Apologies if this isn’t an issue for this forum… When I try to access my website from https://www.chrissmithofficial.com, I am getting the error below. When I link the https web address in social media, it won’t load at all. How can I resolve this issue? The issue isn’t present if I use the non secure http; http://www.chrissmithofficial.com. I am running the Lush Theme on Wordpress 4.9. Thanks.
You see this error because your domain has no SSL certificate or server setup is wrong (very common with HostGator, as their staff seems to be less and less experienced now…)
@phpmillion is correct. SSL (https://) is something your web host must provide, and it typically doesn’t come with shared hosting for free.
You must contact HostGator Support and be ready to pay an annual fee; if you already did buy SSL from them, you need to let them know that it isn’t working.
SSL is not necessary for a website unless it will transmit sensitive or private data.
I believe all (or most of) HostGator plans use cPanel, and cPanel has a free plugin to obtain free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt. Hence, OP should be able to get it for free. It’s also a good time to test how reputable his hosting provider is because some less reputable providers charge one-time or yearly fees for Let’s Encrypt certificates, even if they are completely free and don’t require any manual setup.
Please, for the sake of not confusing people, let’s not make assumptions like this. HostGator is a big company, Let’s Encrypt is rather new and not as widely supported in CA bundles as other premium authorities.
One of my clients uses HostGator’s shared hosting and there is no free SSL. Online research confirms this.
Let’s Encrypt is officially supported by cPanel since 2016.
I agree that HostGator is a big company, but that doesn’t mean their service is good. During last 10+ years I had hundreds of horror stories with HostGator where my clients were complaining that some functions of my scripts don’t work on HostGator, even if their support claims some required PHP modules are properly functioning. Each and every time I had to write instructions on how to configure PHP and ask clients to forward them to HostGator administrators. Only then scripts would start work (just as they would on any other hosting server, except HostGator, on planet Earth).
As a result, I even created a knowledgebase entry which starts like “If you use HostGator and script displays an error message that ‘function X is not supported’ while HostGator team claims it’s enabled, it’s a big lie! Check it for yourself by downloading this PHP config testing tool from …, show it to HostGator support and tell them to hire more experienced staff”
Thankfully, it reduced my workload a lot because after clients downloaded PHP config testing tool (which only contained a few lines of code and nothing else), they immediately realized it was server’s fault, not script’s.
You need to install CA certificate for this ssl and it should work.