Website Says "Not Secure" or Shows a Certificate Warning? How to Fix It

What the warning actually means

Every secure website (one that starts with https://) presents a certificate: a small digital ID that proves the site really is your business and encrypts what visitors send. When the browser cannot verify that ID, it stops the visitor with a warning. It is not saying your site has been hacked. It is saying it cannot prove the connection is safe, so it refuses to vouch for you.

That costs you three ways: visitors leave, anything typed into your forms or logins is exposed, and search engines prefer sites that load securely.

The four usual causes

• The certificate expired. Certificates last a fixed time and must be renewed. If automatic renewal was never switched on, or the card on the hosting account failed, the site goes "Not Secure" on the day it lapses.
• The certificate is for a different name. It covers www.yourbusiness.co.zw but not yourbusiness.co.zw, or the reverse. Visitors who type the other version get the warning.
• The site moved and the certificate did not. After a move to new hosting, or a domain pointed at a new server, the new server may have no certificate for your name yet.
• The certificate chain is incomplete. The certificate is valid but the server does not send the intermediate certificates with it. Some browsers and phones then fail to trust it, so the site works for you and breaks for customers.

How to fix each one

• Expired: log in to your hosting control panel (cPanel and most hosts have an SSL or "Let's Encrypt" section), issue or renew the certificate, and switch on automatic renewal. If the hosting account itself is unpaid, settle that first or nothing renews.
• Wrong name: reissue the certificate so it covers both the www and non www addresses, then redirect one to the other so everyone lands on the same address.
• Moved site: issue a certificate on the new server for every address that points to it, then check the old server is no longer answering for your domain.
• Incomplete chain: install the full chain (your certificate plus the intermediate bundle your provider gives you). Most automatic tools do this for you; manual installs are where it goes wrong.

Not sure which one you have? Run your address through our free SSL certificate checker. It shows the expiry date, the names the certificate covers and whether browsers trust it.

Keep it from happening again

• Automatic renewal on, and a payment card on the hosting account that will not expire first.
• One address: pick www or not, and redirect the other.
• A monthly check with the certificate checker, or ask us to watch it for you.

A certificate warning is often the first visible sign that nobody is looking after the site. If yours lapsed, it is worth a wider look at the rest: start with the free website security check.