How to Enable HTTPS
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I describe how to enable HTTPS on your website by showing exactly how I did it for my Security Elements website (https://www.SecurityElements.com). Please let me know if you have any questions!
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How to Enable HTTPS
- 1. HOW I ENABLED HTTPS FOR SECURITYELEMENTS.COM In 11 (Not-so-Easy) Steps!
- 2. 1. Bought certificate at NameCheap.com
- 3. 2. Generated a Private Key
- 4. 3. Generated a Certificate Signing Request
- 5. 4. Activated the Certificate
- 6. 5. Uploaded the Certificate
- 7. 6. Contacted Hostmonster tech support to install the key and .CRT file on the server
- 8. 7. Troubleshooting: Removed mixed content
- 9. 8. Confirmed that HTTPS was working
- 10. 9. Tested site at Qualys SSL Labs
- 11. 10. Edited .htaccess file to force redirect to HTTPS
- 12. 11. Updated Google Webmaster Tools
- 13. Ask your questions here: https://wp.me/p5EVbI-31
Editor's Notes
- I decided to enable HTTPS for my website to capture the process for my book: Website Security for Small Businesses. Plus, the SEO benefit!
- I went with NameCheap because they have good certificates (Comodo) and they are pretty darn cheap. I paid $9.00 for the “PositiveSSL” certificate, which is the most basic option.
- I created a private key which is used in the HTTPS process. I did this on the Hostmonster Cpanel, which is very user-friendly for webmasters wanting to set up HTTPS.
- I also needed to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) which is necessary before activating your certificate. I also did this on the Hostmonster Cpanel.
- I went back to NameCheap and activated my certificate.
- Once I got the activated certificate from NameCheap, I went back to Hostmonster and uploaded it.
- At this point, the key and .CRT files needed to be installed on my webserver. Rather than try to figure out how to do that myself, I opened up a chat session with Hostmonster tech support and they had me set up within 10 minutes.
- I went back to my SecurityElements.com website and tried to confirm that HTTPS was working, but I saw that there was a little exclamation point on my padlock. When I clicked on it, I got a message that all the content on my site might not be secure. I opened my site in Chrome and typed CTRL+SHIFT+J to pull up the “Developer Tools” to begin troubleshooting. I saw that I had many images hardcoded to the old “HTTP” version of my website which was causing a “mixed content” problem because everything was supposed to be HTTPS. I recoded those links to just use the relative paths. After about 10 minutes of troubleshooting, everything was fixed.
- Happy day! I confirmed that HTTPS was working on SecurityElements.com.
- I went to the Qualys SSL Labs site (https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/) and tested SecurityElements.com. I got an “A” overall rating!
- I added a few lines to my .htaccess file so anyone typing SecurityElements.com into their browser will be redirected to https://www.securityelements.com.
- I went to Google Webmaster Tools and added both https://securityelements.com and https://www.securityelements.com. I set https://www.securityelements.com as the preferred domain in the site settings options.
- Please let me know if you have any questions! Ask your questions here: https://wp.me/p5EVbI-31