Your GoDaddy website is not secure because your server is missing a valid SSL certificate. This happens when GoDaddy fails to auto-provision your certificate, your payment lapses, or your site contains mixed content. You can find the exact failure point and fix it in your hosting dashboard.
Why is my GoDaddy website not secure?
Your browser displays a warning when it cannot establish an encrypted connection to your server. This stops visitors from trusting your site and blocks them from entering their details. If your GoDaddy website is not secure, it means something is breaking the secure handshake between your domain and your hosting account.
The warning looks different depending on the browser. Chrome tells you the connection is not private. Firefox says the connection is not secure. Safari warns you that the website is not safe. They all mean exactly the same thing. Your website is loading over a standard HTTP connection instead of a secure HTTPS connection.
You need to identify which part of the secure connection is failing. The problem usually falls into one of five categories. Your certificate is missing. Your certificate has expired. Your certificate does not match your domain. Your website is loading mixed content. Your server is failing to force visitors onto the secure version of your site.
Your SSL certificate is missing entirely
Many entry-level GoDaddy hosting plans do not install an SSL certificate by default. You might assume your website is secure because you bought a domain and hosting together. GoDaddy often requires you to manually provision the certificate before it activates.
You need to check if your server actually has an active certificate attached to it. You can check your secure connection status to see whether a certificate is present, valid, and properly installed on your server.
If the tool tells you no certificate exists, you need to install one. Log into your GoDaddy account and navigate to your products page. Look for the SSL Certificates section. If you purchased a certificate but never attached it to your hosting, it will sit there waiting for your action.
Click the setup button next to your available certificate. GoDaddy will ask you to choose the domain you want to secure. Select your website from the dropdown menu and confirm the installation. The system will take a few minutes to generate the certificate and apply it to your server.
Sometimes you need to verify your domain ownership before GoDaddy issues the certificate. They usually handle this automatically if your domain and hosting are in the same account. If your domain lives elsewhere, GoDaddy will provide a DNS record for you to add to your domain registrar. You must add this record exactly as provided. The certificate will remain pending until GoDaddy detects the record.
Your SSL certificate has expired
SSL certificates do not last forever. They expire after a set period. Paid certificates usually last for one year. Free certificates from providers like Let's Encrypt expire every ninety days.
Your website will immediately show a not secure warning the second your certificate expires. This is the most common reason a secure website suddenly breaks.
You can confirm an expired certificate directly in your browser. Open your website in Chrome. Click the "Not Secure" warning next to your domain name. Click on the certificate status. A small window will open showing the exact date the certificate became invalid.
If you use a paid GoDaddy SSL certificate, the expiration usually means a billing failure. Your credit card might have expired. Your auto-renewal might have failed. Go back to your GoDaddy products page and check your billing section. You will need to pay the renewal fee. If you are tired of managing these hidden costs, you can compare our pricing to see how we bundle certificate renewals into our standard hosting packages.
Once you pay, GoDaddy does not always apply the renewed certificate instantly. You might need to open the SSL Manager in your GoDaddy dashboard and click the option to re-key or restore the certificate. After you trigger the renewal, the new certificate can take up to 24 hours to propagate across the internet.
If you use a free Let's Encrypt certificate on a GoDaddy cPanel server, it has most likely reached the end of its 90 day life. GoDaddy does not install or renew these automatically on cPanel hosting, so you need to install a fresh certificate yourself through the SSL/TLS section of cPanel, and repeat that every 90 days.
Your domain names do not match
A secure connection requires a perfect match between the domain name typed into the browser and the domain name listed on the SSL certificate. If these do not match, the browser blocks the connection.
This usually happens with the "www" version of your domain. You might have installed a certificate that only covers the root domain. When a visitor types the "www" version, the server presents a certificate for the root domain. The browser sees a mismatch and throws an error.
You can check this by looking at the certificate details in your browser. Look for the "Subject Alternative Name" field. This field lists every domain variation the certificate protects. It needs to include both the root domain and the "www" subdomain.
If your certificate only covers one version, you need to reissue it. Open your GoDaddy SSL Manager. Look for the option to manage your domain names. Add the missing variation and submit the request. GoDaddy will generate a new certificate covering both addresses.
You should also check your website settings to ensure you are not forcing visitors to a domain variation that lacks protection. If your WordPress site address includes the "www" but your certificate does not, you will trap every visitor in a security error. You can fix this by updating your site address in your WordPress general settings to match the exact domain on your certificate.
Your DNS propagation is incomplete
GoDaddy needs to verify that you actually own the domain before they issue a security certificate. They do this by checking your Domain Name System records. These records act like a directory, pointing your domain to your specific hosting server.
If you recently bought your domain, moved your website, or changed your nameservers, your DNS records are in a state of transition. This transition is called propagation. It takes time for internet service providers around the world to update their directories with your new location.
When GoDaddy tries to verify your domain during this window, the request might hit an old server. The verification fails, and the SSL certificate remains in a pending state. Your website will show a not secure warning until the process completes.
