SSL and HTTPS: what they do and how to turn them on

Why every site needs HTTPS, how SSL certificates work, and the steps to enable and enforce HTTPS on your hosting account.

HTTPS encrypts the connection between a visitor and your site. Browsers mark sites without it as not secure, and search engines treat HTTPS as a small ranking signal. Today it is the baseline.

What an SSL certificate does

A certificate proves your server is the right one for your domain and enables encryption. Free certificates from Let's Encrypt are enough for most sites. Paid ones add warranty or organization validation, which matters for few small sites.

Turning it on

1. Make sure your domain already points to your hosting account.
2. Request or enable the free certificate in your control panel.
3. Wait until it is issued, usually within minutes.
4. Redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
5. Update your site URL setting and fix mixed content, meaning images or scripts still loaded over http.

Renewals

Free certificates are short-lived and renew automatically on most hosts. Still check once in a while, since a failed renewal shows visitors a full-page warning.

If you resell hosting, include SSL in every plan. Customers expect it, and it saves you support tickets.