October 1st is coming near now, and you might notice that there’s a hype in Facebook community about SSL requirements for those who hosted their facebook apps/ fan pages outsided Facebook.
What is SSL? In general English, SSL is a more secured way to transmit data meaning your personal information will be more secured. This doesn’t make it impossible for hackers to steal your data, but it creates stronger defense for you.
Why SSL is compulsary on Facebook? Since people always worry about their privacy, Facebook wants to enhance its image on people’s minds. They don’t want to be another MySpace, which is crowded with spams, bots and hackers…
How many people will be affected after this change? At present, there is more than 9 million facebook users have switched into secure browsing ( Account > Account Settings > Security > Secure Browsing ). When these users visit a page without SSL certificate, they’ll see a message like this
Even if your page is harmless, people tend to protect themselves after seeing this alarm (Facebook doesn’t warn you for nothing, right?) So they will skip your page. Consequently, you will lose more than 9 million potential customers. For business, only one or two hundreds visitors can make a huge different. In this case, 9 million is definitely worth thinking about.
As business, you should take your actions quickly, before the judgement day.
How To Create A SSL Connection For Your Facebook Fanpage
The Free Way
If you hosted your websites on HostGator, congrats, HostGator helps you create a secured SSL connection for your fanpage for FREE. Moreover, it doesn’t take too much time, just a few steps away and you can enjoy the glory of having a secured fanpage. If you hosted your websites somewhere else, like this blog – on Dreamhost – you can contact your provider to ask for Shared SSL.
Step 1: Find your server name
There are three ways to find your server name
1. Look into your account’s info in the Email that HostGator sent you.
2. Login to cPanel, scroll down to the end of left navigation. Then, click on Expand Stats and look for server name.
3. Go to Start/Run -> cmd -> tracert www.domain.com. It will trace and show you your server name
Step 2: Find your cPanel username
The username is the same username that you use to login to cPanel.
If you have a reseller account, all your clients usernames will be listed under “List Accounts” in your Reseller backend. If you have a normal account, it will be listed in your welcome email for new customers from HostGator.
Step 3: Find your Secure SSL Address
For reseller account, your link is the link found in Step 1. For those who use shared hosting, you have to change the word “gator” in your server address to “secure”.
Then, you add /~username to the path. The last thing to add is the folder of your Facebook fanpage.
For example if the link to your Control Panel (cPanel) is https://gator111.hostgator.com, your username is thohuynh and your folder is fbpage, the result is something like this
https://secure111.hostgator.com/~thohuynh/fbpage/
Step 4: Add secure link to Facebook
1. Login to Facebook then go to https://developers.facebook.com/
2. Click on Apps
3. Select the Facebook App that you setup for your Facebook Fan Page
4. Click on Edit Settings
5. Update the Secure Canvas URL and the Secure Page Tab URL with the new Secure address
6. Turn on your Secure Browsing ( Account > Account Settings > Security > Secure Browsing ) and check your Facebook page to make sure that it all works (if you see “Please update your secure tab URL“, go back and check your whole process again).
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The Paid Ways
There’re some other options for you to overcome SSL requirement from Facebook, but you have to spend some money on them.
- Get SSL Certificate Domains from Namecheap or GoDaddy.
- Get Private SSL from HostGator. Don’t know the differences between shared SSL and private SSL? Read this post.
- Some cheap packages and services, especially for those who use WordPress to host their fanpages: Facebook Security Exposed (Shelle will guide you step by step on how to make your fanpage secured), Fan Page Professional WordPress Plugin…
- Use third parties services which include SSL Certificate.
If you are in business, I would recommend that you should buy SSL Certificate domain from Namecheap or GoDaddy, they make your websites more trust-worthy and show you customers that you always care about their privacy.
Whether you choose free or paid way, you should be in hurry. The deadline is coming (9 days left).
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@thohuynh…… Thanks for this wonderful post…… Found what I was looking for… regards and keep blogging…..
You could just easily disable the secure browsing, under the secure tab on the sidebar. Then click edit on secure browsing, then choice disable.
Hi, Thank you so much for your information on the SSL certificates. I appreciated your expertise. May you have a wonderful day, Thohuynh