If you are a website owner, you might have heard about SSL certificate before. It’s a critical element for most websites, especially after Google officially announced it’s one of their ranking factors. So apart from helping a website to transmit data more secure, it can assist in boosting the ranking position on the Google’s search engine.

So, what is SSL certificate?

It’s a data file that contains all details regarding an organization and considered as a cryptographic key to activate the HTTPS connection, which allows transmitting data between your internet browser and the web server more secure.

How Does SSL Certificate Work?

Basically, SSL certificates use a pair of keys called public key and private key to establish the HTTPS connection between your internet browser and the web server. These keys use to encrypt all transmitted data as well.

ssl certificate work

For instance, if your web browser sends a message to the web server, it will lock it with the web server’s public key. However, this locked message only can be opened with the web server’s private key. Therefore, there is no way to break those encrypted messages, even with a number of supercomputers. This is an entirely secure method to communicate between your browser and the web server, especially for online transactions.

How To Enable HTTPS On Your WordPress Blog?

If you want to enable HTTPS on your WordPress blog (or any other websites), the first step you need to take is to purchase an SSL certificate. Depending on your needs, it might cost around $10 or even $500. After that, activate and set up this SSL certificate on your web server and then change the URL settings of your blog or website to HTTPS.

It’s a simple explanation, but actually it requires some skills. We would recommend hiring someone who has knowledge about setting up SSL certificate to do it for you. It will help you avoid mistakes and errors, such as the “Your connection is not private” warning message when you set up it in an incorrect way.

On the other hand, you can also use CloudFlare to enable HTTPS method on your blog or website. All you need to do is to switch to the DNS server that CloudFlare provided. Subsequently, you can log into its control panel and activate HTTPS. The best part is that this feature is entirely free. Here is a detailed article to guide you on how to sign up for a CloudFlare account, as well as set up and activate your free SSL certificate. Follow those instructions and enjoy the new secured version of your WordPress blog.

Why Should You Enable HTTPS On Your WordPress Blog?

You may already know that with HTTPS protocol, all transmitted data will be encrypted to prevent attackers from viewing. That said, all sensitive information like usernames, emails, passwords, personal details, or credit cards will be protected and totally safe.

In a general aspect, it’s a good point, and we should replace HTTP with HTTPS on all websites in the future. Besides, it will help you to build and enhance customer trust, increases your rankings on the Google’s search engine, as well as improves conversion rates.