Why SSL Encryption Security is What Your Website Needs
You may have registered your domain name for your website or listed your product correctly, but if you haven’t secured your website, then your site is at risk. Why is it so? Here’s the thing. The world of the internet is infested with scammers and hackers that will not stop at anything to get confidential information that’s useful to them. Therefore, your website needs proper security, and that’s why SSL is important to protect your data.
Now, in the past, if your website did not gather sensitive data, like credit cards or social security numbers, you were never required to get an SSL certificate. However, that has ever since changed with new browser notices; it’s essential to ensure every website possesses an SSL certificate and loaded through HTTPS. Now, if you’ve been asking whether your website needs an SSL certificate or not, then you should read on.
What is SSL?
SSL is an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer, which is how website owners communicate with customers by creating a secure link through encrypting data when it passes between web servers. It essentially inhibits sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords from interception by hackers.
What is the significance of SSL on your website?
Today, online marketing is a common phenomenon, and it’s on its ascendancy with eCommerce rapidly growing across the digital marketing domain. And with that, it has attracted many unscrupulous people who are out to ripe where they didn’t sow by unlawfully intercepting data
information.
With the breaching of data, every website owner should think of strengthening their site security.
Let us look at why SSL is essential to your website:
1. Safeguards Sensitive Information through Encrypting
The good thing about the SSL certificate is that the expected recipient can only understand information encrypted which is important considering that information you transmit on the internet goes through from computer to computer. No user would want to bump into the message “Not secure” which is alarming, and they would flee the site as soon as possible. What the SSL offers is a high level of encryption to up to 256-bit to safeguard user’s sensitive data.
Consequently, it proves your business authentication and enhances your brand reputation by verifying your Business from Trusted Certificate Authority (CA). What it does is that it displays the Green Address Bar alongside your organization name to prove authenticity. Now, for a business that has an eCommerce site where credit cards and social security numbers are stored,
SSL certificate is a necessity. Any plans of accepting major credit cards online warrant you to acquire a merchant account– which commonly requires you to use an SSL certificate.
2. A Cost-effective Way of Enhancing Safety
If you’re looking for a better way of enforcing safety on your website, an SSL certificate is a route to go. By investing in a certificate as the first line of defense is one step towards preempting cyber-attacks. Naturally, smaller organizations may look at the prospective fees and get intimidated. But administering website security is a small price to pay than the risk of losing your data or clientele. Learn to consult around from professionals that will consider your financial position and offer their services and considerable prices.
3. Enhances Website Speed
I bet that every website owner would want their customer to load on their site as quickly as they can. How, then would that be possible?
Well, there is no secret about that but through acquiring an SSL certificate. The reason why SSL is what your website needs is that ranking partly depends on your page loading speed. Again, possessing an encrypted website assists your landing page load much faster, particularly when it has an SSL certificate.
Besides that, the SSL certificate upholds the more updated HTTP protocol — the HTTP/2. What this protocol does is that it optimizes your website’s performance as it accommodates the requirements of all modern-day browsers. As a result, it compresses website headers for lesser data transfers, alongside multiplexes to ensure browsers to load many resources instantaneously. The good part is that the moment you purchase an SSL certificate, it automatically upgrades your site and permits you to enjoy the operations optimizations of the HTTP/2 protocol.
4. Building Customer Trust
Now, for you to gain proper online presence within your business and customers to respect your brand; it’s one reason why SSL certificate is essential for your site domain. What this certificate does is that it builds customer trust by confirming the security and legitimacy of your online business. Data security is paramount for any user, and they would not risk their information on a site that’s not safe. The SSL certificate appears as a visible security signal to your website, displayed by a “secure” label next to your site’s URL. Now, once a user sees this label, it clearly gives them the confidence to keep browsing on your website whenever they log in.
5. Building Brand Authority
As you try to achieve customer’s trust, it also allows you to build brand authority. This is equally an essential step that can support your business plans for the coming years. Here’s the thing. By securing your website and guarding the privacy of each of your clients indicates that your brand is concerned about the privacy of its clients. In actual sense, it invariably increases brand loyalty, and through the consumer behavioral patterns, it gives you a chance to flourish over your competitors.
Eventually, loyal customers will continue to repeat customers, thereby boosting your profits and building your brand authority through referrals and other means. As you look into why SSL certificate is important to your website, it goes beyond that of you wanting to build brand authority but to an additional business strategy.
6. Improvement on Your SEO Rankings
Securing your website is why Google is enforcing an SSL certificate. Google algorithm ranking signal is an aspect of a website that ranks your website. So, the moment you’ve installed an SSL certificate you’re likely to have a better chance of ranking on the search engine. Inasmuch as there are several methods to increase the number of inbound connections that lead to your website, the reason why SSL is beneficial still stands.
Now, with the continuous data security and privacy, every website owner needs to understand which SSL certificate to use to safeguard their sites.
Which SSL Should One Use?
Every website has different requirements with regard to the type of SSL they require. And as you get to understand why SSL is important to your website, you must first evaluate your needs alongside the different types of SSL certificates. You then must ask yourself some of the following questions:
How many domain names do I need to protect?
It’s important to note that a single-domain SSLs can only cover one domain or sub-domains. They are commonly available as Standard, Organization Validation (OV), and Extended Validation (EV).
- Organization validation (OV) certificate: This certificate is similar to domain authentication certificates but stands on the next level of cyber-security. The installation process remains more advanced as compared to DV SSL certificates. Within these certificates, you’ll be required to avail of your business details such as organization name, locality, and certificate validity alongside service provider details. The good thing is that this certificate can be installed on different subdomains.
- Extended Validation (EV) certificate: This domain simply allows your website to display the organization name. Also, a green bar of trust is present on the newest browsers to represent the secured connection.
Can I Apply a Shared SSL or do I Require my Own Certificate?
It follows that both Shared and Dedicated SSL transmit data in encrypted form through networks. When choosing which works for you, consider your particular requirements as well as your budget. The only key difference in using a shared or dedicated SSL is on how the URL shall appear to your visitors.
Now, it is also important to know whether the chosen certificate is properly configured within the website or not. What are some of the considerations that you should put into account? Well, depending on the hosting environment, these are some of the key points to look for:
- HTTPS Host Configuration: for your website to work correctly ensure that you consider this as one of your requirements.
- HTTP Redirects: while migrating from HTTP to HTTPS ensure that visitors are redirected to a suitable location. In the process, it helps to eliminate duplicate content and enables visitors to get to the intended web page.
- Server Name Indication (SNI): as some websites may be hosted within the same platform with another host of the website, the server should be configured to ensure SNI to support HTTPS.
- Protocol-Agnostic URLs: – more often, websites involve external resources to offer additional functionality. The thing is plugins, embedded forms, YouTube videos; Google Analytics is accessible through additional URLs. This means that for these URLs to attain accessibility, your HTTPS website needs to be secure to steer clear of browser warnings.
Conclusion
Facing the challenges of losing your loyal customers or compensating your clients from breach of their data is minding blowing. And that’s why SSL certificate is a worthy investment to secure your online presence and your business. Website security has now become a necessity as the SSL certificate provides an array of benefits to eCommerce websites alongside other sites. With such information, every website owner has an opportunity to safeguard its website with the safest means possible. Learn to understand what your website requires and make appropriate steps to ensure that you keep it secure. If you’re an eCommerce business, look at which SSL provider that fits your budget and work through acquiring one.
