Even with an SSL certificate installed, visitors who type your address without https:// may land on the insecure version. Forcing HTTPS redirects everyone to the secure version automatically, and tells search engines which version to rank.
- Log in to cPanel. You can open it from your client area (choose your hosting service, then Login to cPanel), or go to yourdomain.co.uk/cpanel.
- In the Domains section, open Domains.
- Find your domain and switch on Force HTTPS Redirect.
- Visit http://yourdomain.co.uk and check you end up on the https:// version.
Using WordPress?
Also go to Settings › General in WordPress and make sure both the WordPress Address and Site Address begin with https://.
Padlock missing on some pages?
This is called “mixed content”: the page is secure, but an image or script on it is still loaded over http://. Edit the page and change the address of that image or script to https://. In WordPress, a search-and-replace plugin can update old links across the whole site.