A Guide to Obtaining a Public SSL Certificate for Your GoDaddy Domain

In today’s internet landscape, making sure your website is safe and secure is a top priority. If you have a website through GoDaddy, one of the essential steps to ensure security is getting an SSL certificate. This certificate is what gives you that little padlock icon in your browser, assuring your visitors that their data is safe. In this guide, we’ll break down the process of getting an SSL certificate for your GoDaddy domain, making your website a safer place to be.

In this guide, our Certificate Provider will be Amazon Certificate Manager, ACM. AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is a service that lets you easily provision, manage, and deploy public and private Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates for use with AWS services and your internal connected resources.

Step 1: Access Your AWS Account

Start by logging into your AWS (Amazon Web Services) account, your gateway to setting up SSL security.

Step 2: Access AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)

1. In the search box, type “ACM” and select “Certificate Manager” under Services.
2. Make a note of the AWS region in which you’re creating the certificate. It’s essential to keep track of the region for consistency.

Step 3: Request a Certificate

1. Click on “Request Certificate.”
2. By default, the option to request a public certificate is selected.
3. Click “Next.”

Step 4: Define Your Domain

1. In the “Fully qualified domain name” field, provide your domain name that you’ve purchased from GoDaddy in the format *.yourdomain.com.
2. Leave all other options as default, and then click “Request.”

Step 5: Validate the Certificate

Your certificate is created, but it still needs to be validated. To do this:

1. Select the certificate to reveal its details.

Step 6: Configure DNS Records on GoDaddy

1. Open your GoDaddy account and navigate to “Manage DNS.”
2. Click on “add record.”

Step 7: Set Up CNAME Record

1. Under “Type,” select “CNAME.”
2. In the “Name” field, copy the CNAME name from the AWS console and paste it in the following format: “_25de95d6758a01e9a61044ce4c7b370d.yourdomain.com.” Remove your domain name so it ends with “_25de95d6758a01e9a61044ce4c7b370d.”
3. In the “Value” field, copy the CNAME value from the console and paste it in this format: “_560155b0540bb0245915ee3ea82f5920.jpxlwdfnnn.acm-validations.aws.” Be sure to remove the last full stop, so it looks like this: “_560155b0540bb0245915ee3ea82f5920.jpxlwdfnnn.acm-validations.aws”

Step 8: Certificate Validation

It might take some time for the certificate to be issued. Check back after a few hours to verify its status.

Congratulations! You’ve Successfully Created an SSL Certificate for Secure Connections on Your Website.

By following these steps, you’ve taken a significant stride towards securing your website and ensuring the safety of your visitors’ data. An SSL certificate is your digital handshake, assuring your audience of a secure and trustworthy online experience.