WordPress.com Secures Millions of Domains with Free, Automatic HTTPS

By The WHIR

The web just got a whole lot more secure.

WordPress.com is offering free, automatic HTTPs for all custom domains hosted on WordPress.com, according to a recent announcement by the company.

This is significant because there are more than one million custom domains hosted on WordPress.com, including automatic.com, the website of its parent company.

The Let’s Encrypt project enabled WordPress to provide SSL certificates for a large number of domains, the company said, and after launching its first batch of certificates in January, it immediately started working with Let’s Encrypt to “make the process smoother” for its growing list of domains.

Let’s Encrypt launched in December, and has issued more than one million SSL certificates since then.

Making HTTPS easier for website owners to implement is not just beneficial for security, as WordPress points out; it also has implications on search rankings. In 2014,Google made waves by announcing HTTPS websites rank higher than HTTP websites.

WordPress.com is among other hosting providers offering support for Let’s Encrypt. In January DreamHost announced its integrated support for Let’s Encrypt for all of its managed hosting customers. With the integration, customers can access free HTTPS protection with a single-click.

Original article appeared at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/wordpress-com-secures-millions-of-domains-with-free-automatic-https