How to Move WordPress From HTTP to HTTPS: SSL For Beginners
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Would you like to know how to move WordPress From HTTP to HTTPS and install an SSL certificate on your website? Since July 2018, we’ve received a lot of inquiries about this as Google announced that all websites that don’t use SSL in Chrome browsers would be marked as insecure. In this article, we’ll show you how to properly add an SSL certificate to move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS.
How to Move WordPress From HTTP to HTTPS: SSL For Beginners
How HTTPS works
Before we delve into how to move your site to HTTPS, let’s first define what we’re talking about. Even if you don’t know precisely what HTTPS and SSL are, you’ve probably seen them at work before.
HTTPS and SSL are visible in website URLs
Currently, the URL of most extensive (and increasingly smaller) websites starts with https:// instead of the familiar https://. However, looking at the website bar, you’ll see just that.
On the side, you will also notice the padlock symbol. This is how modern browsers show you are on a website with SSL encryption. In some cases, they even include the company name. Moreover, both are signs that you are on a site that takes the privacy of its visitors seriously.
What does HTTPS mean?
HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure. Its cousin, HTTP (which means the same minus the Secure at the end), is the communication protocol commonly used to facilitate web traffic.
Move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS: What is the difference?
The secure version uses a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate to establish a connection between the browser and the server. This means that all information exchanged will be encrypted.
Encryption involves replacing plain text information (such as usernames and passwords) with random numbers and letters. So if someone intercepts them, they are not human-readable and more understandable.
Sounds useful, right? But do you need it on your website? Let’s see good reasons to spread HTTPS to your WordPress site.
One note: the SSL technique is not the fastest name. In the late 1990s, the name changed to TLS (Transport Layer Security), and SSL was retired. However, his name stayed there.
HTTPS is a sign of reliability and authenticity
Speaking of visitors, with the general push to adopt HTTPS across the web, consumers are increasingly expecting encryption
Why do they care? Because that little padlock not only means your traffic is protected, but it also means that the site is real and that no one it claims is fake.
So if they had to choose between your website without HTTPS and a competitor who has implemented HTTPS, they might choose you. Especially since normal browsers (Chrome, Firefox) now mark pages with forms on pages without HTTPS as insecure.
In the future, they will usually warn you about any website that is not encrypted. And you really don’t want to be a part of it.
Benefits of SEO
Not only do consumers want to move to HTTPS, but search engines as well. Google officially announced in 2014 that SSL certificates had become a ranking factor. More importantly, HTTPS is still weak but has become more important over time.
Also, HTTPS-to-HTTP reference data is blocked by Google Analytics. Therefore, if your website is running with an older protocol and you get a lot of references from a website running over HTTPS, your web analytics will not be able to display this correctly. As a result, you may miss the expansion of your marketing channel without noticing that the platform is sending a lot of traffic.