You have to wait for the propagation to finish. This usually takes a few hours, but it can take up to two days depending on your domain registrar. You can check your progress using online DNS lookup tools. Once your records point to the correct GoDaddy IP address globally, the SSL system will complete the verification and issue your certificate.
You have a mixed content warning
Sometimes your SSL certificate is perfectly valid, but your browser still says your GoDaddy website is not secure. This happens when your secure HTTPS page tries to load insecure HTTP assets.
An asset is an image, a video, a stylesheet, or a script. If just one image on your homepage loads over an HTTP address, Chrome will flag the entire page as not secure. This is called a mixed content warning.
You can find the exact file causing the problem using Chrome Developer Tools. Right click anywhere on your website and click Inspect. Open the Console tab at the top of the developer panel. You will see red error messages listing the exact URLs of the insecure files.
You have to change those URLs from HTTP to HTTPS. If you built your site using the GoDaddy website builder, you might need to delete the offending image and upload it again. The builder should automatically serve the new image over a secure connection.
You might also have hardcoded HTTP links in your theme files or your widgets. Check your header, your footer, and your menus. Update any absolute URLs to use the secure protocol. If you link to an external script that does not support HTTPS, you must remove that script entirely. Browsers will not load insecure external scripts on a secure page.
How to fix mixed content in WordPress
WordPress is the most common platform hosted on GoDaddy. It is also the platform most likely to suffer from mixed content errors after you install a valid SSL certificate.
When you build a WordPress site over an insecure connection, every image upload gets saved in your database with an HTTP address. Installing a certificate secures the server, but it does not rewrite those old database entries. Your browser reads the secure page, hits the old HTTP image links, and throws a security error.
You can fix this manually or use a plugin. Here is the exact process to rewrite your database links safely:
- Log into your GoDaddy hosting dashboard and create a full backup of your database.
- Open your WordPress admin panel and navigate to the plugins menu.
- Install a plugin designed for database search and replace, such as Better Search Replace.
- Type your old HTTP domain address into the search field.
- Type your new HTTPS domain address into the replace field.
- Select all your database tables.
- Run a dry run first to see how many links the system will update.
- Uncheck the dry run option and execute the replacement.
This process permanently changes every old asset link to the secure format. It fixes images, stylesheets, and hardcoded links inside your blog posts. Once the plugin finishes, delete it from your system to keep your site clean.
Your website is not forcing HTTPS
Installing an SSL certificate does not automatically stop visitors from accessing the insecure version of your site. If someone types your domain without specifying the protocol, the server might load the HTTP version by default.
You have to tell your server to redirect all HTTP traffic to the HTTPS version. This is called a 301 redirect. It forces every visitor onto the secure connection.
If you use cPanel hosting on GoDaddy, you can set up this redirect in your .htaccess file. You need to open the cPanel File Manager and navigate to your public folder. You must enable hidden files in the settings to see the .htaccess file.
Edit the file and add the rewrite rules. You need to turn on the rewrite engine and tell it to redirect any request that does not use port 443. Port 443 is the standard port for secure traffic. Route the traffic to your secure domain address. Save the file and test your website.
If you use Managed WordPress on GoDaddy, you do not need to edit files manually. You can log into your GoDaddy dashboard, open your WordPress settings, and look for the HTTPS redirect toggle. Turn it on. The server will handle the redirection for you. If the toggle is missing, you can install a simple SSL plugin to force the redirect at the application level.
You need to clear your server cache
You might have fixed the SSL problem, but your browser still shows the not secure warning. This happens when your server or your browser remembers the old, broken version of your website.
Browsers save copies of your website to load it faster next time. Servers do the same thing. You have to clear these saved copies to see your recent changes.
Start by clearing your browser cache. Open your browser settings, find the privacy section, and delete your cached images and files. Restart your browser and load your website again.
If the error persists, you need to clear your server cache. GoDaddy Managed WordPress includes a built-in caching system. You can clear this by logging into your WordPress dashboard. Look for the GoDaddy menu at the top of your screen and click the option to flush the cache.
You should also test your website on a completely different device. Open it on your mobile phone using a cellular connection. If the padlock appears on your phone but not your computer, you know the certificate is working. The problem is isolated to your computer.
When to hire a developer
Website security requires strict attention to detail. A single typo in your .htaccess file can take your entire website offline. A misconfigured DNS record can break your email delivery.
If you have checked your GoDaddy dashboard, verified your domain records, and cleared your cache without success, you might have a deeper server configuration issue. You can read the official GoDaddy support guide for more technical troubleshooting steps.
Sometimes the problem requires manual database queries or custom server directives. If you are not comfortable editing core files, you should not guess. Guessing will cause more downtime. You might accidentally delete a critical system file while trying to force a secure redirect.
You can hand the problem over to a professional. We fix these errors by rebuilding it as a proper mobile site with strict security protocols baked in from the start. A clean build removes the legacy code that causes mixed content errors.
Fixing a secure connection is mandatory. Browsers actively block visitors from accessing insecure sites. Search engines drop insecure sites from their rankings. Follow the steps above, find the missing link in your setup, and restore your secure connection today.