The online store's SSL encryption
The SSL encryption protocol prevents third parties from accessing the data exchanged between your online store and its customers. Enabling the SSL protocol in your online store creates a secure environment for making purchases and performing related actions, and makes it possible to encrypt all information provided by the customers while placing orders or registering. This makes your store much more reliable and secure.
Contents
- SSL-certificates available via MyCashflow
- Ordering a new certificate
- Adding your own certificate to your MyCashflow online store
- Encryption testing and enablement in the online store
- Renewing the encryption
- Google Analytics and Search Console in SSL-encrypted domains
- Testing the SSL encryption and the encrypted online store's layout
To enable the SSL protocol, you'll need an SSL certificate, which you can order by using a form on our website. On the page you'll also find the prices of certificates ordered via MyCashflow.
SSL certificates are always issued to domains. You'll need a separate certificate for each domain whose traffic should be encrypted.
If your online store uses subdomains (e.g. domain.example.com), you can ask us to order for you a so-called wildcard certificate with which you can encrypt the traffic to all subdomains of a given domain.
See below for the list of SSL-certificates that you can order for the domain of your MyCashflow online store from us.
Find out more about the details and pricing of different SSL certificates.
All default domains of MyCashflow online stores (http://STORENAME.mycashflow.fi) include the SSL encryption free of charge.
The free encryption applies only to the online store's root address. Its potential subdomains (http://subdomain.STORENAME.mycashflow.fi) are not encrypted.
Free of charge SSL encryption for any single domain. If there are multiple domains or subdomains in your online store, you can order a Let's Encrypt certificate for any of them.
Let's Encrypt offers the same protection as paid certificates. All Let's Encrypt certificates enabled in a store are renewed automatically.
The certificate is available in all paid plans via our customer service. Contact us if you'd like to enable Let's Encrypt for your domain.
Quick and easy encryption for a single domain. Perfect for an online store with a single domain.
Encryption for a single domain and all subdomains. Suitable for online stores with multiple language versions or a separate B2B online store under its own subdomain.
Encryption for a single domain on the bank level. High level of security visually confirmed by a padlock icon in most browsers.
Only the online store's account owner can order the SSL encryption for the store. The account owner can be seen in the admin panel, on the right side of the page.
To order a new certificate for a domain:
What happens next depends on who manages the domain name services (DNS) of the domain that should be encrypted.
If MyCashflow manages your DNS, you'll receive a confirmation when the SSL encryption will be ready for enablement.
If a third party manages your DNS, the SSL encryption is enabled in the following way:
If a third party manages the domain's DNS, renewing the certificate is your own responsibility. Read more ›
You can also add a certificate purchased from another provider to your online store.
The costs of enabling your own certificate in MyCashflow are €60/certificate.
If you use your own certificate in your online store, you will also be responsible for renewing the certificate. MyCashflow doesn't send any expiring certificate notifications.
If you've ordered an SSL certificate yourself, you can add it to your MyCashflow online store. In such a case, do the following:
In the response, you'll receive an IP address to which the domain traffic should be directed and instructions on how to activate the encryption.
After the SSL certificate has been ordered and confirmed, you can enable it in your online store:
- Make sure that the store version's URL address is the domain for which the encryption has been enabled.
The encryption has now been enabled in the edited version.
Next you may want to update the website's details in the Google services you have enabled, so that encrypted traffic is properly tracked, and the website is reindexed as soon as possible so that its search engine visibility doesn't suffer.
The SSL certificate of every encrypted domain has to be renewed at regular intervals. The SSL certificate can be renewed in different ways depending on who manages its domain name services.
If your SSL certificate's domain name services are managed by MyCashflow, we'll take care of renewing the certificate on your behalf. No action is required on your part.
If your SSL certificate's domain name services are managed by a third party, the certificate can be renewed in the following way:
After enabling the encryption, make sure to update the enabled Google tool according to the instructions provided below.
Google Analytics often interprets returning from payment services to the online store as referral traffic. This is especially problematic when tracking order conversions, as it prevents conversions from being logged in the tracking service.
Most often this issue occurs after SSL encryption has been enabled.
After enabling encryption, disable tracking for the no-longer-necessary referral traffic to external services in Analytics.
Also change the website's URL into the encrypted https:// version in Google Analytics:
- On the page , in the menu Default URL
- On the page , in the menu Website's URL
Search Console interprets as separate websites those domains which are with and without SSL encryption.
After enabling SSL encryption, add the SSL domain as a new website in the Search Console.
Also make sure that you add all domain variations as separate websites in the Search Console. A single domain with SSL encryption should be added as four websites in the Search Console:
- http://www.example.com
- https://www.example.com
- http://example.com
- https:/example.com
See also Google's instructions on adding new websites.
After ordering and confirming the certificate, test it to make sure that it works properly and enable the encryption in MyCashflow settings.
To test the encryption, go to the encrypted domain that starts with https://. For instance, if you've encrypted the domain www.example.com, type https://www.example.com in the browser's address bar. If the encryption works properly, you should be able to see the encrypted website's front page and a visual cue in the address bar indicating that the website is encrypted (in the example Google Chrome):
Make sure that the online store's internal links don't direct to addresses with no encryption.
The store's internal links should always be in the format /page/8 (the example uses a link to a content page), so that visitors will always be directed to the domain enabled for the version and the encrypted address (once the encryption is enabled).
The MyCashflow text editor always enters the store's internal links in the correct format.
The contents of this section are meant for the online store's designer. The actions presented here require the command of the HTML and Interface markup.
Make sure that in the theme there are no templates that would fetch style files, scripts, images or other resources from non-encrypted addresses. Many browsers display a warning to visitors if an encrypted website contains non-encrypted resources.
Styles and scripts should be added to the theme by using the {MinifyCSS} and {MinifyJS} tags. The tags always use the version's encrypted domain in links if the encryption has been enabled. Additionally, you can use tags to minify scripts and styles.
{MinifyCSS(
files:'css/master.css|css/base.css|css/forms.css'
)}If you fetch scripts and styles e.g. from an external CDN service, make sure that you use links that start with https://.
If you add fixed images to the theme from the online store's file directory, enter the links either without the domain, or use the {ThemeURL} or {ShopURL} tags:
<!-- The first two examples fetch the image in relation to the version's root domain -->
<img src="/files/images/image.jpg"/>
<img src="{ShopURL}/files/images/image.jpg"/>
<!-- {ThemeURL} prints the theme folder's location in relation to the store's root domain -->
<img src="{ThemeURL}/image.jpg"/>
<img src="{ShopURL}/{ThemeURL}/image.jpg"/>If you add fixed, internal links to the theme, use the {Link} or {LinkURL} tags. They will always print the version's URL address in an encrypted format if the encryption has been enabled.
<a href="{LinkURL(type: 'infopage', id: 6)}">Link</a>