The most recent Google core update appears to be one of the most positive updates that Google has released, especially for smaller publishers, specializing in user-focused content! Google has stated that,
“This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.”

In the last 2 weeks, we have seen numerous publishers experience increases in traffic, demonstrating the positive impact for those who prioritize user experience over search engine algorithms. 

To recover from a Google penalty or a significant traffic decline following a core update requires strategic action and can be a lengthy process, often spanning over months. However, core updates present a unique opportunity for recovery as websites are reassessed against the new guidelines. There is a strong reason to believe that the publishers who have invested in creating high-quality, user-centric content will see their sites rise in search rankings during these times.  

It’s important to adopt a proactive approach to website optimization rather than passively waiting for updates to change the game. Publishers should have a plan and a strategy that is being reviewed and implemented to ensure their website’s continued success. By implementing these guidelines below, publishers can capitalize on traffic gains and maintain a competitive edge in the ever-evolving search engine landscape.

1. Know your Audience.

Understanding your audience is paramount in creating content that resonates with them and is an essential key step to delving into your audience development strategies. Direct users are the most stable of traffic sources that take pressure off the rise and fall of search engines. This aligns with Google’s EEAT standards enabling you to produce high-quality valuable content that is curated specifically for your audience.

2. Track your Metrics.

Be proactive in investing time in evaluating your Google Analytics (GA4) dashboard to understand what content is performing well and those that are not. Knowing what content is performing better and those that are falling short, you can make data-driven decisions that can make or break your content strategy. Embracing a flexible approach and adjusting your priority based on performance metrics is key to maximizing the website’s traffic.

3. Audit Existing Content

Avoid being hindered by outdated content that no longer meets current-day standards. Refreshing existing or evergreen content can be a relatively efficient way to keep your website content fresh and engaging.. If content is not able to be updated, placing a NoIndex tag can prevent it from being indexed by search engines, thus avoiding potential penalties

4. First-Party Data Strategy

Implementing a strategic approach to obtain your users’ First Party Data is critical to optimizing site revenue and owning your own audience. Gaining a way to target your audience can help with things like newsletters which can gain site traffic, surveys which helps you know your audience, and even integrating additional interactions on the site through voting systems. Furthermore, having FPD allows for optimized revenue through your ad partner (Freestar!) as CPM’s are higher when the ads are curated for the specific user. 

By following the above guidelines you can be in a place to be positively impacted when core updates are launched. While optimizing your site remains crucial, it should never come at the detriment of the user experience.  

More important than that, by following the above best practices you can improve your site and make the user experience better. You want to be a site that users are coming back to, are typing your site in their browser, have tagged and saved and used in their everyday lives. Google appears to be finally listening to the publishers and there are a lot of positive changes happening. Provide the best, user-first content that you can, and the traffic will follow!

Learn more on how Freestar can efficiently monetize your content while maintaining a positive user experience. 

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To gain further insights and strategies for managing publisher traffic and maximizing revenue, watch our recorded webinar, The Truth About Publisher Traffic

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While the existence of these substandard MFA websites is nothing new, recent developments, including the growing demand for transparency on the buy-side and sell-side, the misuse of AI-powered content creation tools, and Supply Path Optimization (SPO) efforts, have intensified the scrutiny on MFA sites. Regrettably, these websites have thrived for years with minimal resistance, eroding trust within the digital advertising ecosystem.

Traditionally, the battle against MFA websites primarily concerned the demand side. However, Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) like Index Exchange, Magnite, Sharethrough, and PubMatic have also initiated measures against MFA websites. Before delving deeper, it is crucial to comprehend the nature of these sites and why publishers should be concerned about their presence.

What Constitutes MFA Websites?

If you are connected to the ad tech industry, the term MFA (made-for-advertising) likely rings familiar. MFA websites are platforms that employ unethical tactics to generate traffic and deceive users into viewing excessive ad impressions. While the degree of obnoxiousness may vary, they typically share common characteristics, including:

• An excessive number of ads per page, significantly impairing user experience.
• Low-quality, derivative content, often scraped from external sources.
• Frequently image-centric, with minimal static text content.
• Deceptive navigation designed to encourage users to view more ads.

Why Should Publishers Be Concerned?

At first glance, the crackdown on MFA websites appears to be positive news. Most users express their aversion to spam-filled, clickbait-ridden content profiting from unsuspecting advertisers who believe their creative campaigns are reaching engaged audiences.

