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SSL (or, as it is less commonly known, Secure Socket Layer) is a special certificate that is essential for website security; its installation is therefore mandatory in all cases, or at the very least strongly recommended.
For those who may not be aware, SSL ensures that an encrypted, secure connection is established between the server hosting our website and the visitor, thereby guaranteeing that sensitive data – such as passwords, usernames or bank account numbers – cannot be leaked.
How can you install an SSL certificate on a web hosting account that uses cPanel? Let’s find out!
Requesting an SSL certificate
If you wish to install SSL via the cPanel interface, the process always begins with requesting a certificate. To do this, you will need to use the private key, which can be found in the cPanel interface under the Security menu, within the SSL/TLS section.
Here, click on the option to generate, view or delete the SSL certificate signing request, which will result in a CSR file being generated. To do this, however, you must fill in the form that appears accurately.
Under ‘Key’, select the option to generate a new key; under ‘Domains’, enter the domain name to be covered by the SSL certificate; and under ‘City/State/Country’, fill in your details as appropriate.
Under the ‘Company’ tab, you must enter your company name – if you are a private individual, use your domain name here as well – and only fill in the ‘Company Department’ field if you wish to obtain an SSL certificate for a specific department within a large organisation.
Next, you’ll just need to enter your email address, generate a password in the ‘Access Code’ field – please note: this is an unencrypted page, so do not use a password that already exists or is currently in use – and then, in the ‘Description’ field, you can add a note for yourself, which will appear on the cPanel interface.
Once you have filled in all the details correctly, all you need to do is click the ‘Generate’ button. cPanel will then immediately generate the certificate request. You will need to upload this to the SSL certificate authority in order to receive a valid certificate.
Installing an SSL certificate
Once we have received the completed certificate, we still need to install it in the cPanel interface in order to validate it. To do this, open the control panel, locate the SSL/TLS menu item, and then select the ‘Manage SSL Sites’ option.
Here, you need to copy the files received from the SSL certificate authority and upload them to the correct location – in our case, the ‘Certificate (CRT)’ box – and once you have selected the domain name for which you requested the certificate under ‘Domain’, you are just one click away from finalising the process.
The final step is to click on the ‘Install Certificate’ button; once we’ve activated it for our domain name, all that remains is to check that everything is working. To do this, open a browser and check whether our website opens correctly when using the ‘https’ prefix.
If so, the domain name will have a valid SSL certificate; otherwise, we have made a mistake in the steps above and will need to repeat the process. Once installed, the SSL certificate becomes active immediately, so there is no waiting time, but it is worth trying an update before attempting the installation again.