When trying to upload an SSL certificate, you may see an error like this:
The certificate uploaded is NOT for the domain name example.com
This article describes some common, but sometimes unexpected, causes for this issue.
The SSL certificate is for a different domain
If you are trying to upload an SSL certificate for a particular domain name, say “example.com”, the SSL upload tool checks whether the SSL certificate is valid for “example.com”. If the SSL certificate is not valid for the given domain, the certificate is rejected.
So, if you have a certificate which is for another domain name (like “example.net”) or a subdomain (like “blog.example.com”), you cannot upload it to “example.com”.
Some certificates vendors also make it possible to issue certificates for “www.example.com” without including “example.com” as well (and vice versa). Please ensure your SSL certificates includes both the www and non-www versions of your domain name.
The SSL certificate is a Wildcard Certificate
Normally, SSL certificates are only valid for a specific domain or set of domains. However, most SSL vendors also provide the option to purchase wildcard SSL certificates. Wildcard certificates apply to all subdomains of a particular domain.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to use wildcard certificates on free hosting at the moment. Wildcard certificates are rejected with the error shown above.
The SSL certificate is not issued by a recognized SSL vendor
In addition to checking the SSL certificate is for the right domain, the SSL upload tool also checks whether the certificate was issued by a generally recognized SSL certificate authority, like Comodo, GeoTrust or Thawte. All certificates vendors accepted by popular browsers and sold by SSL vendors should be supported. However, you cannot upload self signed certificates or internal certificates to your free hosting account.
Cloudflare’s Origin Certificates are not valid certificates. Cloudflare is not a recognized SSL vendor, so their “Origin Certificates” cannot be uploaded. To use Cloudflare on your site, you can configure Cloudflare to use “Flexible” SSL mode, which doesn’t encrypt the connection between Cloudflare and your hosting account. If you insist on using “Full” mode, you will need to install an SSL certificate on your hosting account (you can get free SSL certificates through the client area).