However, the situation is more intricate than it seems. As a programmatic ad monetization vendor, Freestar occupies a pivotal position between SSPs, DSPs, and publishers. Because of this, we receive alerts when spending on any of the sites we monetize is obstructed.

1. Identifying MFA websites may appear straightforward based on the aforementioned definition, but industry-wide standards are not universally established.

Recently, certain sites on the restricted spending list have left us perplexed. It is not always as clear as one might anticipate. As mentioned earlier, the extent of MFA practices varies, and some flagged publishers do not consider themselves to be employing any of the tactics outlined.

2. The stringency in identifying, exposing, and curtailing these websites is steadily increasing.

Hence, it is crucial to enhance content quality now, adhere to industry guidelines, and avert the revenue loss associated with being labeled as a made-for-advertising website.

What to Do When Flagged for MFA

In most instances, a reconsideration may be granted if substantial improvements are made to enhance website quality and reduce excessive advertising. The changes required for a site to shed its MFA classification are neither simple nor likely to yield immediate revenue gains. By adhering to the following recommendations, your chances of a second opportunity increase significantly:

• Limit the number of ads per page to a maximum of 3-5. An excessive volume of ads on a page is the primary criterion for categorizing a site as MFA. Common problematic ad layouts include pop-ups, pop-unders, stacked ads, multiple auto-playing video players, and ads obstructing content.

• Enhance content quality by either removing specific pages or applying a no-index tag to the following infractions:
  • Clickbait headlines.
  • Gossip or false information.
  • Content devoid of purpose.
  • Unhelpful content.
  • Short or inadequate content.
  • AI-generated content.
  • Non-unique content.

• Remove infinite scroll or extreme pagination from your content presentation options.

• Implement a comprehensive site navigation structure that encompasses primary content themes. Identify authentic audience-engaging content through analytics, such as organic social reach, organic search traction, Pinterest pageviews, and Reddit discussions, excluding content driven primarily by paid media efforts.

• Familiarize yourself with Google Search Essentials and adhere to recommended best practices.

  • Create helpful, reliable, user-focused content.
  • Incorporate relevant keywords in prominent page locations, including titles, headings, alt text, and link text.
  • Ensure your links are crawlable to facilitate Google’s exploration of other pages on your site via these links.
  • Promote your website within communities where you can engage with like-minded individuals regarding your products and services.
  • Adhere to specific best practices for various content types, such as images, videos, structured data, and JavaScript, to ensure user comprehension.
  • Enhance your website’s visibility on Google Search by enabling features that align with your site’s objectives.
  • If there are specific content elements that should not appear in search results or if you wish to opt-out entirely, employ the appropriate method to control how your content appears in Google Search.

We recognize the challenge of transitioning away from lucrative revenue sources. However, for the long-term prosperity of your business, these changes are invaluable. For further information on MFA websites, Freestar is delighted to be your resource. Contact us today to engage with an expert.

The post Understanding MFA Websites and How to Respond When Flagged first appeared on Freestar.

Ads play an important role in the experience of a website user. Ads are meant to catch a user’s attention and seamlessly flow within a webpage, but more often than not, they can be intrusive. Ad quality is an ongoing, industry-wide issue. Malicious actors, in particular, wait for opportune times to catch unsuspecting users, and their actions impact everyone in the ecosystem.

A time or two, you may have scrolled a web page and seen a bad ad. To clarify, “bad” is subjective. What one publisher considers bad may not be the same for another. A bad ad can contain anything from offensive or inappropriate content to competitive brands. At the worst end of the spectrum, bad ads may contain malicious code that hijacks a user’s browser or redirects them to questionable domains. Bad ads aren’t meant to be part of the user experience and can deter an existing or potential customer.

Overall, bad ads are bad for business. A user’s experience, particularly if it’s an unenjoyable one, can be reflective of their perception of your brand. Bad ads can scare current users away and prevent you from attracting new ones. Forget sharing or tweeting that article they just saw or even old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Ads are a revenue stream that allows publishers to offer their content without a subscription or paywall, fostering an open web, but only if they are good quality ads, contributing to a good user experience.

How Freestar Prioritizes Ad Quality

At Freestar, we know that you prioritize ad quality, and here’s what we are actively doing to protect you. 

1. Implementing Blocklists
   
   Freestar offers several options for blocklists when onboarding a new site. A blocklist is a list that details what type of advertisers or ad categories a publisher does not want to appear on their site. This can be for any number of reasons but most often because of brand safety, fraud concerns and/or legal compliance.
   
