How to Add a Security Certificate to Your WordPress Website
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems among bloggers. With so much popularity comes a lot of opportunity to steal valuable content and monetize blog posts. To prevent this from happening, you can add a security certificate to your site to show visitors that what they’re reading is legitimate.
What is a Security Certificate?
A security certificate is a type of digital certificate that verifies the authenticity of a website. It does this by referencing a physical certificate that was signed by a trusted certificate authority (CA). The security certificate also references the company that owns the website as well as the registration details of the website.
In general, security certificates reduce the risk of fraud online by providing legitimacy to a website. Some examples of useful certificates include a Digital Certificate from LetsEncrypt, a Smart Contract certification from MetaCert, and a Site Audit certificate from HP.
Why Should I Use a Security Certificate?
Adding a security certificate to your wordpress website is very easy to do. You can use any of the certificates listed above, but we recommend using Let’s Encrypt since it’s free for personal use and open source. Let’sEncrypt also has a good support team if you need help.
Let’s Encrypt offers a free certificate that will enable you to encrypt your URL and secure all your communications online. This is especially useful if you’re using an unsecured Wi-Fi network since anyone sniffing out your data on the wire could potentially see your sensitive information. Adding this certificate also improves your site’s security by preventing Man-in-the-Middle attacks where someone lies in between you and a web server you’re communicating with. If you’re not using HTTPS to encrypt your site’s traffic, then whoever is eavesdropping on your connections will also be able to see your personal data such as credit card numbers and email addresses. When used with the LetsEncrypt certificate, HTTPS offers a good balance of security and privacy.
How Do I Add a Security Certificate To My Website?
First, you’ll need to determine what type of certificate you need. Do you need an EV certificate (Extension-Validated)? A RapidSSL? A GeoTrust Global Server certificate? Do you need a domain validated (DV) certificate? Once you have this information, it’s easy to find the right support team and download the certificate.
The next step is to install the certificate in your web browser. For security reasons, we recommend using the self-signed certificate option when adding a certificate to your site. You’ll then be presented with a window that looks like this:
In the above image, you can see that we have a self signed certificate for godaddy.com. If you click on the lock icon in the upper right corner of the browser, you’ll be presented with a window like this:
If you need help with WordPress or have any other questions, feel free to contact us.