Ever since Google announced that it will use HTTPS as a ranking signal for site indexing and then started indexing HTTPS pages by default there's been a need for most sites to get and install SSL certificates on their servers. If you were running your site on a budget and couldn't get an SSL certificate this was a major roadblock and meant your site would be down-ranked by Google by default.

Luckily the atmosphere around getting cheap or free SSL certificates has changed dramatically in the last few years and there is no excuse for anyone running a website not to support HTTPS.

Recently I received an email that told me that a number of sites that I run had their certificates expiring. This was all well and good but I didn't want to spend much money on SSL certificates, especially with the ever dropping ad revenues so I decided to go a different route. A completely free route!


This approach won't work for everyone but it's a great way to secure your site for free. If you need to do anything more advanced than providing HTTPS communications for your site (like security digital payments), you will need to fork out for your own certificate.

Since my sites were already on CloudFlare I didn't have to do anything special. If you're not using CF, here's an article I wrote previously that shows how easy it is to set up - setting up CloudFlare. After setting up a site on the CF network, there are a few easy steps to follow to create and install your free SSL certificate.

The whole process takes minutes to complete.

...and the added advantage of using CloudFlare, is all the site's content is served via their CDN which helps speed up how fast pages load and reduces web server load.



Good luck and make sure you secure your site today!

-i