YES, UNLIMITED FREE GOOGLE-SPONSORED
SSL CERTIFICATES?

NO MORE CSR FORMS TO COMPLETE
AUTOMATICALLY INSTALLED & ACTIVE IN UNDER 10 SECONDS 

HOW WE DO IT & WHY YOU SHOULD

For the last couple of years, Google has been getting increasingly vocal about the importance of sites having SSL certificates e.g. going from http://domain.com to httpS://domain.com

You can read what Google has said on the issue here, here and here.

If you’re unclear on exactly what an SSL certificate is, check this Wikipedia page.

And while an SSL certificate will NOT stop bot attacks against WordPress login pages or malware embedded within rogue WP plugins, it DOES secure the interception of data between your (visitors’) computer and other websites e.g. online banking or shopping online with a credit card - if you are running an ecommerce store online, SSL is pretty much ESSENTIAL.

SO WHY BOTHER GETTING AN SSL CERTIFICATE?

Though Google has suggested that websites with SSL enabled should see a slight rankings boost, the actual evidence of that is pretty inconclusive so far.

So that’s not the best reason for adding SSL to your main websites.

Instead, you should consider how visitors to your website/s – your potential customers – will PERCEIVE the TRUST level of your site.

In short, more and more people online are getting tech-savvy and to them, sites with SSL enabled do look more trustworthy, professional and like real businesses.

And anything that you as a solo entrepreneur can do with your website to increase trustworthiness can only help conversions, and don’t we all want to improve our sales conversions?

BUT ISN’T SSL COSTLY & A MAJOR HASSLE TO INSTALL?

The big problem with SSL hasn’t been so much the expense as good SSL certificates can be bought for under $10 each per year e.g.

but actually installing and properly configuring them with the correctly-filled-in ‘CSR’ (Certificate Signed Request) in order that the website works properly with the new httpS URL has been difficult, time-consuming (think HOURS, not minutes) and prone to problems.

Especially for webmasters and solopreneurs who are not very technically-skilled i.e. most webmasters, possibly you.

BUT NOW THE SSL GAME HAS CHANGED FOREVER

Why?

Because Google, Automattic (owner of WordPress), Cisco, HP, Mozilla and a ton of other major tech companies have jointly sponsored a new FREE SSL initiative:

It’s called Lets Encrypt and you can read more about this new program here at letsencrypt.org

These new SSL certificates are completely FREE but you still need to do the technical implementation.

OR DO YOU?

At WPX Hosting, we have created our own software to FULLY AUTOMATE adding Lets Encrypt free SSL certificates (even in BULK) to any or all of your websites hosted with us – all with just a few mouse clicks (see demo video below).

And our automated SSL installation takes LESS THAN 60 SECONDS including the necessary 301 redirects from your non-SSL URLs to the new httpS one!

USING THIS FREE WPX HOSTING FEATURE:

• Wasting HOURS on buying and successfully installing a single SSL is no longer necessary
• NEVER pay for another SSL certificate again
• You do NOT need to fill in any CSRs to enable SSLs
• And you do NOT ever need to manually renew your Lets Encrypt SSL certificates – which expire every 3 months by default – as we have fully AUTOMATED your SSL renewals.

You can see in this video here how fast and easy it is with WPX Hosting here (under 60 seconds usually):

HOW CAN I START USING UNLIMITED FREE SSLS NOW?

To start using unlimited free Let’s Encrypt SSLs with sub-10 second automated installation now, you firstly need to create a WPX Hosting account here.

Then inside your WPX Hosting user admin area, follow these steps (like the video above):

STEP 1

Assuming that your domain is correctly pointed to our nameservers at your domain registrar (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap) and full DNS propagation has completed (can take up to 48 hours), then inside your WPX Hosting admin panel, click on [1] “Websites/SSL” and then [2] “SSL” and Enable:

STEP 2

You will now be advised on the next step where you should choose between a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate OR a commercial SSL certificate - close this information box and proceed:

Once that box above has been closed, [1] the small, green SSL padlock has appeared next to the domain/site where we want to add the free SSL, and [2] we now click on the SSL dropdown menu and choose “Install FREE certificate”:

When you click on "Install FREE Certificate", you will see a reminder message that the nameservers for this domain at your domain registrar (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap) MUST be pointed to the correct WPX Hosting nameservers in order for the SSL certificate installation to work properly (otherwise you will see an API error) - your correct nameservers can be found in the "Dashboard" area, the link is on the left navigation menu:

You will now see a browser warning that the new SSL certificate will overwrite any current one but you probably don’t have an SSL on this site already, so click on OK to proceed and install the new SSL certificate:

 

The SSL is now installed and if we enter the httpS:// version of our domain, the SSL shows as active:

BUT

finally, we need to redirect the NON-SSL versions of your domain URL (www.domain.com and domain.com to the SSL version e.g. httpS://domain.com).

STEP 3

For this final 301 redirection step, we FIRSTLY need to go the Settings-General page inside our WordPress admin area and change the URLs there to the httpS version for BOTH the

WordPress Address (URL)  AND Site Address (URL) - don't forget to scroll down and click on "Save Changes" too (add www if that's your preferred site URL) e.g.

STEP 4

Finally, we need to create 301 redirects from your non-SSL URLs to the SSL version + the www SSL version (unless you want that as your default site URL).

To do this, we need to add and 1-click activate the free Really Simple SSL plugin from here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/really-simple-ssl/

Simple huh?

And you can AUTOMATICALLY install as many free SSL certificates as you wish on sites hosted with WPX Hosting.

NOTE: If you are using Cloudflare on your domain, the SSL option in your Cloudflare account should be selected to"Full(Strict)"!

From the following example you can see from where you can select the SSL option:

Did you also know that WPX Hosting is the ONLY WordPress hosting service that Thrive Themes has ever endorsed?

You can read what they wrote about us here.

Also, we move all your sites from your current hosting over to us within 24 hours for free and support is available 24/7/365 through Live Chat (average response time currently under 1 minute).

Create your new WPX Hosting account here now and get instant access to free, unlimited SSL certificates for life:

And, if at any point, you get stuck or aren't sure how to proceed, just raise a support ticket with us here:

https://wpxhosting.com/tickets/new/

and we'll answer ASAP.