Securing your WordPress Multisite Network with an SSL certificate is highly recommended. An SSL certificate can protect your users data, increase user trust in your website and brand. Plus prevent your WordPress website from being hacked.
What is an SSL Certificate?
SSL certificates encrypt, or scramble, the connection between your WordPress website and your visitors device. Once for banks and online shopping, SSL certificates are now common place on the WWW. SSL certificates are most often used to secure websites, but also used to secure web servers, emails service and anything which requires a secure connection between two or more devices. Websites secured with an SSL display a small padlock, or green bar in your web browser.
Standard SSL Certificate or Wildcard SSL Certificate?
There are two types of SSL certificates which you can use to protect your WordPress Multisite Network. Standard SSL certificates which can secure one domain name. eg https://www.mywordpressnetwork.com. Or a Wildcard SSL Certificate which can be used with multiple subdomains of a domain.
How to secure your WordPress Multisite with an SSL Certificate
The type of SSL certificate you need for your WordPress Multisite Network depends on how you’ve setup your network, and whether you’re running a Domain Mapping plugin.
WordPress Multisite with Subfolder Installs
If you created your WordPress Multisite Network to install new sites in sub folders, eg https://www.example.com/mysite1/, https://www.example.com/mysite2/ you can apply a single, Standard SSL certificate to your main domain. This will secure all websites setup in the sub folders.
WordPress Multisite with Subdomain Installs
If you created your WordPress Multisite Network to install new sites in subdomains, eg https://mysite1.example.com/, https://mysite2.example.com/ you can apply a single, Wild Card SSL certificate to your primary domain e.g example.com. This will secure all subdomains hosted on the primary domain. It’s worth noting that if you only wish to secure a few domains, it may be more costs effective to secure each sub domain with their own Standard SSL certificate.
WordPress Multisite with Domain Mapping.
If you’re using a Domain Mapping plugin your WordPress Multisite Network to map domains to subfolder or subdomains you will need one Standard SSL certificates for every mapped domain.
If you would like to discuss securing your WordPress Multisite with a Standard SSL Certificates, or Wildcard SSL Certificate, or would like to chat about our UK Optimised WordPress Hosting please get in touch today.