First off, what is SSL? It stands for Secure Sockets Layer.
Have you ever noticed how most website addresses start with “http”? Only some start with “https”. That added “S” means that the website has SSL security. It is observed that quite often, owners of businesses and organizations take their website security for granted and then end up paying a huge price for their negligence. If your websites are not equipped with a powerful SSL Certificate, you are likely to end up losing your private information or business data. Buying an SSL certificate can save you of the horror of cyber-crimes.
It’s not often that new protocols or technologies emerge that is this important, and for relatively little effort and expense, can be put in place. This one thing — an SSL Certificate — will secure your website, boost your search ranking, and build trust with your visitors — all in one swoop.
1) An SSL Certificate keeps your website safe and secure
Without getting too geeky, SSL technology creates a secure connection by encrypting data as it passes between web servers and browsers. It basically prevents sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords from being intercepted by bad guys.
The certificate part serves as an electronic document used to verify credentials like the certificate holder’s name, the certificate’s serial number, expiration date and the signature of the certificate-issuing authority. When a user sends confidential information from a web server, the user’s browser accesses the SSL certificate and establishes a secure connection.
This is a big deal. In fact, it’s so big that as from the beginning of 2017, if a website doesn’t have an SSL Certificate, Chrome will start marking pages that collect passwords or credit card details as “Not Secure”. That’s a pretty big deterrence. Seeing “Not Secure” will have most clients running for the hills.
2) An SSL Certificate boosts your search ranking
Google wants to maintain its reputation by ensuring that the websites people access from its search results are safe and secure. To that end, they’ve started using HTTPS as a ranking signal. It will become increasingly more important as greater numbers of websites come on board. It won’t be long before having a secure HTTPS connection becomes an essential component for ranking.
3) An SSL Certificate establishes trust
You don’t have to be an online seller of goods in order to establish your website as a secure and safe place to visit and interact. If you want to show your visitors that you value their security and that you are keeping up with best practices, then an SSL Certificate will go a long way in establishing trust. In fact, there will come a day in the not-too-distant future when not having an SSL Certificate could cost you your visitors and perhaps even your business.
The good news is that an SSL Certificate is relatively easy to implement and won’t break your bank account. There are also different levels of SSL Certificates to match the level of security you need. Whether you’re an online store or a blog that collects emails and passwords, there’s a right SSL Certificate for you.
4) An SSL Certificate improves the speed of the website
Previously people used to think that installing an SSL certificate would lead to slow loading of the website. That’s a myth. The fact is that HTTPS makes your websites load a lot faster, thereby improving the website performance. This, in turn, improves search engine optimization and helps you in internet marketing.
5) The user experience becomes better on HTTPS websites
There’s a lot of awareness among your customers regarding the significance of website security. Most of the time, your visitors would be apprehensive about protecting their personal information. If your website has an SSL Certificate, it eliminates this fear and improves their user experience manifold. For e-commerce sites, this holds particularly true as the customer would not be scared to make any payments on a secure site. Ultimately, it will improve your conversion rate and boost your business growth too.
6) It helps to encrypt sensitive information
By building a secure website, you are able to encrypt all the sensitive information that is transferred between two computers and from a computer to server as well. This information can be anything ranging from credit card details, passwords, bank account number and other financial information. SSL certificate prevents the leakage of this data and keeps your information protected.
Oh, and if those 6 reasons weren’t enough of a motivation, here’s one more – Google has made it mandatory. So what are you waiting for? Add this vital layer of security to your website today!
Contact Ad-dictions to have your SSL certificate installed.
*Credits:
https://negliadesign.com/web/three-reasons-why-your-website-needs-an-ssl-certificate/
https://gretathemes.com/why-you-need-ssl-certificate/
https://sslrenewals.com/blog/why-is-ssl-important-benefits-of-using-ssl-certificate