How To Route WordPress through CloudFlare using SSL

This is a tutorial on how to make your WordPress website have complete HTTPS through a CloudFlare domain without HTTP/HTTPS content mixing. Here we’ll be using the CloudFlare daemon instead of the WordPress plugin.

You will need…

A WordPress website running already. If you do not have one, follow these instructions to make one.

How to Install WordPress LAMP Stack on Ubuntu Server

CloudFlare’s service daemon running on the server. If you do not have this running, follow these instructions to create the service.

Set up a Website CloudFlare Tunnel (Linux)

NOTE: You should be able to access your WordPress website through your CloudFlare domain at least through plain HTTP before starting these instructions.

CloudFlare Settings

Navigate to dash.cloudflare.com and select your website
Go to the SSL > Overview, and change the SSL/TLS encryption mode to either Full or Full (strict)

I’d also recommend turning on SSL/TLS Recommender to see what else you probably should do for encryption in the future.
Navigate to SSL > Edge Certificates
Turn on Always Use HTTPS

Change the URLs on WordPress

Login to WordPress
Navigate to the WordPress Settings > General
Change the two URLs there to read https://<your cloudflare dns name>

Click “Save”
Login to WordPress using the URL just used. In this case, https://cyber-engine.com

Install Really Simple SSL

Navigate to WordPress plugins > Add New, then search for “Really Simple SSL”
Click “Install Now” and then “Activate”
Once the plugin is active, navigate to WordPress Settings > SSL
Click “Activate SSL”
Click “Enable 301 .htaccess redirect”
Click “Save”

Change all URLs to HTTPS

Navigate to WordPress plugins > Add New, then search for “Better Search Replace”
Click “Install Now” and then “Activate”
Once the plugin is active, navigate to WordPress Tools > Better Search Replace
Run a query like so to ensure that all https:// strings in the database are changed to https://

NOTE: You will need to select ALL the tables. You can do this by selecting the first table, and holding SHIFT while selecting the last table.
NOTE: You will need to uncheck the last box in order for any strings to be changed

Refresh Cache

Go to your browser settings and delete cached website data so the website can now work as normal.

Conclusion

Now, unlike before, you should be able to access your WordPress website through HTTPS and your CloudFlare domain without HTTP/HTTPS content mixing.