GoDaddy’s hosting plans are great for for mid level websites and we can’t fault their customer service but the price to include an SSL Certificate with your package is often a hard sell to clients who don’t know what this is, how it protects your website and how it can impact your SEO rankings.
Do I need an SSL Certificate?
An SSL Certificate is needed to be installed on a web server to allow secure sessions (HTTPS) with the browser. This is typically used to secure user data such as login information, credit card details and other input data.
Installing the SSL Certificate
- Head over to Zero SSL (you’ll need to create an account now) and from your dashboard click New Certificate.
- Enter the domain name(s) you are looking to secure and click next step.
- Select 90 day certificate. If you upgrade to the Pro account you can select 1 year to minimise the effort required here.
- If this is a new certificate leave Auto-Generate CSR selected and continue, otherwise paste your existing CSR in the required fields.
Verify Domain Ownership
There are 3 options to verify the ownership of your domain. Email Verification, Adding a CNAME to your DNS records and uploading a file (HTTP Upload). In this scenario we are going to use the HTTP Upload method.
Installing the Certificate
- Login to your cPanel Admin and search for SSL/TLS.
- Select “Manage SSL Sites”.
- Select the Domain that you are installing the Certificate for.
- Paste both the Certificate File and the Private Key into the respective fields.
- If you have a CA Bundle you can paste it here as well however it’s not always required.
- Click Install Certificate and confirm it installs correctly by visiting the website you installed it for.
This method will need to be repeated every 90 days as it cannot be automated using GoDaddy’s hosting but it is a relatively straight forward process that will save you money. If this process seems a bit daunting get in touch with Solution 16 to discuss our website hosting plans which include SSL Certificates as standard or check out our YouTube tutorial for a step-by-step video on how to achieve this.
Callum Galway
Callum has been involved in web and IT services since 2012. He has extensive experience with WordPress and System Administration and is your first point of contact with Solution 16.
