Within the next 2 weeks KartHost will be offering FREE  Lets Encrypt SSL Certificates directly from your cPanel control panel. Since our Cloud Servers are set up for SNI (Server Name Indication) your site will not need a dedicated IP address, which IPv4 IP's are becoming very rare and do cost per month if one is needed.Â
However, a dedicated IP (where your site is the only site using the IP address) can be a good thing if needing to take positive control of your sites reputation with the search engines. You would need to request a dedicated IP and there is an annual charge for them as mentioned.Â
While operating your site complete with HTTPS is a good thing, understand what it does and does not do.Â
HTTPS within itself will not make your site "secure" and any misunderstanding of this could do more harm than good. As a site owner you are ultimately responsible for the security of your web site. Making sure the site CMS (Content Management System eq WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc) is up to date if you use one.Â
If your site requires any type of password to "login" make sure those are strong passwords. A web site owner that is negligent of their responsibilities can cause real harm to your site visitors if you allow your site to become hacked with Malware and/or viruses. In fact, Google can and has banned sites for being hacked and harboring Malware. So make sure you or someone you can delegate the security of your site too keeps the site updated from a security standpoint. KartHost can help with this if needed.
What HTTPS will do for you, is encrypt all information that is being sent back and forth from the web server (or edge server of a CDN network) to your sites visitors web browser on their computer, phone or tablet. This includes any passwords for logging into your site or your site visitors filling out a form of any type. Using HTTPS means you care about your site visitors.Â
Google, the world’s largest search engine is actually giving a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) boost to sites that operate under HTTPS. But at some point as there are more sites using HTTPS than the non-secure HTTP it will really be a penalty for your site to NOT be operating under HTTPS. So it would benefit everyone even if your site is an old fashion html web site.Â
Once we have Let’s Encrypt all set up for you to use, to add an SSL certificate to your site we will let everyone know via our Announcement section here, a Tutorial in our KartHost Knowledgebase and also our Facebook page and our Twitter account.Â
And questions, we welcome them, just ask below.Â
Roy Randolph
KartHostÂ
