Wondering how to configure Cloudflare Settings for WordPress? We can help you.

As part of our Server Management Services, we assist our customers with several CloudFlare queries.

Today, let us see how our Support techs perform this.

How to configure Cloudflare Settings for WordPress?

Firstly, you need to connect your site to Cloudflare.

Cloudflare is known as a reverse proxy service.

In order for Cloudflare to work, it needs to be able to manage your domain’s nameservers so that it can serve up cached content from its CDN and filter out malicious actors.

To do that, you will need to change your domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare.

Today, let us see the steps followed by our Support techs in the configuration.

1. Create your free Cloudflare account

To get started, go to Cloudflare and sign up.

On the next page, enter the domain name of the WordPress site that you want to use with Cloudflare and click Add site.

Next, you’ll be prompted to choose a plan.

Then, you can choose the Free plan for now, as it offers all the features most WordPress sites need.

2. Verify DNS records

Once you choose your plan, Cloudflare will scan your site’s DNS records.

The only thing you need to verify is that you see an orange cloud next to your main domain name (which you should see by default – no action required).

Then, click Continue.

3. Update nameservers to point towards Cloudflare

Now, Cloudflare will give you a new set of nameservers to replace your existing nameservers.

Nameservers are part of what you use to connect your domain name to your web hosting.

When you switch to Cloudflare’s nameservers, Cloudflare is able to direct traffic to your website.

It uses this power to:

• Filter out malicious traffic – it will send regular traffic to your website just like normal, while filtering out malicious actors before they can reach your site.
• Deliver static content from the closest server in its huge global network (the CDN part)

How you will change your nameservers depends on where you registered your domain name.

Once you’ve changed your domain’s nameservers, go back to the Cloudflare interface and click the Done, check nameservers button.

Please note nameservers can take up to 24 hours to update, so you might need to wait a bit for Cloudflare to update.

4. Configure some basic settings

On the next page, you can configure some basic settings for how Cloudflare functions.

If you want to use SSL/HTTPS, you should select the Full option.

This helps secure traffic at your site and also helps your site get the green padlock in visitors’ browsers.

Make sure to update your WordPress site to use HTTPS if you use Cloudflare’s Full SSL.

Then, update your WordPress site’s URLs.

You can also configure:

• Minification – shrink the size of your code. Many WordPress performance plugins enable minification. So if you’re already using a plugin that does that, you shouldn’t enable this in Cloudflare.
• Brotli – Brotli is a server-level compression alternative to Gzip. I recommend enabling it.

Once you’ve made your choices, click Done.

5. Verify that your connection is complete

Once you click Done, you might see a message telling you that you need to complete your nameserver setup.

Nameservers can take up to 24 hours to update.

Wait 30 minutes to an hour and then click the Re-check now button to see if the nameservers have updated.

Once they do, you should see a success message.

Finally, you just set up Cloudflare for WordPress.