How to Get a Free SSL certificate for your WordPress website using Cloud Flare?

Are you thinking of applying for a Free SSL certificate for your website?

Or

Considering buying an SSL certificate that may cost you $20-$25 per year?

If you are looking to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress website, then you have dropped to the right place because today I am going to share with you that how can you get a free SSL certificate for your website.

Although there are many reasons that you should apply for an SSL certificate on your WordPress website.

But The main reason is that Google is making it essential for all websites to use an SSL certificate to secure our Websites in 2017.

What is an SSL certificate?

An SSL certificate is a license that provides security to our websites. It secures our login credentials, Secures our banking details, etc. Previously SSL was necessary on those sites which sell online like E-commerce sites, Banking sites, and other related sites. I have also written a post that you might like “Importance of SSL certificates on banking websites.”

SSL can also be known as HTTPS which means secured for the internet surfers. But now, it looks like that it is becoming a compulsion to move our websites from HTTP to HTTPS. Which is easy to install and boosts the ranking of Search engines. And Probably which can help you to rank your keywords on the first page of Google without any hard effort.

How to get a Free SSL certificate using the Cloudflare for your WordPress website?

I will explain all this process in steps with the help of the screenshots.

1. The first step is to install two plugins on your WordPress website or Blog. The First Plugin is CloudFlare’s official Plugin or Cloudflare SSL Flexible. And the second Plugin is Really Simple SSL or WordPress Https. You just have to go with the combination of these plugins. Although, on some of my websites I have used the Cloudflare SSL flexible and WordPress HTTPs for installing the Free SSL certificate for many WordPress sites.
2. After installing these Plugins activate them. And there is a simple setting which you need to with the second Plugin. Like with WordPress HTTPs you can do the setting as in the screenshot below. 3. Then for really Simple SSL you just have to activate it. 
3. Then change the setting from the WordPress setting. But I will advise you to change the setting in the end so that your website will have the least downtime. 
4. Sign up with CloudFlare and add your website. 
5. After adding your site, the Cloudflare will scan your whole site.  
6. Then just Continue. 
7. Now Select a Plan. I will recommend you to with a free one. 
8. After selecting the plan, you will be redirected to the page where the cloud flare will appear with the new name servers which you have to update your domain name. You will better understand by seeing the below screenshots.
9. After you have updated the nameservers on the domain name. Just give a command from the cloud flare to recheck the Nameserver. So that your servers can be redirected to the cloud flare. 
10. Doing the above all things you have to do setting with these three things only, as shown in the Screenshot.  DNS that we have already changed. Now we will do the setting in Crypto and Page rules to apply the free SSL certificate to our WordPress website.
11. With Crypto, select the Flexible from some options. And it will begin the authorization process.
12. Now Adding a Page Rule. Just apply the setting the same as in the Screenshot to your website.
13. Once all the above setting is done. With a few minutes, you will be issued with an SSL certificate for your Website. And you can check the status of that from Crypto.

Note: In the end change the setting from WordPress, Like changing the Url from HTTP to HTTPS. And also sometimes it may take a longer time than the usual time. But I assure you that if you do not make any mistakes, you will successfully get the SSL certificate.

Is a Free SSL certificate trustable or not?

If the free certificate helps you to increase your presence on Search Engines and Protects your site then for sure, it is good. And Cloudflare promises the same. You will be getting all the facilities that you will get a paid positive SSL certificate. So, I will be saying that the free SSL certificate from Cloudflare is safe and reliable. And you can read the terms of service from Cloudflare.

Or

If you are not happy with the free SSL certificate, then you can get the 25% discount from Godaddy by using the Below link.

25% off Standard SSL Certificates from GoDaddy!

Some important things to keep in mind after changing the URL?

Once you are done with moving your WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS, then you might face some issues. So, Keeping that in mind, I have shared some points which will be helpful.

• Redirect your link from HTTP to https to avoid error, 301 redirect is the best one (which moves the link permanently). A redirect not applied or done successfully; you should keep in mind about the Canonical issue to avoid a penalty for duplicate content.
• Using plugins and Online tools to check if the links are not Broken. If broken fix those issues as soon as possible.
• With the Broken Link Checker plugin, you might get a 403 error which is normal; I will advise you to mark the links not broken with that.
• Check with the Moz bar that your sites have moved correctly or not. (Take help of this post if you are not using Moz- Complete Guide for using Moz bar).
• Resubmit the Url and Sitemap of your WordPress website in the search engines’ webmaster tools.

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