SSL and HTTPS

WordPress Website SSL and HTTPS Upgrades

Sign up here

Ready to go and don’t need to go through all the details below? Let’s get this started!

WordPress Website SSL and HTTPS Upgrade for Shared* Hosting: $169 Investment.

Includes 2 year SSL Certificate purchased and installed on your site, along with WordPress and Google Analytics Updates to convert from HTTP to HTTPS.

*Note: Some Shared Hosting Companies charge higher fees for installing a SSL Certificate and I’ll let you know if that means that I’ll need you to pick up those costs. This charge is based on the HostGator Shared Hosting One Time SSL Installation fee of $10.

Why this upgrade is essential

Google and Firefox tightening up security

Google has announced officially that beginning in July their Chrome web browser will begin showing all websites that do not have an SSL certificate as “Not Secure.” Well, that’s still a few months away, but I noticed that it’s already happening!!

And it’s not only Chrome – Firefox is doing it too!!

And Firefox gets even worse when you login to your WordPress Dashboard

We Need to Update Your Website Now!

Google Chrome is used by more than 60% of people viewing the web, 5 times more than any other web browser. Though Firefox isn’t quite as widely used as Chrome, it’s my browser of choice for Web Design troubleshooting and I always use it to access website WordPress Dashboards. It is critical that we add an SSL certificate to your website as soon as possible so that people will not be concerned when viewing your site and so that we make it safer for back end updates.

The Solution is Simple

For Shared Hosting sites, for a one-time fee of $169, I will purchase and install an SSL certificate (valid for 2 years) for your website and make all the necessary changes behind the scenes so that it works properly. This includes working with your Shared Hosting Support (and paying their installation charge) to activate the SSL certificate as well as making WordPress changes for the HTTPS upgrade. Also included are updates to Google Analytics for your site for the update from HTTP to HTTPS.

Once your site is upgraded, here’s what you will see.

That nice green padlock assures visitors to your site that all is well.

Sign up here

WordPress Website SSL and HTTPS Upgrade for Shared* Hosting: $169 Investment.

Includes 2 year SSL Certificate purchased and installed on your site, along with WordPress and Google Analytics Updates to convert from HTTP to HTTPS.

Not sure what type of hosting you have?

No problem. My pricing is based on Shared HostGator hosting since I know exactly what needs to be done there.

Contact me and let me know where your site is hosted, and I’ll take a look and let you know what we can do.

What are SSL and HTTPS and why do you need them?

You may or may not have noticed that when browsing the internet, some sites will show a URL starting with http:// while others will start with https://

In non-technical terms HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol) is the language used to communicate on the internet and HTTPS (secure) adds a level of security to your communications. Every time you connect to a specific site on the internet, the connection hops to approximately 6 or 7 servers on the internet before arriving at the destination. One of the best metaphors I’ve heard for this connection, is that it’s like being in a room full of people and you’re connecting with an individual you want to speak with. With HTTP, that would mean that everyone else in the room can hear what you’re saying. Maybe not always such a great thing.

With HTTPS, you’ve added a level of encoding or encryption that means that though everyone else in the room can still hear you, you’re speaking a secret language that only you and the person you’re speaking to understand.

An SSL (secure socket layer) certificate is the key to creating that private language for anyone who wants to communicate with your website. To update a website from HTTP to HTTPS, you need an SSL Certificate on your site along with some updates to tell WordPress that your site runs on HTTPS.

Reasons to move your WordPress site to HTTPS

Security

SSL protects your site data and visitors. It encrypts data transferred over the web, like form submissions and credit card transactions, which are crucial to online security.

SEO

Google says it’s past time to move your sites over to HTTPS. Google is now giving an SEO ranking boost to secure sites. Simply put, with SSL, you’ll rank better in SEO.

ECommerce

If you are taking or processing any kind of payments on your website, SSL is non-negotiable. SSL is an absolute must for ecommerce and membership sites.

Affordability

In the past, SSL certificates could get expensive, but the rapidly transforming web landscape has made switching to SSL practical and affordable.

Sign up here

WordPress Website SSL and HTTPS Upgrade for Shared* Hosting: $169 Investment.

Includes 2 year SSL Certificate purchased and installed on your site, along with WordPress and Google Analytics Updates to convert from HTTP to HTTPS.

Here’s what you get with your HostGator SSL and HTTPS Update

An SSL Certificate that is valid for 2 years
Generating a key from Shared Hosting account (based on your WHOIS domain details) to purchase the SSL Certificate
Completing the Shared Hosting forms to upload details of your SSL Certificate
Payment of the one-time Shared Hosting Support fee to upload your SSL Certificate
Verifying that your certificate is valid and recognized once your Hosting Provider has completed the SSL installation
WordPress updates to switch from HTTP to HTTPS
Updates to your WordPress Databases to convert all HTTP references to HTTPS
Redirecting all incoming requests from http:// to https://
Checking your site to make sure that the transition was successful
Troubleshooting and updating any “mixed content” errors that might occur when pages on your site are being loaded under https, but contain elements that are being served as http
Updating Google Analytics for your site to adjust from HTTP to HTTPS

Frequently Asked Questions

[expand title=”What will happen if I don’t upgrade to HTTPS?”]

Technically. Nothing. Other than that nasty message telling everyone that your site is Not Secure. This may or may not mean that guests to your site won’t stay if they notice that message.

[/expand]

[expand title=”Can I do this upgrade myself?”]

Absolutely! If you’re technically minded and want to research and figure out what needs to be done, you can certainly do it yourself. It did take me close to 2 days of fooling around though (after I attended a paid workshop explaining how to do everything) to update my own site before I put together this offer.

[/expand]

[expand title=”How long will it take for you to do it for me?”]

I’ll let you know when your update is on my schedule. Typically, I need to allow for 2 days from the start of the process for everything to complete, but it might be finished sooner. The first part of my process is to work with HostGator Support to get the SSL purchased and installed. Once that all works, I’ll make the WordPress changes. Those can take a while to populate correctly and I’ll typically do them during my morning when most of the US is asleep. With a little luck, any idiosyncrasies will have worked themselves out by the time the US wakes up.

[/expand]

[expand title=”Will the upgrade interfere with traffic to my website?”]No, it shouldn’t. The most your site will be out of commission will be for a few seconds. For upgrading my own websites, I did have things displaying a little strangely on my site while all the changes were populating, but all that cleared up in less than a day and it didn’t affect the content of my site.

[/expand]

Contact me if you have additional questions.

Sign up here

WordPress Website SSL and HTTPS Upgrade for Shared* Hosting: $169 Investment.

Includes 2 year SSL Certificate purchased and installed on your site, along with WordPress and Google Analytics Updates to convert from HTTP to HTTPS.