Secure sockets layer (SSL) is a web technology that was created to encrypt the connection between a web server (a website) and the client's browser (the person reading the website).
With an encrypted connection, it's basically impossible to intercept the data that's being sent back and forth, thus making it secure to perform sometimes even the most sensitive of tasks, such as handling bank transfers, for instance.
In simple terms, once you enable SSL on your website, you'll make it incredibly more difficult for hackers to breach and/or distort the connection between your site and its visitors.
Luckily, these days, installing an SSL is a straightforward thing to do. Most of the popular web hosts offer a free SSL certificate as part of your main hosting plan. The only thing you need to do is check a couple of boxes in your user panel to enable it.
Unfortunately, the specific steps differ from host to host. Here's how to get this done with some of the popular providers:
- Bluehost: https://my.bluehost.com/hosting/help/free-ssl
- SiteGround: https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/getting-started/configure-ssl-with-one-click/
- GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/garage/enable-https-server/
- HostGator: https://support.hostgator.com/categories/ssl-certificates/ssl-setup-use/
If you're hosting your site with someone else, you'll likely find a similar guide in their documentation as well.
However, even after going through the steps in the user panel of your host, you still have the SSL only partly enabled on your WordPress site. This brings us to the topic of security plugins.