How to Secure Your Website with AWS Certificate Manager in Under 15 Minutes.

Introduction.

In today’s digital world, website security is non-negotiable. Whether you’re building a personal blog, an online portfolio, a SaaS dashboard, or a full-scale e-commerce platform, your users expect one thing the moment they visit your site: the little padlock in the browser address bar. That padlock means trust. It means encryption. It means HTTPS.

Yet, despite its importance, setting up HTTPS can feel like a technical minefield especially for developers, solopreneurs, or small teams who don’t have time to fiddle with command-line tools, OpenSSL, CSR files, or paid third-party certificates. And while tools like Let’s Encrypt have made SSL more accessible, they still require some setup, scripting, and manual domain validation if you’re not deeply embedded in a DevOps workflow.

Enter AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) a fully managed service that takes the pain out of requesting, deploying, and renewing SSL/TLS certificates on AWS. With ACM, you can provision public certificates for your domain at no cost, validate domain ownership using DNS or email, and attach certificates directly to AWS services like CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancer (ELB), or API Gateway all with just a few clicks.

And best of all? You can do it in under 15 minutes.

Yes, that’s right. No shell scripts. No configuration files. No worrying about certificate expiration emails or last-minute renewals. Just a clean, browser-based process that gives your users what they need a fast, secure connection while you focus on building the product or content that brought them there in the first place.

In this blog post, you’ll learn exactly how to:

• Request a free public SSL/TLS certificate using AWS Certificate Manager
• Validate domain ownership using Route 53 or your DNS provider
• Attach your certificate to an existing AWS service (like CloudFront)
• Force secure HTTPS traffic to your website
• Verify that your site is secure, fast, and ready for the world

Whether you’re launching your first website or migrating an existing one to AWS, this guide is designed to get you up and running fast no prior experience with SSL needed. It’s also a great way to level up your AWS skills by working with services like ACM, Route 53, and CloudFront in a real-world use case.

So if you’re ready to stop serving your users insecure HTTP pages and finally enable the security they expect you’re in the right place.

Let’s get started and lock it down with AWS Certificate Manager.

What You Need First

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A domain name you control (e.g. example.com)
• A site hosted on Amazon CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancer (ELB), or API Gateway
• Access to Route 53 (optional, but makes domain verification easier)

Step 1: Request a Public Certificate in ACM

1. Open the AWS Management Console
2. Navigate to Certificate Manager (ACM)
3. Click Request a certificate
4. Choose Request a public certificate
5. Enter your domain name (e.g., www.example.com or *.example.com for a wildcard)
6. Choose a validation method:
   • DNS validation (recommended)
   • Email validation (if you don’t use Route 53)

Click Request.

Step 2: Validate Domain Ownership

If you chose DNS validation, ACM will give you a CNAME record to add to your domain’s DNS.

• If you’re using Route 53:
  • Click Create record in Route 53 – it adds the record for you
• If you’re using a third-party registrar:
  • Copy the record and manually add it in your DNS settings

Once the DNS change propagates (usually within a few minutes), ACM will automatically validate your certificate.

Step 3: Attach the Certificate to Your Website

Depending on how your site is hosted, attach the certificate as follows:

If Using Amazon CloudFront:

• Go to CloudFront > Distributions
• Choose your distribution, click Edit
• Under SSL certificate, select Custom SSL certificate (example.com) and choose your ACM cert
• Save and deploy

If Using Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB):

• Go to EC2 > Load Balancers
• Select your load balancer, go to the Listeners tab
• Edit or add an HTTPS listener
• Select the ACM certificate from the dropdown
• Save and apply

If Using API Gateway:

• In Custom Domain Names, create a new domain
• Choose your ACM certificate
• Map it to your API stage
• Deploy

Step 4: Test and Celebrate!

Open your site in a browser using https://yourdomain.com. You should see a secure padlock icon in the address bar. You’re now officially serving encrypted, secure traffic.

Why Use AWS Certificate Manager?

• It’s free – no cost for public certificates
• Auto-renewals – no more expiring SSL surprises
• Easy integration – works with AWS services out of the box
• Scalable – works for a single site or hundreds

Final Thoughts

That’s it you just added HTTPS to your AWS-hosted website in under 15 minutes using AWS Certificate Manager. It’s fast, free, and far more scalable than manually managing SSL certs.

Whether you’re running a portfolio, e-commerce platform, or a public API, HTTPS is no longer optional and with ACM, there’s no excuse to skip it.

Conclusion: Fast, Free, and Future-Proof

Securing your website with HTTPS no longer needs to be complex, expensive, or time-consuming. With AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), you can request, validate, and deploy a public SSL/TLS certificate all within minutes, and at no cost. Whether your site is hosted on CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancer, or API Gateway, ACM integrates seamlessly with AWS services to bring you encryption, trust, and scalability without the traditional headache.

You’ve now learned how to:

• Request and validate an SSL certificate
• Integrate it with your AWS-hosted website
• Serve secure content over HTTPS
• Eliminate the burden of manual renewals

By taking this simple but powerful step, you’ve not only improved your site’s security, but also enhanced user trust, SEO rankings, and performance. And the best part? It’s a one-time setup. ACM will handle renewals in the background, so you never have to think about it again.

Whether you’re running a small static website or building a high-traffic application, using ACM is one of the smartest security upgrades you can make especially when time and simplicity matter.

Now that your site is secure, fast, and ready for the modern web, the only thing left to do is share it with the world.

Go ahead open it in a browser, look for the padlock, and smile. Your website is officially secured with AWS.