By now most hosting companies have already setup free SSL for most websites.
Domain cPanel
- Log in to your cPanel
- Click the SSL/TLS Status icon which is usually under the Security tab – you’ll be able to see if your domain has SSL installed
- Whilst you are here you might as well install the latest PHP if you haven’t already
Your WordPress Site
Preparation
- Login to your WordPress site
- Backup your site before beginning
- Temporarily disable whatever caching plugin you use
- Update any plugins and themes
Search & Replace
- Install & activate Better Search Replace
- Go to Tools>Better Search Replace, Search for http:// Replace with // – I also replaced //handshake.co.za with //www.handshake.co.za [This needs to match what you have set in Google Search Console]
- Under Settings>General – I changed https://handshake.co.za to https://www.handshake.co.za and Saved changes
- Install Velvet Blues Update URLs
Activate Really Simple SSL
- Install and activate the Really Simple SSL plugin by clicking Go ahead, activate SSL!
- You’ll probably need to login again
- Re-enable your caching plugin
Plugin Fix
- You might need to fix some plugins like Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
Testing
Type http://yoursite.com into your browser and see if it redirects to your SSL page in my case https://handshake.co.za redirects to https://www.handshake.co.za