   We understand that publishers are worried that their website will be negatively impacted by the ads that appear alongside their content that don’t align with their values. Freestar offers publishers the ability to implement blocklists to prevent bad ads from being served. 

2. Strong Demand Relationships
   
   Freestar has direct relationships with all of the major Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) in the industry, and we have the volume of scale to have a strong voice with these Demand partners on behalf of our publishers.
   
   We work closely with each SSP to ensure they are serving ads only from sources that we trust and approve of. When we see unwanted ads coming from one of our SSP partners, we can escalate through our direct contacts and get timely resolution, making sure our blocklists are enforced.

3. Supply-Path Optimization (SPO)
   
   Put simply, SPO reduces the number of intermediaries involved in the ad chain and increases the level of transparency. Freestar works directly with several Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), which means that we are getting ad creatives directly from the source.
   
   One benefit of SPO is that it reduces the chances of bad actors infiltrating the supply chain. You can look at it like a game of telephone, where a sent message is very different from the message that is eventually received. When your ad goes through multiple intermediaries, it is vulnerable to manipulation and infiltration from malicious actors. Perpetrators of bad ads often search for different entry points where they can deploy their tactics. You can improve ad quality by optimizing your demand-side to supply-side platforms and reducing the number of entry points where bad ads can enter.

4. Real-Time Monitoring
   
   Freestar partners with Confiant as part of our ad quality solution. Confiant is our defense against the fraudulent advertisers who are trying to victimize your users with phishing scams, virus downloads, and other security threats. Confiant scans ads in real-time, and if a malicious ad is detected, they prevent the ad from serving on the page—protecting both the user and the publisher. The cybersecurity team at Confiant is continually monitoring the industry and updating their blocking triggers as more threats are discovered. 
   
   Confiant also provides an extra layer of protection for our blocklists. Their real-time scanning can detect and block any brands or categories that are slipping past Freestar’s existing blocklists, and it provides us with data to see where these blocks need to be shored up.

What makes ad quality difficult for publishers is a bad actor’s persistence. Short of turning off ads, there is very little that publishers can do to prevent bad ads, unless they can find good demand sources or an ad management solution (like Freestar) to work with. What makes it hard for the ad tech industry is that bad actors are continually generating new malicious creatives, new malicious code, and serving from new domains, so that they are very hard to recognize and very hard to keep up with. As soon as one bad creative is blocked , a new one is created that will get around your blocking rules.

Freestar’s strategy for ad quality goes beyond implementing ad monitoring software. Our ad quality team at Freestar further analyzes the data from Confiant, determines where malicious ads and security threats are coming from, and uses this information to make decisions about the demand sources and creatives that we allow to serve on our platform. We also work with our demand partners to remove bad creatives from their platforms. Advertisers or buyers that cause frequent issues are blocked from our network completely. This approach creates a better experience for everyone (end users, publishers, and advertisers), because only high-quality advertisers are allowed to bid on your inventory in the first place. 

Blocking low-quality buyers helps Freestar stay a step ahead of the malicious advertisers attempting to buy through these routes. It doesn’t matter if they create new campaigns—they have no access to our network. Freestar also uses this data when deciding what DSPs to form direct connections with, ensuring that we maintain high-quality demand.

Freestar takes ad quality seriously, especially how it affects the publishers we work with and their users. From SPO to monitoring and maintaining blocklists, Freestar wants to ensure we’re maximizing ad revenue and improving yield. We care about our publishers’ users because we know you rely on their readership. Advertisers benefit when they are able access your inventory without competing against bad ads. When the ad ecosystem runs efficiently, everyone’s a winner. 

The post Bad Actors, Bad Ad Quality, and just plain Bad UX first appeared on Freestar.

Freestar’s Page Speed Optimization Suite gives publishers an advantage in Google search results by delivering an optimal user experience as measured by Google and by site audiences.

This product often comes with a tradeoff in revenue, especially in the short term, but there’s a caveat and that’s sustained and increasing organic search traffic, if done correctly. More organic traffic means a larger audience and thus more revenue. It’s for this reason PSO helps ensure our publishers have a sustainable business.

So, is this product for every publisher? That’s the big question, to which we’ll give the eternal non-answer of “it depends.” It’s usually not for publishers whose primary traffic source isn’t search. If a publisher’s site is well optimized for CLS as it is, and they’re hitting the other core web vitals (FID and LCP) and Google Search / organic traffic is an important part of their strategy, it should be worth it.

