How to Get a Free SSL Certificate for Your WordPress Website

August 12, 2018 By Arsalan Rauf

How to Get a Free SSL Certificate for Your WordPress Website

Do you want a free SSL certificate (HTTPS) for your WordPress site?

Everyone needs an SSL certificate to accept online payments and secure their site during this task. Starting today, July 1st, 2018, Google Chrome will show all sites which are not using HTTPS as insecure. In this post, I shall show you how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress site with ease.

What is SSL?

SSL refers to Secure Sockets Layer. It is an internet protocol for securing data transfer between the browser of the user and the website they are visiting.

Every web user transfers info when they visit sites. This information can often be sensitive such as credit card information, payment details, or login details.

Using the normal HTTP protocol means this information can be taken over by rogue people. This is where SSL or HTTPS is useful.

Websites using HTTPS require an SSL certificate issued by one of the recognized certificate issuing authority. This certificate is verified and highlighted in the browser of the user’s address bar with HTTPS and green secure sign instead of using HTTP.

Do I need an SSL Certificate for my WordPress website?

SSL / HTTPS is suggested for all websites on the web. However it is absolutely needed for all websites that collect user information such as credit card information, login information, payment details and so on.

If you are running a membership site, an online store, or ask users to log in, then you need to get an SSL certificate straight away.

Most online payment services also ask your website to use SSL/HTTPs before you start receiving payments.

Apart from security, SSL certificate also gives a positive impression of your brand on your visitors. Google also suggests using SSL and provides a tiny bump to SSL enabled sites in the search engine or search results.

Last but not least, if your website is not using a SSL certificate, then Google Chrome will show your visitors that this website is not secure. It creates a negative impression.

How Does SSL Certificate Work?

SSL protects information by encrypting the data transfer between the website and the browser of the user. When a user visits an SSL/HTTPs website, their browser first verifies if the SSL of the website is valid or not.

If everything is working fine, then the browser uses special keys to encrypt the data transfer. This data is then sent back to the intended server (website) where it is decrypted with the help of unique SSL key.

How Much Do SSL Certificates Cost?

The price of SSL Certificates is different from one certificate authority to another. Their cost could be anywhere between $50-200 per year. Some providers provide add-on services with their certificates which may also affect the pricing of your SSL certificate.

If you are going to purchase an SSL certificate, then I suggest GoDaddy. They are the largest domain name registration service in the whole world, managing more than 76 million URLs.

They have simple SSL certificate plans starting from $69.9 per year. After you have bought an SSL certificate, you can ask your hosting provider to install it for you.

How Can I Get a SSL Certificate for Free?

A number of website owners are hesitate to use SSL because of the additional cost. This left many of these sites vulnerable to data and information robbery.

A non-profit project known as Let’s Encrypt decided to fix this by establishing a free certificate authority. Due to the importance of the project, it quickly got the support of major companies including Facebook, Google Chrome, WordPress.com, Shopify and so on.

If you want to install Let’s Encrypt by yourself, then you should have the know how of coding, server knowledge, and Shell / SSH access to use command line tools. Therefore, it is quite difficult for beginners to properly setup Let’s Encrypt SSL on their website.

Thanks to the best WordPress hosting companies are now also offering free SSL certificate or HTTPS along with their hosting plans. Selecting one of them saves you from the irritation of installing a SSL certificate on your own.

Here are the best WordPress hosting companies that provide free SSL certificate with their hosting plans.

Bluehost
WPEngine
GreenGeeks
Liquid Web
Dreamhost
SiteGround
InMotion Hosting

If you are already using hosting of one of these companies, then you can turn on your free SSL certificate from your hosting dashboard with ease. You can also ask your hosting provider’s support to set it for you.

If your web hosting company does not offer free HTTPS, then you have to switch your hosting provider and move your site to the hosting listed above.

Setting up WordPress After Enabling Free SSL Certificate

Once you have enabled your free SSL Certificate, you have to set up WordPress to begin using HTTPS instead of HTTP in all your URLs.

