How to configure WordPress to always use SSL

This article describes how to configure a WordPress site to always use secure (SSL) connections.

Enabling SSL for WordPress

To enable SSL for WordPress, you must update two URL settings. To do this, use one of the following methods:

• Use the WordPress administration interface.
• Use phpMyAdmin to update the database directly. You may need to use this method if you are unable to access the WordPress administration interface.

Method #1: Use the WordPress administration interface

To use the administration interface to update the WordPress URL settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to WordPress as the administrator.
2. On the left-hand menu, click Settings, and then click General.
3. Under General Settings, in the WordPress Address (URL) text box, replace the current URL with the secure URL. For example, type https://www.example.com, where example.com represents your domain name.
   • Make sure you type the correct URL, or your WordPress installation will be inaccessible.
   • Make sure the URL begins with https://.
   • Make sure the URL does not end with a forward slash (/).

4. In the Site Address (URL) text box, replace the current URL with the secure URL. For example, type https://www.example.com, where example.com represents your domain name.
   

   • As in step 3, make sure you type the correct URL, or your WordPress installation will be inaccessible.
   • Make sure the URL begins with https://.
   • Make sure the URL does not end with a forward slash (/).
5. Click Save Changes.

Method #2: Use phpMyAdmin

To use phpMyAdmin to update the WordPress URL settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to cPanel.
   If you do not know how to log in to your cPanel account, please see this article.
2. In the Databases section of the cPanel home screen, click phpMyAdmin.
3. In the left-hand pane of phpMyAdmin, click the WordPress database. A list of tables in the database appears.
   Typically, the WordPress database is username_wpXXX, where username represents your cPanel username, and XXX is a three-digit number.
4. Under the Table heading, click the wp_options table. A list of data rows appears.
5. Under the option_name heading, locate siteurl, and then click Edit.
6. In the option_value text box, replace the current URL with the secure URL. For example, type https://www.example.com, where example.com represents your domain name.
   • Make sure you type the correct URL, or your WordPress installation will be inaccessible.
   • Make sure the URL begins with https://.
   • Make sure the URL does not end with a forward slash (/).
7. Click Go. phpMyAdmin saves the changes in the table.

8. Under the option_name heading, locate home, and then click Edit.
   

   You may have to scroll through more than one page of data in the wp_options table to locate the home row. To do this, click the > icon, or you can click Show all to view all of the table's rows simultaneously.

9. In the option_value text box, replace the current URL with the secure URL. For example, type https://www.example.com, where example.com represents your domain name.
   

   • As in step 6, make sure you type the correct URL, or your WordPress installation will be inaccessible.
   • Make sure the URL begins with http://.
   • Make sure the URL does not end with a forward slash (/).
10. Click Go. phpMyAdmin saves the changes in the table. WordPress should now use the secure https:// URL.

More Information

For more information about using SSL with WordPress, please visit https://make.wordpress.org/support/user-manual/web-publishing/https-for-wordpress.

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