What is an SSL certificate expiration?
SSL certificate expiration is a very similar and common problem that everyone faces. An SSL certificate is like a locker on your website that establishes your website secure and safe. In simple terms it authenticates the identity of the website owners and shows users the website is trustworthy and genuine.
It also encrypts the connection between the server and the user’s browser.
But SSL certificates are not long lasting. They expire like your driving licence, passport and even medicine.
An SSL certificate also has an expiration date. You may have experienced once or many times in your life when your driving license might have expired and according to the Government you are no longer allowed to drive the car until you don’t renew it.
Similarly, SSL certificate expiration is a very common problem every website owner faces. It causes problems when you do not renew it on time. Websites may show a “ Not Secure” warning which can hurt users’ experiences and lose trust in the digital game.
If you do not want it to happen to you, set up SSL certificate monitoring and avoid these kinds of issues which can damage your reputation and user’s trust in the future.
So,
Today in this blog we are going to discuss how and why SSL certificates expire and how we can fix the problem before it happens.
So let’s start.
Why does a website certificate expire?
Technology and hacking systems are changing rapidly and because of this, it is very important to change the old SSL certificates. Renewing an SSL certificate means you are reflecting up-to-date information and using the latest security standard for your domain.
Domain monitoring is one of the best ways to protect your domain before anything happens. Try it out.
Lets come to the point ,
Suppose if your passport is never going to expire and whatever information is there will remain forever, like your photo and addresses.
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But when you get older you can’t look the same as when you were young and similarly you might not be living in the place where you were living 10 years ago.
It means photos and addresses change over time. In this scenario they won’t truly represent your real identity.
And the same principle applies here: an SSL certificate needs to be renewed after a certain period of time because the information you provided at the time of creating the certificate may no longer be accurate. It needs to be updated.
For instance:
- The certificate originally issued to a domain owner may no longer be valid if the ownership is changed.
- The organization or company itself may no longer exist
- Or website owners sell his domain to different users.
What happens if an SSL certificate is expired?
Suppose a website has millions of traffic and one day your SSL certificate expires, that will be a nightmare for you. After the SSL certificate expires, you will face severe consequences because when users visit your website they will see the warning like “ your connection is not secure” or “ this site is not secure” this makes the users concerned for their safety and they leave the site.
Additionally the encrypted connection between the users will no longer be valid, hackers easily can steal users information and data.
The small padlock symbol that indicates a secure connection will also disappear. Here is a warning users face while SSL certificate expired on every site they visit:
- On Google
2. On Bing
Although users have an option to visit the sites despite the warnings, there comes the security that web browsers do not provide you. It means “ please visit this site at your own risk” because without a valid certificate a data exchanged between the website and its users is no longer encrypted.
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Therefore, Hackers and viruses could target your website and users. This could make users unsafe and they may not be sure to visit your site again in the future.
Thus negatively impacting users’ trust.
At the same time some systems or browsers do not accept expired SSL certificates, so they show an error.
When the system does not authenticate server identity, they do not trust the domain is safe from secure vulnerabilities.
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Also, If the SSL certificate expires and no one notices, then the website could be unavailable for thousands and millions of users, that could have a severe impact on the businesses.
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How can I check when my SSL certificate expires?
There are many tools where you can check your SSL certificate expiration, but today I am going to teach you the very very easiest way to check your SSL certificates. These are the 3 steps you
can follow:
- Click on the site information button on the left side of the address bar. It may show as a lock, 2 dots, arrow icon or similar button.
2. Click on the connection is Secure label
3. Then click on Certificate is valid
4. Review every information over there and check the SSL certificate expiration date.
Get instant alerts before SSL certificate expire
An SSL monitoring tool that helps you to keep your eye on your domain’s SSL certificate. It does not only check when your SSL certificate will expire but also helps to find out the problems and any changes, like:
- Wrong host name
- The certificate is from an untrusted source
If there is any problem with the certificate, this tool instantly sends a notification so that you can fix it very quickly.
By using the SSL monitoring tool you can keep your website safe and make sure your SSL certificate is working correctly.