If this sounds like your site and you want to ensure your site is optimized, here is a list of tools, plugins, information sources, and hacks that can help improve your site’s page speed. While some may be for tech-savvy folks, some of these are simply WordPress Plugins that are plug-and-play and they literally do the work for you!

IMPORTANT: Before you make any changes to your site please backup the files on which you intend to apply the modifications. In this case, we’re going to modify the .htaccess file so I advise that you save a copy of the file on your hard drive before you start modifying it, if something goes wrong you can use it to return to the previous state.

Best Practices

Beyond the usual speed tricks, mastering LCP has a much less technical, easier component that any publisher can take on: Change your post formatting.

Page speed tips vary widely in terms of how complex they are and how technical you need to get, but optimizing for LCP is pretty simple.

WordPress Plugins:

WP Smushit: Optimize images, turn on lazy load, resize, compress & improve your Google Page Speed with the incredibly powerful and 100% free WordPress image smusher.

Force Regenerate Plugin: allows you to delete all old image sizes and REALLY regenerate the thumbnails for your image attachments.

W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache which have features to cache pages, minify HTML, minify CSS and minify JS files, defer non-critical or offscreen images/scripts.

WP Rocket: Comprehensive plugin suite which features a CDN, caching, database optimization, WebP image optimization (Google’s own image format), lazy loading, delay the execution of JavaScript files until user interaction to reduce the initial load time and other compression methods to achieve optimal page speed. Additional: CloudFlare integration, Varnish Cache, Sucuri integration.

Speed Booster Pack: Built with features specific to Core Web Vitals, however, this is a lesser-known / less popular plugin than those mentioned above.

Manual Image Optimizations (WordPress)

Images are one of the largest resources on your pages and the larger they are the longer it will take to download slowing the page loading speed.

To reduce their size and increase the page loading speed, image compression and optimization are required. There are plenty of guides out there on how you can optimize the images (using software like Photoshop or similar).

Alternative:
Add the following code at the end of the functions.php which is located in the theme folder, the code will automatically compress each thumbnail to 50%:

1add_filter( ‘jpeg_quality’, create_function(”, ‘return 50;’ ) );

After you add the code you need to regenerate the thumbs, for that you could use the Force Regenerate plugin.

The value 50 stands for 50% if you want a better compression or better quality modify it and regenerate the thumbs. Experiment until you get the optimal value.

Force Regenerate Plugin: allows you to delete all old images size and REALLY regenerate the thumbnails for your image attachments.

Content Delivery Networks (CDN’s)

Using a CDN can greatly reduce the load on your website. Offloading the searching and delivery of images, javascript, css, and theme files to a CDN is not only faster but takes a great load off of your WordPress server’s own app stack. A CDN is most effective if used in conjunction with a WordPress caching plugin such as W3TC, described above.

CloudFlare is a popular Content Delivery Network, which also offers Internet Security services. Starting plans are free, but additional features are available for extra costs. CloudFlare is a fixed-cost CDN, meaning they charge by features instead of usage. CloudFlare allows you to route your site’s traffic through their network before coming back to your origin host.

Amazon Cloudfront uses the Amazon S3 service to provide Content Delivery Network (CDN) functionality for your static files. A CDN is a service that caches your static files on numerous web servers around the world. Providing faster download performance for your users no matter where they are. It’s recommended that you use Cloudfront in tandem with S3 and not only S3 alone; the costs are not significantly different.

MaxCDN is a pay-per-usage Content Delivery Network (CDN) similar to Amazon Cloudfront. Among the differences are support for video-on-demand as well as “mirroring” (no uploading required) of files, although you can upload them if you prefer.

Another alternative CDN provider is KeyCDN. They provide step-by-step WordPress integration guides on their support page.

KeyCDN and MaxCDN are among the most affordable CDN options available, they’re able to beat the pricing of competitors like Amazon because they are a division of much larger CDN Providers.

For any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to your account manager or send an email to accountmanagement@freestar.com

The post Optimization Tools & Plugins for Page Speed Optimization first appeared on Freestar.

Publishers and their ad operations teams put price floors in place to increase revenue for highly viewable inventory, increase competition between bidders, and help mitigate ad fraud. Using price floors to combat fraud, however, goes hand-in-hand with the long-held belief that ad fraud is perpetrated mostly against lower value impressions. The accepted logic is that by setting a price floor at the lowest CPM you’re willing to accept for your inventory, you’ll not only drive up your eCPM but weed out a lot of the bad ads in the process. Seems like a sound plan, right? Not entirely.

