Install and verify a valid SSL certificate

15 min Impact: high Effort: low ✓ Scan-verified — no manual checkbox

SSL/TLS certificates expire on a fixed schedule (often 90 days for free certificates like Let's Encrypt) — when one lapses, every visitor sees a full-page "your connection is not private" warning instead of your site, with no way to click through easily on modern browsers.

An expired SSL certificate makes your site inaccessible — browsers block it with a full-screen warning and Google deindexes it. Certificates should be set to auto-renew.

How to fix it

1

Check your current certificate's expiry date

Visit your site in a browser, click the padlock icon, and view certificate details — or use an SSL checker tool.
2

Confirm auto-renewal is actually configured

Most modern hosts and Cloudflare auto-renew certificates, but this can silently fail if DNS records changed or a renewal check bounced.
3

Set a calendar reminder as backup

Even with auto-renewal, a reminder a week before expiry catches the rare case where automation fails.
4

If expired or expiring, renew immediately

Through your host's SSL settings or certificate provider — this is usually fast once triggered.

Common mistakes

Auto-renewal can fail silently if your DNS records change (a certificate authority re-validates domain ownership via DNS or HTTP at renewal time) — a recent DNS migration is the most common cause of an unexpected expiry.

How you'll know it's done

Your certificate has more than 30 days remaining before expiry, and auto-renewal is confirmed active.

Tools that help

SSL Labs Test ↗

Shows exact expiry date along with a full certificate health check.

H.I.V.E. checks this automatically

Fix it, then re-scan — the check confirms itself. No manual checkbox, the scan is the truth.

Run this check in H.I.V.E. →