Converting Your Word Press Website from HTTP to HTTPS

How to Convert http to https for WordPress

Look at the green padlock, showing close to the website URL line. This is important to show your website visitors that they are protected and that all their personal information, including their name, address, phone and credit card details, is safe and will be secure.

It is easy to safeguard your website data. These five steps will convert your website from http to https quickly and easily.

Step 1. Purchase an SSL certificate

To do this, access your website’s hosting account. Don’t worry about the name — it might be ‘Crazy Domains’, GoDaddy, etc. — they all offer their clients an SSL certificate. Be ready to provide personal data in accordance with your host request.

An SSL certificate is a small data file which guarantees secure sessions to website users.

Step 2. Install your SSL certificate in your website’s hosting account.

Follow your host’s instructions to install and set up your SSL certificate. It will be different for each host.

Step 3. Backup your website

To secure your website before any changes, back up in case anything goes wrong.

To do this, you need access to your website cPanel account. As we say on our link, it is important not to give your website access details to the Website Developer, whether that is a company or an individual. To access your cPanel account, add /cpanel/ at the end of your website URL. For example:

www.example.com.au/cpanel/

Enter the cPanel access details provided by your host or developer.

Find the right icon: ‘File manager’. Click on it, and the system will redirect you to the home directory with all your website assets.

Select all files from your home directory. To do this, click on the first file or folder, press and hold Ctrl on the keyboard, and click each file you want to select. Right-click on your mouse for the many options concerning these files. Choose the ‘Compress’ option and follow the instructions on your server. This will create a copy of your website files. The system will then create a zip or tar archive. To download, right-click on the .zip or .tar file on your computer.

The next step is to export your site database to a safe place. Concentrate hard as, if something goes wrong, you can ONLY restore your website if you have both files. To make a copy of your website database, click on the ‘php My Admin’ icon in cPanel.

The system will then redirect you to the database. Click on the ‘Export’ button. Save your website data in zip or sql format on your computer.

After backing up your website you can convert it to https.

Step 4. Convert your website from http to https.

There are several ways to convert your website from http to https. This is the easiest one:

Access your website’s Admin Panel by adding /wp-admin/ at the end of the website URL, like this:

www.example.com.au/wp-admin/

Enter your website access details to access Admin Panel, and then set up a plugin to convert your website from http to https. I recommend the ‘Really Simple SSL’ plugin for this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/really-simple-ssl/

To install this plugin from the Admin Panel, choose ‘Plugins’ – ‘Add new’ from the left sidebar. In the search field enter ‘really simple ssl’ and click on ‘install’. After that, at the top of the web page, click on the button. Voilà, your website works on https.

With the Really Simple SSL plugin, you can run your website over https in just in one click. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Step 5. Critical issues.

Next check the website URL in your browser. Can you see the green padlock? Click on it to be sure that your website is working properly. If not, the most common issue is a warning message ‘Connection is not secure – Parts of this Page are not secure (such as images’. To resolve this by yourself:

Access SSL Check Service ( https://www.jitbit.com/sslcheck/ ). Copy your website URL to the jitbit search field, and wait… the magic will start… this fantastic program will search for the old http link in your website code and show you the links you need to update manually. Actually, our managers don’t like to bother developers with these issues, and have found another way to resolve them.

Install the ‘Search Regex’ plugin, using the instructions from Step 4, and check the links from the jitbit.

Enter the jitbit http URL and click on ‘Search’. The plugin will automatically seek the old http link in the website code.

After that, enter the same link with https to the second field, and click on the ‘Replace and Save’ button. Do the same for the every link from the jitbit. Now it will work.

Conclusion:

What does ‘trust’ mean to you? Wait a minute before replying. As financial operations increasingly occur online, trust becomes an integral part of ‘Business – Client’ online cooperation. Never lose a client! Contact the I Need Website today to learn more about what we can do to keep your client data secure.

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