SSL & SECURITY

What is SSL?

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) improves website security by encrypting traffic between the site’s server and the user’s browser.

Installing an SSL certificate changes your URL from the basic ‘hyper text transfer protocol’ (http) to ‘hyper text transfer protocol secure’ (https).

Having a secure (https) site is vital if you’re running an online shop, and is increasingly seen as being necessary even for other websites.

Some web designers and hosting companies charge for buying and/or installing an SSL certificate – and in some cases also require them to be renewed annually.

However, if you host your site through me, you’ll get an SSL certificate free of charge, thanks to Hostinger.

(Before Hostinger started offering free SSL certificates, I was buying them for my clients; now my clients get added security at no cost to them – or to me!)

Backup and security software

The cloud-based hosting package I use comes with daily website backups and, for sites hosted with me, I will also install the WordPress backup and restore plugin UpdraftPlus, free of charge. Daily or weekly backups are likely to be most appropriate, but they can be scheduled as frequently as every four hours.

In addition, I’ll also install the WordFence security plugin which, even in its free version, provides additional protection against malicious attacks.

You might also be interested in my blog post on security issues There’s more to website security than SSL and in my page on domain name search and registration.