When should I renew my SSL certificate ?
Every website owner must renew their website’s SSL certificate 1 month before its expiry date. However, some experts recommend renewing your certificate when there are 3 months left. Because that is the best time to renew your website’s SSL certificate.
When you renew, it’s totally up to you to go ahead with, Monitoring your SSL certificate expiration and get notification of the first reminder. That is good practice is to follow the first reminder before the expiration date and renew it on time before any issues happen.
What happens if I don’t renew my SSL certificate ?
If you don’t renew, your website won’t be safe any more. An SSL certificate has a special key that keeps your website locked from cyberattack, who always want to steal your information for the wrong purpose.
When it expires it’s like your key stops working. When users see the warning “ This site is not secure” users get scared and leave the site and they don’t want to visit and buy anything from your site again and at the end you lose money and trust.
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Let’s talk about how real SSL failed, how some big companies faced and lost millions of dollars because of SSL certificate expiration.
In 2020 Microsoft had a big problem. Their cloud service called Azure stopped working all over the world, because they forgot to renew their SSL certificate, and because of this Microsoft lost millions of dollars within a few days.
Although Microsoft never officially said exactly how much money they lost during the 2013 Azure cloud service failed due to the expired SSL certificate.
Some business owners take it lightly because a study found that many other companies also make the same mistake. On average, companies had this kind of problem two times in the last two years. And about 59% of them lost customers because their digital keys weren’t safe.
So, forgetting to renew your SSL certificates can be a major problem and along with that you can lose users’ trust and money.
Therefore keep your SSL certificate renewed on time so that your users access your site safely without any warning about vulnerabilities.
What are the risks if an SSL certificate has expired?
An SSL certificate is very important to keep your site safe. If you don’t renew your website on time, you will lose all the safety your website had at the beginning when you first got the certificate.
If you are not using SSL monitoring tools to get notified before expiration happens, then one day your SSL certificate expires and you don’t know, you might still think your website is safe and people trust it. But actually it’s not safe anymore.
This is just as risky as not having a certificate at all. It can hurt your website’s image and make people stop trusting your site.
Downtime: If any website or system stops working, you will lose money very quickly for a short period of time, but it will damage your reputation for a long time. One of the biggest reasons is when your SSL certificate expires. After that your site is more likely to have a downtime problem.
Cyberattack: The biggest danger problem is that when your SSL certificate expires, hackers can attack more easily. Because after it expires, your website communication no longer takes place via encryption over HTTPS connection. That means your private and sensitive information ( Like password, card number etc) can be easily accessible to your data breached. This can hurt both you and your customers.
Losing customers: When your website is not safe, people stop trusting you. If big problems don’t happen, Your website shows the scary warning “ Your connection is not secure. “
Because of this most of the users will not want to visit your website. While some of them will knowingly visit your website and if you don’t fix it on time, then more and more people will stop coming and unfortunately these short term problems can lead to long term avoidance.
People stop using your service: When users stop trusting your website, they won’t come back again. This happens even more when your website is not well protected and gets hacked. A study showed that 81 out of 100 people would stop using a website if it gets hacked. So, not keeping your website safe can make a lot of people go away.
Effects in SOE: When your website’s SSL certificate expires, it directly affects Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engines like Google get worried and don’t trust your site anymore. They stop showing it to people as much. That means fewer people can find your website. It’s like your website hides out because it forgot to wear its safety badge.
Related topic: Benefits of learning SEO in 2025
What is CSR in an SSL certificate? (H2)
A Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is a special file with secret information about your website like your website’s name, who owns it, and how to keep it safe.
This file is sent to a trusted company called a Certificate Authority (CA). They check the information and make a safety certificate for your website.
This certificate helps to lock your website so no one can see or steal sensitive information. The CSR also has a public key and a special mark (signature) to prove it’s really you.
It helps make your website safe and trusted for everyone who visits it.
Do I need to create a new CSR to renew my SSL certificate?
It depends on what kind of computer system (server) you are using.
