How To Generate an SSL Certificate and Signing Request on cPanel

There are several steps (and sub-steps) involved in setting up SSL on your website. At a high-level you will need to:

1. Order the SSL certificate
2. Create a private key on your server (optional)
3. Generate the CSR on your server
4. Verify you can receive email from admin@{yourdomain.com} or webmaster@{yourdomain.com}
5. Paste the CSR into the website where you purchased the certificate
6. Verify your information by clicking on a link sent to admin@{yourdomain.com} or webmaster@{yourdomain.com}
7. Download and extract the certificate
8. Add the certificate to the server
9. Find all occurrences of HTTP throughout the site and replace them with HTTPS
10. Adjust any settings or .htaccess files to handle HTTPS

Order SSL Certificate

We prefer to use www.namecheap.com (affiliate link) for our SSL certificates. A $9 DV certificate is usually fine for 90% of our clients.

Generate CSR

Most cPanels do not have access to create a CSR so we will need access to the WHM control panel. The WHM control panel is where you can see all of your websites or client websites.

Please provide us with the following credentials:

• URL (probably domain.com/whm or domain.com:2087 or whm.domain.com):
• User: 
• Pass: 

We will also need the following information about the website that will be using the certificate:

• Address:
• City: 
• State: 
• Zip/Postal Code: 
• Country: 
• Company: 
• Email Address (of owner or webmaster): 

If you would like to create it yourself please follow these instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUb6Bnu8UmQ

Configure admin@ or webmaster@ Account

In order to verify the DV SSL certificate, the provider will email admin@{yourdomain.com} or webmaster@{yourdomain.com}.

Important: You can not have the verification sent to yourname@yourdomain.com or your Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook address. You must have an admin@ or webmaster@ email address set up in order to verify the certificate.

We can help you set this up on your hosting account.

Paste CSR Into SSL Provider's Website

We will need access to the provider where you purchased the certificate to paste the CSR into their submission form.

• URL (namecheap, godaddy, etc): 
• User: 
• Pass: 

Or you can do it yourself. They probably sent you some instructions on where to go once you generated the CSR.

Important: You must have an admin@ or webmaster@ email account or alias set up before you complete this step. The DNS and HTML methods of verification take time and are error prone so we prefer to use email verification.

Verify Your Domain

The SSL provider will send you a verification email to your admin@ or webmaster@ account. Click the link in the email to verify your domain.

Download Certificate

The SSL provider will send you a separate email with the SSL certificate attached. Download it to your computer and extract it using 7Zip, WinZip, WinRAR or similar programs.

Open the SSL certificate in your favorite text editor. Copy the entire certificate including the BEGIN/END lines.

Add Certificate To Server

Go back to your WHM control panel and search for "Install an SSL Certificate on a Domain".

Type the domain name into the Domain text box or click on the "Browse Certificates" button and switch to Apache to find your domain name.

Paste the SSL certificate into the text area and click install. The private key should have automatically populated.

Next Steps

There are several more steps to ensure that your website works properly with the certificate and doesn't throw "mixed content" warnings to your visitors. Please contact us for help.