Understanding Cloudflare SSL Setup on WordPress

As a savvy WordPress website owner, you must prioritize securing your platform with SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption to keep your audience’s data safe from third-party hackers. The way to do so? Through the renowned CDN and security solution provider, Cloudflare.

Here’s a Step-by-Step Guide on Setting Up Cloudflare SSL on Your WordPress Site:

Step 1: Register for Cloudflare

First things first, you need to sign up and create an account with Cloudflare. Upon navigating to their website, click on “Sign-Up,” input your email address and password, create an account, and log in to your account.

Step 2: Add your Website to Cloudflare

Next up, once you’re logged in to your Cloudflare account, click the “Add Site” button on the dashboard and enter your domain name. Click “Begin Scan” to proceed.

Step 3: Verify DNS Records

After adding your website to Cloudflare, they will automatically scan your website for existing DNS records. Review and confirm that all the DNS records listed are correct, then click on “Continue” to proceed.

Step 4: Choose Your Cloudflare Plan

Cloudflare offers a range of plans from free to premium, choose a plan that meets your website’s needs and budget. The free plan, although the most popular, still includes SSL security ready for use.

Step 5: Activate SSL Settings

Having selected your plan, it’s now time to activate SSL security settings. Click on the “Crypto” tab, and under SSL settings, select “Flexible SSL.” Notably, Cloudflare Free SSL comes by default with Flex SSL, which encrypts the connection from Client to Cloudflare-reverse proxy, but not between the Website and the Proxy.

Step 6: Install Cloudflare Plugin in WordPress

As an extra step for optimizing your website’s performance and security, install and activate the official Cloudflare plugin from the WordPress plugin repository in your WordPress dashboard. Then visit the plugin settings page to configure it into your website.

Step 7: Configure the Cloudflare Plugin

Once installed, enter your Cloudflare account data on the plugin settings page to allow the plugin access to manage the security, content, and optimization for your WordPress site.

Step 8: Enable SSL and HTTPS

Finally, switch your SSL encryption to full mode to enable HTTPS and SSL encryption on your website. This final step assures your site is more secure, confirmed on your browser as a padlock icon appears next to your website URL.

Conclusion

Cloudflare is a dependable CDN and security solutions provider that assures WordPress site owners of an SSL encryption to keep data safe from third-party threats. Implementing the above eight steps will help you set up SSL encryption on your WordPress site effortlessly, making it reliable and trustworthy against all odds.