, then a website sends a signal to the browser to start a secure connection.
- After that, the browser and the website exchange data through a secure channel powered by SSL certificates.
Three ways to connect your website to SSL
There are several ways to add Connect SSL to Your Website to your browser. We’ll look at the common three of them.
You can straight-up order SSL certificates from your hosting provider
You can skip the potential stress and simply order a paid certificate from your hosting provider. Here there are a few scenarios for how you can integrate your paid SSL certificates:
- If you host multiple websites, you can choose to purchase SSL certificates for some (or all) of them. It will potentially grant a secure connection to some websites, and not to others.
- You can enable SSL certificates for your hosting plan. It implies that SSL will cover every website or feature you have within your hosting plan.
If you have SSL certificates, but they are expired, you can also ask your hosting provider to renew them.
You can ask if your hosting provider has a feature of enabling SSL certificates for you
Some SSL certificates are free to generate through the authorities like Let’s Encrypt, Cloudflare, and SSL For Free. Some hosting providers offer the feature of adding SSL certificates for free. It can look like a hosting provider managing the SSL setup for you, or giving you access to add certificates yourself. You should ask your vendor if they have such a feature.
However, many hosting providers have policies restricting user access to SSL certificates. Without it, you won’t be able to add SSL yourself, even if you know how to do that.
Connect SSL to Your Website Help Alternatively, if you have the technical knowledge it takes to generate and configure SSL certificates yourself and don’t want to pay extra for someone else to do it for you, you can change your hosting provider to the one that offers you independence and access to the SSL features.
You can generate and set up SSL certificates yourself
This option is only viable if you host your website on a dedicated server or virtual private server (VPS) with a free option to add SSL certificates. If your hosting provider restricts your access, you won’t be able to independently add SSL certificates.
But if your situation is different, you can very well set up SSL yourself.
Here’s how to do it.
Before going into the process of generating and setting up SSL certificates, you will need the following information regarding your server:
- IP address
- Server admin login information
- The type and version of server OS
Keep in mind that the following steps will result in generating Let’s Encrypt certificates specifically.
Now that you’re ready, you can proceed with certificate generation.
- First, you will need a way to issue SSH commands on your server, which will depend on the OS of your computer (which you log into the server from). You can use the Terminal on Mac, or PuTTY on Windows, or a web interface from your hosting provider.
- Next, you need to install Certbot. Go to the Certbot website, specify your server OS, and follow the commands to install the Certbot and its dependencies.
- There will be instructions in the form of commands for generating the certificate. Make sure you follow them. You will also need to provide your email address and agree to the terms of use.
- Set up an automated renewal of SSL certificates. Usually, the Let’s Encrypt certificate expires after 90 days. To avoid this, do the following:
- Connect to your server
- Run the crontab -e in the text editor
- Enter the 52 0,12 * * * root /var/log/letsencrypt/certbot-auto renew –quiet command
After that, you need to install your certificates on your server. Now, this step varies depending on the type of server or hosting plan you have. So, we recommend asking your hosting provider for guidance or follow installation manuals available on the web.