Using Cloudflare with an SSL certificate and WordPress

Overview

Adding an SSL certificate to your WordPress site is an excellent first step toward securing your data. You also have the option to add Cloudflare to your domain in addition to your SSL certificate. This allows you to take advantage of Cloudflare's services, while also continuing to secure your website. The following sections walk you through how to ensure Cloudflare is properly set up for your WordPress site.

Configuring WordPress to use an SSL certificate

View the following article for all steps you should first take to adjust your WordPress site to use an SSL certificate.

Reviewing Cloudflare SSL options

Make sure you've first reviewed the following articles:

Those two articles give you a general overview of how Cloudflare can be configured with SSL certificates. The rest of this article details exactly how to configure your Cloudflare account to work with your SSL certificate.

Configuring Cloudflare SSL settings

These steps assume you have installed either a free Let's Encrypt or a paid Sectigo certificate.

  1. Log into your Cloudflare account at https://dash.cloudflare.com/login.
  2. You will see your website listed. Click your website.
    misc-cloudflare-ssl.png
  3. In the top row, click the 'SSL/TLS' button.
  4. You can see your SSL option listed. With a free Cloudflare account, it defaults to the 'Flexible' option.
    misc-cloudflare-ssl-settings.png
  5. Click the radio button titled 'Full (strict)'.

After a few hours, the DNS will update and all connections between the user, Cloudflare, and DreamHost will be secure.

See also

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