January 2017 Inner Circle

On January’s Inner Circle call, we will reveal my preferred method for securing websites with SSL. This not only will make your website visitors happy but Google will be showing extra love to https sites in the Google search results. I have boiled it all down to a simple systematic process.

YOU ASSUME ALL RISK FOR TRYING THIS ON YOUR OWN

Please watch the Inner Circle replay call above to follow along.

1. Run a full backup of your website (preferably outside of your WordPress)
2. Create a free account at CloudFlare.com
3. Add your domain name to Cloudflare and follow the simple instructions for a free subscription
4. After updating name servers in your domain registrar (as instructed by CloudFlare), make sure to WAIT AT LEAST 48 HOURS for the name server transfer to fully propagate.
5. Install “CloudFlare Flexible SSL” plugin by iControlWP in your WordPress dashboard and activate it.
6. Install “Really Simple SSL” plugin By Rogier Lankhorst in your WordPress dashboard and activate it.
7. Congratulations! Your website is now secure!

*PLEASE NOTE: If you’re personalizing your webpages by someone filling out a form (i.e. instant e-promo-kit), you’ll need to update the thank you URL in your web form configuration to include the “s” at the beginning. So it needs to begin with “https://…”