If you are using certain systems like:
- Microsoft Windows
- Tomcat
- Java servers
- Apps like firewalls or load balancers
Then you must make a new CSR (special safety request file) before you renew your website’s safety certificate.
Some other systems, like Apache and NGINX, let you use the old CSR.
But it’s better and safer to make a new CSR and a new private key every time you renew or fix the certificate.
So, if you’re using the types of systems listed above, always create a new CSR when you renew the certificate. It’s the safe way to do it.
How to fix an expired SSL certificate? (Step by step guide)
1. Create a New Certificate Signing Request (CSR):
First, your web host makes sure that your server is really yours.
To do this, you have to make a new CSR. To make CSR you can use something called cPanel (it’s like a control panel for your website).
Meanwhile You might also need to tell them your name, email, or who owns the website, this helps prove it’s your website.
When you got the SSL for the first time, which is expired now. So maybe that had taken time for a few days.
Now to renew it, will probably take the same amount of time to get a new one.
2. Send CSR to certificate authority (CA):
When your CSR is ready, move forward with the renewal process. For the next step you need to check your email for instructions on what to do with the file and how to send your recently generated CSR to your certificate authority. You will also get one link. When you click on that link you will go to the next step. Just follow the Email instructions what email says, you will be all set.
3. Confirm Your SSL Certificate renewal:
To renew your SSL certificate, you must complete the process of domain control validation (DCV). DCV means you have to confirm your ownership of the domain, that this domain is yours.
To do DCV there are 3 methods:
- Email validation
- HTTP validation
- DNS-based validation.
4. Once approved, install the certificate on your site:
In the end, when you get the certificate, you need to install it on your server.
There are many easy guides that show how to install an SSL certificate on different computers or servers.
Once you install an SSL certificate, it will start working on your website.
How long does an SSL certificate last?
Some certificates don’t last for the same amount of time. They have different clocks.
SSL certificates like Domain validation (DV), Organization validation (OV), and Extended validation EV stay good for about 13 months (that’s 397 days).
When time is up you have to get a new one so that everything can be safe.
But code signing certificates are a little different.
They can stay good for a longer time, up to 3 years.
Even if they stop working after that, something called timestamping helps the old signatures still work.
But still, it’s smart to get a new code signing certificate on time.
Just like you do with any other digital certificate.
Extended validation (EV):
The EV certificate is a very good and trustworthy certificate. It’s commonly used for e-commerce websites, where people buy products. Getting an EV certificate is a little hard.
Not everyone can get it. This certificate only those people get who give the right information about about them and their businesses.
Organization validation (OV):
OV certificate is a good middle certificate.
It is better than DV certificate,
but it is easier to get than an EV certificate.
But just like EV, the Certificate Authority has to check your organization’s information before giving the OV certificate.
Domain validation (DV):
DV certificate is the easiest and the cheapest digital certificate.
One good thing about this certificate is you can get it very easily and fast.
It doesn’t give the strongest protection,
but having a DV certificate is much better than having no digital certificate at all.
Do SSL certificates renew automatically?
Sometimes SSL certificates renew by themselves. Sometimes they don’t.
- If someone buys an SSL certificate by hand, they must renew it themselves before it goes old. The company might send a message to remind them.
- Some websites have something called auto-renew. That means the SSL certificate renews by itself. The computer does it without help.
To be safe, it’s good to check the date when the SSL certificate will go old. If auto-renew is not working, someone needs to renew it by hand before that date.
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Stay safe from SSL certificate expiration problems with help from Webstatus247
As we have discussed about SSL certificate expiration, why it happens and how we can make our site safe before anything happens like downtime or website stops working. The best way to stay alert is by taking the help of SSL monitoring tools.
By using SSL monitoring tools we can get notified before anything happens like downtime, SSL certificate expiration or any issues. WebStatus247 provides SSL monitoring services where it watches 24/7 your website’s SSL certificate all the time. You cannot know when the certificate is going to stop working.
Before it stops, WebStatus247 sends you an alert message via email, Slack, Telegram etc. This way, you can fix the certificate issue before it becomes an outage. This keeps your website safe and working right for everyone.
Sign up for SSL monitoring Service.
