Before using Free SSL, you must know how to enable Cloudflare on your Domain Name.
Enabling Cloudflare on your Domain
Enabling Cloudflare on your domain is a straightforward process that involves the following steps:
- Sign up for a Cloudflare account: Go to the Cloudflare website and sign up for a new account. You will need to provide your email address and set up a password.
- Add your domain to Cloudflare: After creating an account, you will be prompted to add your website to Cloudflare. Enter your domain name and click on the “Add site” button.
- Verify your domain: Cloudflare will then check your domain and provide you with some DNS settings. You will need to log in to your domain registrar and update your DNS settings to point to Cloudflare’s nameservers.
- Configure Cloudflare settings: Once Cloudflare has verified your domain, you can configure various settings such as SSL/TLS, caching, firewall, and performance optimizations.
- Change your nameservers: After configuring your Cloudflare settings, you will need to change your domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare’s nameservers. This step varies depending on your domain registrar.
- Test your website: Finally, you should test your website to ensure that it’s working properly with Cloudflare enabled.
It’s essential to note that enabling Cloudflare on your domain can affect your website’s performance and functionality, so it’s recommended to test your website thoroughly after making any changes.
How to use Free SSL with Cloudflare
When you enable Cloudflare on your website, it automatically provides a free SSL/TLS certificate for your domain. This means that all traffic between the user’s browser and Cloudflare’s servers will be encrypted using HTTPS.
To use the free SSL/TLS certificate with Cloudflare, follow these steps:
- Log in to your Cloudflare account and select the website for which you want to enable SSL.
- Go to the “Crypto” section of the Cloudflare dashboard.
- Under the “SSL” section, select the “Full” or “Full (strict)” option. This will enable SSL encryption for your website.
- If you want to redirect all traffic to HTTPS, you can turn on the “Always Use HTTPS” option.
- Wait for a few minutes for the changes to take effect. Once the SSL certificate has been issued, your website will be accessible via HTTPS.
- Test your website to ensure that it’s working properly over HTTPS. You can use tools like SSL Checker or Why No Padlock to check the SSL configuration of your website.
It’s worth noting that Cloudflare’s SSL/TLS certificate is a domain-validated (DV) certificate, which means it only verifies that you own the domain name and not the entire website. For higher levels of validation, such as extended validation (EV), you may need to purchase an SSL/TLS certificate from a trusted certificate authority.