To better understand if setting arbitrary hard price floors could, in fact, weed out bad ads, Freestar dug into our data analyzing 200 million impressions filled by 11 different bidders across our sites. We discovered that each bidder had distinct variances in bad ad frequency by bid bucket. Not only that, each bidder saw spikes in bad ad frequency well above the low CPM price floors set by many publishers.

The graphs below show the frequency of bad ads (y-axis) by $0.10 bid buckets ranging from $0 to $50+ CPMs (x-axis).

What this data tells us is that while setting price floors at sub $1.00 price buckets can weed out some bad ads, this strategy is largely ineffective in stopping ad fraud from getting through to publisher’s sites. As seen above, ad fraud is perpetrated at all different bid levels with strong variances from bidder to bidder. Not only that, publishers are potentially decreasing their fill rates, and ultimately their net profit,  by utilizing hard price floors at lower CPMs. Not all bids at low CPMs are fraudulent, and by flooring, publishers lose out on those impressions ever being filled.

As the programmatic landscape continues to evolve, so to should the technologies and methods we use.

At Freestar, we’re utilizing data science to block bids at specific bid buckets based on the bad ad frequency by the individual bidder. This method results in no negative effect on fill rates, while allowing us to decrease the frequency of bad ads that ever reach our partner sites. Here’s how this works:

Site A makes a call to the ad server and Bidders 1, 3, 5 and 8 return the below bids:

Taking into account just the bid data it appears Bidder 8 would win with a CPM of $3.07.  However, utilizing the sample of bad ad data above it’s clear in the bid bucket of $3.00-$3.10 Bidder 8 is much more likely to deliver a bad ad than the other bidders. In this scenario, Freestar’s machine learning would have kicked in stopping only Bidder 8 from returning a bid at this price due to its high frequency of ad fraud at this level, while still allowing other bidders to step in to fill the impression.

Site A would still receive a $2.87 CPM from Bidder 1 in this auction, only $0.20 less than the revenue they would have received if Bidder 8 won, but with a far less likely chance a bad ad will have been delivered to their site. To verify our findings are correct, our algorithms continuously sample each bucket to verify which bids to block for each bidder decreasing overall frequency of bad ads by 50x across our partner sites. 

As the programmatic landscape continues to evolve, so to should the technologies and methods we use. Changing price floors to not only be dynamic but fluid by bidder and by price bucket is the next step in improving the digital advertising ecosystem for publishers.

The post Analyzing Bad Ads by Bid Bucket first appeared on Freestar.

To start, only the most offensive ad formats will be blocked. These include ads that are too large, impeding user the experience, and auto play videos with sound. Here are some of the formats being blocked on desktop and mobile.

Images courtesy of Coalition for Better Ads. For a full list of ad formats being blocked click here. 

The list of ad formats to be blocked was not arbitrarily decided on by Google, but follows the Better Ads Standards created by the Coalition for Better Ads – a group comprised of some of the largest trade association and companies in advertising. Google it so happens is also a member alongside The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Facebook, and Association of National Advertisers.

Chrome currently dominates 58.7% of all internet traffic

Since its announcement in December, there’s been concern around the enforcement of ad blocking left entirely up to Google on the web’s largest browser. Chrome currently dominates 58.7% of all internet traffic according to study by StatCounter.com.

How will it be enforced? Many have speculated Google will block all ads on a site based on a single violation. However, publishers and ad tech vendors alike can breathe a sigh of relief, built into the new standard is a 30-day grace period of sorts. Only once a site has violated the standard for 30 days will all ads be blocked on Chrome – including ads served by Google. Throughout the 30 days offenders will receive multiple warnings detailing any violations. According to a recent article by AdExchanger, the threshold for blocking is “7.5% of page views with infringing ads for the first two months after the CBA effective date, followed by 5% after four months and 2.5% after”.

To keep the guessing games down on what is and is not considered “a large sticky ad” Google rolled out an Ad Experience Report tool for publishers to check if their site meets standards on both mobile and desktop. If your site is status is flagged as “Failing” or “Warning” the report will include brief definitions of each violation with page URLs where they were found. Google recommends submitting another ad experience report for review after you have fixed any offending issues.

On bright side, even though the ad blocker is basically here there is still ample time and resources to get your site in line with the Better Ads Standard. On the downside, if your site is blocked due to violations, you will have to submit for manual review in order to have your ads restored on Chrome. And there is no clear path forward on how long restoration will take once you have been blocked.

The post Google Chrome Ad Blocking Starts February 15 first appeared on Freestar.

