Some webmasters have received the following message from Google Search Console which reads “Expired SSL/TLS certificate on https://www.example.com/”.
Here’s a screenshot of what the email looks like:
The email reads:
Expired SSL/TLS certificate on https://www.example.com/
To: Webmaster of https://www.example.com/,
Google has recently encountered an expired SSL/TLS certificate for https://www.example.com/. Most browsers perceive a site with an expired certificate as insecure, and will block or warn users who try to visit that site. Browsers do this to protect users’ browsing behavior from being intercepted by a third party, which can happen on sites that are not secure.
If you have already corrected this problem, you can ignore this message. Thank you for making your website safer for your users.
Recommended Action:
Get a new certificate
If you have not already done so, renew or get a new SSL/TLS certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA) that is trusted by web browsers.
What does this error mean?
This most likely means that your SSL certificate has expired. This produces errors and security warnings in people’s web browsers when they visit your (HTTPS) site. To remedy the problem, you should install a new SSL certificate. If you’re not sure what that is, contact your web host provider.
This also happens often to people who use Let’s Encrypt over on Siteground. Occasionally, there is a window of a few hours from when a certificate expires until a new (free) Let’s Encrypt is issued. If Google happens to crawl your website during this small window, you will receive the expired SSL error message as shown above.
Once the issue is repaired, there are no additional steps to take.
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