What is the SSL Certificate and How to get it?
An SSL certificate has become one of the most crucial things needed on a website. Without it, your website will be marked as insecure. Some browsers like Google Chrome might even prevent users from accessing sites that do not have a valid SSL certificate. Also, I would highly suggest you read this article to better understand SSL certificates.
Getting an SSL Certificate
SSL certificates used to cost and still do. But you can actually get them for free via various organizations. One such organization is LetsEncrypt. LetsEncrypt provides free SSL certificates that are recognized by all browsers. These certificates are totally free of charge but the installation is a little complicated for people who are new to this. Anyways, We have another website called sslforfree. This website provides an easy interface to get an SSL certificate from LetsEncrypt.
It is pretty simple, you enter your website name and then you are told to verify the ownership of the domain and you get your SSL certificate. But what if your site needs an SSL certificate for a sub-domain? This is where Wildcard Certificates show up.
Wildcard SSL certificates
Wildcard SSL certificates are used when one might need SSL for subdomains on a website. An SSL certificate is only issued at a time to one sub-domain by default. This means that you would need individual certificates for www.sitename.com, blog.sitename.com, admin.sitename.com, and so on. This would end up in too many certificates and that isn’t very feasible. To solve this, we use wildcards. You already know about wildcards. Wildcards are used to house a value that can be anything. It is like a variable.
Getting a Wildcard SSL certificate
Getting a wildcard SSL certificate is extremely simple. Just open up sslforfree’s website. And in the website name form, type in xyz.com *.xyz.com where xyz.com is the domain name for your site. Just a single space between the two, no other punctuation.
Once you are done with this, just hit on create free SSL certificate button to the right. You will then be taken to a webpage where you will see instructions about verifying your domain.
Follow the instructions and verify your domain. You will then receive the certificate files. These certificates are valid for a period of 90 days. After which, you will have to renew them again.
Conclusion
SSL certificates have become crucial for any website. You can get an SSL certificate for free with the help of LetsEncrypt and SSL for free. If your site has subdomains, you can get a wildcard SSL as well. I hope you’ve followed everything from this article. If you have any questions drop a comment and I’ll be there for you.
