How to Setup Cloudflare for WordPress

Last updated: Sep 8, 2020

This article explains how to set up Cloudflare for WordPress, which allows you to connect Cloudflare to WordPress to use features like CDN, DNS, and DDoS protection. It explains in detail step by step.

What is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare is a reverse proxy service that provides CDN (Content Delivery Network), DNS and DDoS protection.

Cloudflare Features

The following are some of the features of Cloudflare.

• Globally Load Balanced CDN
• Caching of Static Content
• DDoS Protection
• Universal SSL Certificate
• Global Anycast DNS

Cloudflare Notes

The following are a few points to note about Cloudflare.

• If Cloudflare goes down, you won’t be able to browse the site
• Updates may not be reflected in the cache

Cloudflare Plan

Cloudflare is available in four plans, depending on price and features.

WordPress Plugins

Cloudflare offers a dedicated WordPress plugin. Activating the plugin allows you to manage your Cloudflare settings from your WordPress dashboard.

How to set up Cloudflare for WordPress

To set up Cloudflare on WordPress, do the following steps.

Access Cloudflare

Go to the official Cloudflare website (https://www.cloudflare.com/) and click on "Sign Up".

Create a Cloudflare account

Displays a screen for creating a Cloudflare account.

1. Enter your email address
2. Enter the password
3. Click the "Create Account" button

Add a site

Associate your site with Cloudflare.

1. Enter the site domain (example.com)
2. Click on the "Add Site" button

Select a plan

There are four plans to choose from. In this case, choose the free version.

1. Click "Free".
2. Click the "Confirm plan" button

Checking DNS Records

The current DNS record will be displayed. Check the content and click the "Continue" button.

Updating the name server

Displays your Cloudflare nameservers. Change the existing nameservers at your registrar. Updating your nameservers can take up to 24 hours.

1. Switch to the Cloudflare nameservers shown
2. Click the "Done, check nameservers" button after changing the name server settings

Start the quick start guide

Click the Get Started button.

Selecting the SSL/TLS option

Select the SSL / TLS option. If you have already set up SSl on the server, select "Full" or "Full (Strict)".

1. Click on "Full".
2. Click the "Save" button

Selecting the Always Use HTTPS

Set to redirect all requests to http to HTTPS.

1. Click to turn it on
2. Click the "Save" button

Selecting the Auto Minify

1. Check the file format you want to reduce the size of
2. Click the "Save" button

Configuring Brotli

Sets whether or not to use Brotli compression.

1. Click to turn it on
2. Click the "Save" button

Exit Settings

Click the "Finish" button.

Make sure the connection is complete.

Make sure the name server update reflects the name server update and that the connection to Cloudflare is complete.

Check the API

Get the API key to use the WordPress plugin.

1. Click on the icon
2. Click on "My Profile"
3. Click on "API Tokens"
4. Click the "View" button on the right side of the Global API Key. Enter your password to copy the key

Install the plugin

Install the plugin "Cloudflare" in WordPress and activate it.

1. Click on Cloudflare from Settings
2. Click on "Sign in here"

Enter your email and API keys

1. Enter your email address
2. Enter the API Key
3. Click the "Save API Credentials" button

Optimizing Cloudflare for WordPress

Click the "Apply" button. Your settings will be optimized automatically. That is all you have to do to set up Cloudflare for WordPress.

Clearing the Cloudflare cache

To clear the Cloudflare cache, click the Puge Cache button in the WordPress plugin Cloudflare.

Create a Page Rule

Manage your Cloudflare settings by URL. You can add up to 3 page rules in the free version.

1. Click Page Rules
2. Click the Create Page Rule button

Protect WordPress Administration and don’t cache it

Create the following page rules to protect your wp-admin distribution and not to cache it.

example.com/wp-admin*

• Security Level→High
• Cache Level→Bypass
• Disable Apps
• Disable Performance

Don’t cache the preview

Create a page rule to avoid caching the preview as follows.

example.com/*preview=true*

• Cache Level→Bypass

In the case of Redirect Loop

If you have SSL configured on the server side, selecting Flexible raises ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS.

Select Full or Full (strict).