While the majority of web users are advocates for creating an overall safer, more secure web, many site owners have been daunted by the task of migrating their site to the secure protocol. Thankfully the barrier to entry for converting your site to HTTPS has all but disappeared with free, easy to use options for switching to HTTPS. With popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox continuing to push sites to switch with non-secure warnings on HTTP sites and SEO ranking boosts, it’s becoming clear all sites can and should make the switch. Here are the basics on HTTPS and why you should consider switching if you haven’t already.

What is HTTPS?

For starters, it’s good to have a basic understanding of the function of HTTPS and how it actually becomes “secure”. HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure where the information being sent from a user’s browser to a given website is encrypted and secured using TLS (Transport Layer Security), more commonly referred to as SSL (Socket Security Layer), an older version of the technology . The TLS ensures the information is being sent through secure channels and then encrypted making sensitive information all but impossible to hack. All of this provides both your site and your users with three key security benefits:

The TLS ensures the information is being sent through secure channels and then encrypted making sensitive information all but impossible to hack.

• Identity — TLS/SSL have to “handshake” or exchange digital certificates with the server of the site your device is communicating. This exchange authenticates the identity of the site to verify the site is not being affected by impersonation.
• Encryption — Purchasing something online? Your credit card number is encrypted on HTTPS sites and secure from potential hackers. Same applies for any other confidential data.
• Data Integrity — The TLS/SSL also creates a record layer ensuring any data exchanged is valid and accurate helping to prevent things like man-in-the-middle attacks.

Why migrate to HTTPS?

Beyond the obvious security benefits listed about there are a few reasons why you should really consider migrating to HTTPS:

1. User experience and trust — Give your site readers peace of mind that your site is safe and secure to use. If your site collects passwords, payments or even has forms of any kind (think email signups) Chrome is labeling your site as “not secure”, potentially reducing user trust.
2. SEO ranking — HTTPS is starting to play a larger and larger role in how Google ranks sites. According to a recent analysis by Moz.com, over half of first page rankings for Google searches are now HTTPS. Google has been indicating for quite some time it could become an even stronger ranking signal in the future. By not migrating to HTTPS, you’re harming the potential reach of your future posts.
3. Site Performance — Taking advantage of the secure protocol could increase your site speed by 1.25x as Google pointed out at their 2016 Web App Summit.

How to Migrate to HTTPS

Now that we’ve gone over why you need to migrate your site to HTTPS – let’s dig into the how. In the past couple of years it’s become both easier and cheaper to migrate to HTTPS so here are our top tips to make the process as seamless as possible.

Choose Your Certificate

Depending on your site needs there are different routes you can take when choosing a TLS/SSL certificate to install. Let’s Encrypt offers open and automatic certificates that are completely free of charge. This is great for any site looking to make the switch to HTTPS that does not necessarily need the attributes of a paid certificate purchased through a hosting provider. There are a few limitations to the site’s Let’s Encrypt are ideal for:

• E-commerce sites — Extended Validation certificates are ideal for e-commerce sites. The majority of hosting providers recommend purchasing your own certificates and importing them in this case.
• Custom CDN URL’s — While not super common, if you happen to have a custom CDN URL, Let’s Encrypt cannot issue certificates because the CDN provider controls the servers. You will need to coordinate with your hosting provider and CDN provider to install certificates.
• Hundreds of Subdomains / WordPress Multisite — If your site falls under one of these categories, WPEngine recommends RapidSSL certificates and Extended Validation wildcard certificates for optimal performance. If you’re not sure, it’s best to check with your hosting provider.

Beyond Let’s Encrypt, any good hosting provider will have various paid options to choose from that you can install right from inside your user portal.

Prepare Your Site

If your site is fresh and only has a couple dozen pages to migrate, the process will be a tad easier for you. If you’re a veteran publisher with thousands of pages, links and more on your site – the task may be a little more tricky. Either way the best thing to do is crawl your site to get an idea of the structure and draft a plan for migration. While migrating to HTTPS has become easier in recent years, skipping steps can be disastrous for your site. Here are a couple solid step-by-step guides that are easy to follow to prepare for a migration. Keep in mind these are focused on WordPress sites.

How to Migrate from HTTP to HTTPS – Complete Tutorial   Woorkup.com
HTTP to HTTPS: An SEO’s Guide to Securing a Website   Search Engine Land
HTTP to HTTPS Migration: The Ultimate Stress-Free Guide   Search Engine Journal

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