What is SSL certificate?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It secures your business website and protects it (and your website visitors) from online bugs, viruses and harmful bots. An SSL certificate creates an encrypted connection between the web visitor’s browser and the server while facilitating web browsing experience. It protects the valuable information (such as credit cards, logins etc) that is transferred between the parties using your website.
SSL is a part of HTTPS protocol that sends encrypted information between a broker and a server. So if you accept credit/debit card and your site is not SSL protected, your clients might not feel comfortable providing that information. Most shoppers are careful and want a guarantee that their information is safe.
How do you find if a site is SSL protected?
If the site’s URL starts with https instead of http it is SSL protected.
for example, https://www.facebook.com/ is SSL protected whereas httpss:yoursite.com is not secured.
Do I need SSL certificate for my website?
The most frequent questions that our clients ask us is whether their website needs SSL certificate or not. If your website is collecting important data and information such as credits and debit cards, SSL certificate is highly recommended. Most of the hosting providers require websites to have SSL certificate before accepting any form of debit or credit cards. In most of the eCommerce site, SSL certificate reduce the risk of credit/debit card information being stolen from your website visitors.
You will also need SSL certificate if your web pages are password protected. Just like an eCommerce website, if you have a membership site, it needs to be secured using SSL certificate. SSL certificate provides a safety net and secures highly valuable information from the hackers. You have to make sure that you will not be a victim of the bots surfing for a weakly protected password.
Where do I get SSL certificate and how do I install it on my website?
Contact your hosting provider and ask them to add SSL certificate to your account. Some of the hosting providers offer SSL certificate for as little as $20-$30 per year. If you are using a WordPress site, you can find many plugins that will help you integrate your SSL certificate to your website. The 3 most popular WordPress SSL plugins are listed below:
- Really Simply SSL by Rogier Lankhorst
- WordPress HTTPS (SSL) by Mike Ems
- Force HTTPS (SSL Redirect & Fix Insecure Content) by LittleBizzy
Remember, your goal is to choose the provider that issues SSL certificates with the highest strength encryption algorithms and are easy to implement on your existing site.
If you want to secure only one domain or a subdomain name, you can choose single SSL certificate. Single SSL certificate covers most of the small businesses websites. However, if you have one main domain and many subdomains, you will need Wildcard SSL certificate. Based on the level of validation you can choose from:
- Domain validation
- Organization validation
- Extended validation (EV)
SSL provides security, trust, privacy and data integrity for your website users’ personal information and your website. Therefore it is your responsibility to protect the information of your users even if the security of your website is not that critical.