ChatGPT Recommended Cloudflare When I Asked for Advice

One of the first things I struggled with when creating this blog was choosing a domain name.
At first, I had not even decided whether the blog would focus only on home gardening or also include IT topics.

So I discussed it with ChatGPT while narrowing down the options based on conditions such as:

• suitable for IT-related topics
• - also suitable for home gardening
• not too long
• not too unnatural in English

Those were some of the conditions I used while narrowing down the candidates.

Eventually, I chose the name "BitGardenLab."
"Bit" represents IT, "Garden" represents home gardening, and "Lab" reflects the trial-and-error nature of the blog.

---

At First, I Planned to Use Only Xserver

At first, I planned to run WordPress only on Xserver and also register the domain through Xserver.

However, while discussing the setup with ChatGPT, I learned about several other options.

• Cloudflare can also register domains
• DNS management becomes easier to organize
• it connects smoothly to Cloudflare services
• bot protection and CDN features are easy to use

Those were some of the things I discovered.

As a result, I decided to move more of the setup to Cloudflare.

Domain registration
↓
DNS Management
↓
public access through Cloudflare

I chose a setup where all of these are handled through Cloudflare.

Currently, I use Cloudflare as the front layer for my WordPress site.

---

More Like a Front Layer Than a Speed Tool

Cloudflare is often introduced as a website speed optimization service.

However, in my case, I was not mainly looking for dramatic speed improvements.

"Not exposing WordPress directly to the internet"

became a more important idea for me.

I had heard that WordPress receives many bot accesses and automated scans because of its popularity.
So I decided to place Cloudflare in front of WordPress.

---

What I Actually Configured

When setting up Cloudflare, I mainly configured the following items.

• nameserver settings
• DNS configuration checks
• SSL settings
• cache settings
• HTTPS verification

Always Use HTTPS

Automatic HTTPS Rewrites

I enabled all of these settings.

---

I Did Not Need a Separate SSL Certificate

At first, I thought I would need to purchase and configure an SSL certificate separately.

In reality, however, the setup was much simpler.

• Xserver's free SSL
• Cloudflare's SSL features

Because I used those built-in features, I did not need to purchase or manually manage a separate SSL certificate.
It was much easier than I expected.

---

What I Configured on Xserver

On the Xserver side, I configured the following items.

• SSL settings
• WordPress easy installation
• domain settings
• HTTPS redirects

Those were the main settings I configured there.

Even after introducing Cloudflare, most WordPress management is still handled on the Xserver side.

---

Current Setup

Currently, my setup consists of the following services.

• Xserver
  • WordPress
    • Cocoon
    • TranslatePress
• Cloudflare

I still use mostly default Cloudflare settings.

---

---

Working Together with ChatGPT Made Things Much Easier

This time, not only Cloudflare setup, but also many other tasks were done with help from ChatGPT.

• TranslatePress
• Cocoon
• OGP
• GA4
• Search Console

I discussed many of these settings with ChatGPT while building the site.

It does not configure everything automatically, but it is very helpful for organizing what to do next.

---

Blogging Turned Out to Be More Infrastructure-Oriented Than I Expected

Once I actually started building the blog,

• DNS
• SSL
• CDN
• Server Settings

I realized it involved much more infrastructure-related knowledge than I had expected.

Personally, I already had some background knowledge in those areas, so I have been enjoying that part as well.
If those technical parts feel overwhelming, ChatGPT can actually be very helpful.