Do you wonder how to install a SSL certificate to upgrade you WordPress site to https and get that fancy green lock in your browser? I did not care too much about that. It was something for web shops. This year something changed. Google started punishing websites that do not have encryption and are accessible through the old fashioned http by displaying them below all https results. And that hurts.
The thing is that a certificate costed money, and it was complicated to install one. Not all hosts support https on a budget shared hosting account, so not only was it necessary to buy a certificate, also you have to switch of hosts and that costs time, trouble, and usually you have to pay more to access the higher service level hosting.
For the large part that is just as it is. Moving your website to another hosts that offers SSL certificates probably is the best solution. There is just one cool development to mention here, and that is the possibility to encrypt your website for free! Using lets encrypt at least you do not have to pay for the certificate. I will not go into the technical details here, because I hardly grasp the functionality behind it, but the important thing is that some hosts do work with this loop hole in the costly SSL certificate business.
For myself I set up a new server to hosts my own WordPress websites and for the lucky few clients that have a full service agreement, I am migrating their websites as well to enable https free of charge. If you have a WordPress site and wonder if you need to install a SSl certificate there is more news to consider. WordPress has warned that some plugins may stop working properly without https in 2018.
I better continue getting my sites done… You better ask you host now how to obtain an SSL certificate and if the answer is not satisfying start packing.
