CHECKLIST: How To Set Up An SSL Certificate On Your Website Or ServerSSL technology encrypts communication between web browsers and website servers to help keep customer data safe. Here’s a checklist of tasks to help your business put an SSL certificate to work.

KNOW THE BASICS

SSL protection obscures transmitted data using a public “key,” which a browser accesses when navigating to your site; and a private key, which only you know. Your server can decrypt the information, but hackers are out of luck.

GO DEDICATED

Through your web host, upgrade to a dedicated (rather than shared) IP address. SSL issuers must ensure that traffic using your key is going to your site and not another hosted at the same address.

CREATE A SIGNING REQUEST

A certificate signing request is encrypted text to be included in your certificate: organization and domain names, locality, etc. Ask your web provider to do this, or create one via your web hosting control panel.

ACQUIRE A CERTIFICATE

Some companies issue SSL certificates for a small fee. Open-source options provide free, automated access to SSL certificates. You typically must create an account with the certificate authority, which verifies information and creates a public/private key pair.

INSTALL/ACTIVATE

If all goes well, your certificate authority should email a .CRT file to install. Your web provider might be willing to activate the certificate, or you can do so, again via your web control panel (“Install SSL Certificate”).

TEST

Enter “https://” and your domain name. If you land on your site, the certificate is working properly. If the webpage won’t load, contact your certificate authority.

UPDATE YOUR SITE

Update any site links that transmit sensitive data (account logins, shopping carts, payment gateways) so that users will access your site through the secure, https-enabled URLs instead of just http.