The easiest way to do this is by finding and installing the Really Simple SSLplugin on your WordPress. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activation, the plugin will check to see if your SSL certificate is working. After that, it will turn on http to https redirect the URLs and change your site settings to start using SSL/HTTPs.

While this plugin tries to fix all mix content problems, there may still be some files loading from HTTP instead of HTTPS. To solve that, you will need to find those files with the help of Inspect tool and fix them.

Most commonly, these files are loaded by poorly coded WordPress plugins. If you are unable to get rid of them, then feel free to uninstall those plugins and find a suitable replacement for it.

I hope that you liked the post on how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress site.

You may also want to see my guide on How to Add SSL and HTTPS in WordPress.

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How to Add Your Etsy Store in WordPress

August 12, 2018 By Arsalan Rauf

How to Add Your Etsy Store in WordPress

Recently one of my readers asked:

Is it possible to connect an Etsy store to WordPress website?

If you have integrated your WordPress site with your Etsy shop then it will help you to sell more products online. In this post, I shall show you how to add your Etsy store in WordPress.

Why Add Your Etsy Store in WordPress?

Etsy shops consist of limited features if we compare them with other popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce. It is because Etsy is an online marketplace for creative goods whereas WooCommerce and Shopify are complete eCommerce platforms.

Etsy shops have harsh product guidelines with limited payment choices, which may not be available in several countries. You also don’t have the ability to add advanced features to your Etsy Shop which you can use in a WooCommerce online store.

However, Etsy gives you more exposure to a niche customers looking for handcrafted, artistic, and different products. It is very easy to use, and you don’t have to spend enough time on finding consumers because they are already there.

If you want to increase your business, then you may want to use WordPress to make a website to better showcase your Etsy shop items.

After this discussion, let’s have a look at how to add your Etsy store in WordPress easily.

Adding Your Etsy Store in WordPress

First of all, you need to install and activate the Etsy Shop plugin. For more details, see my post on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activation, you need to visit the Settings > Etsy Shop page and enter your Etsy API key to connect your store with the plugin.

Note: If you currently do not have an Etsy API key, then simply click the link to get one from your Etsy store.

When you will click on the link, it will ask you to create a new app. You need to put the name for your app, describe your app, and add the URL of your WordPress website. After that, you need to choose the best choices for your app and click on the Create App button below.

You will now get a success message of registering your app with your Etsy API key. Go ahead and copy the key from here.

Now, you need to return to your WordPress admin area and paste the Etsy API key which you copied. After doing so, click on the Save Changes button, and the plugin will validate your API key and connect to your Etsy store.

After attaching your Etsy store successfully, you can show and sell products from your Etsy shop right on your WordPress site.

To add the Etsy shop products in WordPress, you need to make a new page in WordPress or edit an existing page. On this page, you have to add the following shortcode to the edit area of your page.

[etsy-shop shop_name="MyShopUSDesign"

section_id="55895579"]

Do not forget to change the shop name and section ID in this shortcode with your Etsy store name and ID.

To get these two details, you need to visit your Etsy store and click on the Shop Manager tab from top right corner of the screen.

Note: You need to ensure that you are already logged in to your Etsy account.

On this page, you have to click the link in the left menu to get access to your shop.

First of all, you have to copy the name of your store and then click on the Edit Shop button to locate the section ID.

From here, you will have to click on Listings tab available in the left menu.

On this page, you will be asked to choose the section in which you have added your items or products. You can select the Sections from the dropdown menu as shown in the screenshot below.

The section ID of your store will be shown in the page URL when your selected section is loaded. Now copy this section ID to replace in the shortcode.

After adding the shortcode with your store name and section ID, you can go to the post/page to see your Etsy store in your WordPress website.

You can add the same shortcode to multiple posts or pages in WordPress to show your Etsy store. To display different listings, you need to change the section ID available in the shortcode. However, the shop name can remain same.

I hope that you liked the post on how to add your Etsy store in WordPress. You may want to see my post on:

How to add a Paypal Donate Button in WordPress

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