As you probably know by now, it's becoming more and more important to have a secure website. Not only do browsers increasingly warn users when they interact with insecure sites, but also Google will rank secure sites higher in their listings.
For some time now, there has been the option to use Let's Encrypt, which is free. However, using that requires you to have shell access on your server or getting your hosting provider to set things up for you.
But there is a completely different way and that is by using cloudflare. It is very easy to set up, basically all you need to do is let them scan your site, and then change the nameservers for your domain. Finally, you'll need to make some changes to your website so that it uses https instead of http.
Step 1: Let cloudflare scan your site
First you need to sign up on cloudflare.com, which is very straightforward and only requires an e-mail address and password (or log in if you already have an account). Then you can add your website to cloudflare with the Add Site option.
Cloudflare will then scan your site and show the DNS records. If all goes well, you don't have to change anything and can just press Continue. However, sometimes you might have to add these records manually. You can log into the control panel of your domain and find them there.
After pressing Continue, cloudflare will ask if you want to use the paid or free plan, just choose the free plan.
Step 2: Change your nameservers
Cloudflare will show two new nameservers for you to use for your site. To change them, log into the control panel of your domain and find the option to change your nameservers and change them there.
After changing your nameservers, you need to wait up to 24 hours for them to update everywhere and you will receive an e-mail from cloudflare once the process has been completed.
Step 3: Update your site to use https
After cloudflare has finished, your site should still work the same as it did. However, you can now also use https instead of http. This will probably work partially, you might get warnings about mixed content. To make it work, you will need to change all links to https instead of http.
If you are using WordPress, it's very easy, just install the plugin "really simple ssl" and enable it, and everything should work!
Note: I am not affiliated with cloudflare or anything, I don't know if they will always continue to offer this free service. I just tried it and it worked for me, so I'm letting you know about it!