Managing SSL/TLS Certificates: How to Do It Securely

An SSL/TLS certificate encrypts the traffic between your website and your visitors and provides the padlock and HTTPS in the address bar. Without a valid certificate, browsers display warnings and visitors leave. Fortunately, managing this is easy with the right tools: you install a certificate, ensure automatic renewal, and occasionally check that everything is correct. This article explains what you need to know and which steps you can take yourself.

What is an SSL/TLS certificate and why do you need it

SSL and TLS are protocols that encrypt data between a website and a visitor. Without a certificate, data such as passwords, contact forms, and payment information can in principle be intercepted. With a valid certificate, the visitor sees a padlock in the browser and all communication is sent encrypted.

For entrepreneurs and website administrators, this is important for several reasons:

• Trust: visitors expect a secure connection, especially with forms or a webshop.
• Search engines: HTTPS is part of how search engines evaluate a website.
• Compliance: when processing personal data, an encrypted connection is part of careful data handling.
• Preventing error messages: an expired certificate immediately causes warnings in the browser, which scares off visitors.

Installing a certificate in Plesk

If your hosting runs on Plesk, installing a certificate is a matter of a few clicks. Most providers, including Tandata, offer free Let’s Encrypt certificates that can be activated directly through the control panel.

Do you have multiple subdomains, for example for a webshop or customer portal? Then a wildcard certificate can be useful, so you don’t have to arrange something separately for each subdomain. Also keep a close eye on your domain names and associated DNS settings, as these are needed for validation.

Automatic renewal and checking

Let’s Encrypt certificates are valid for a limited period. If a certificate is not renewed in time, a warning appears in the browser and visitors may leave. Automatic renewal is therefore not an extra option, but a basic requirement for a reliable website.

In Plesk, you enable this in the certificate settings, usually with a checkbox for ‘automatically renew’. Once set up, you don’t need to look at this again.

You can always check the status of a certificate yourself by clicking the padlock in your browser’s address bar. For a more thorough analysis, for example of the complete configuration, free online testing tools are available.

Solving common problems

Most certificate issues have one of the following causes:

• Expired certificate: this usually happens because automatic renewal is not set up correctly. In that case, install a new certificate and check the renewal setting.
• Incorrect domain validation: if DNS settings have recently been changed, validation may fail. Check whether your domain correctly points to the right server.
• Mixed content: a page loads via HTTPS, but still contains references to images or scripts via HTTP. This causes an insecure warning despite a valid certificate.
• Email and certificates: a correct secure connection is also important for business email. See our page about business email for more explanation about this.

Can’t figure it out yourself, or unsure about the correct settings after a migration? Check the knowledge base or contact us via support. Considering switching to another hosting provider and want to know how certificates are handled in that process? Check out switching to Tandata.