There are two things that have improved with the evolution of the internet, better website protection and the creativity of cybercriminals. Some organizations such as Google have taken the lead in trying to make the internet a safer place. Google has been urging website owners to make use of the HTTPS protocol to protect data sent from a computer to the website you are browsing through encryption.
Through the release of Chrome 68, Google introduced more stringent measures that included marking all websites that didn’t use the HTTPS protocol as not secure. All websites will have the green https letters displayed in the URL to show that they are secured by an SSL certificate.
What is an SSL certificate and what benefits does it confer to both business and personal websites.
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate ensures that sensitive data from visitors to your website is transferred over a secure network. The SSL certificates have available for more 20 years now.
Many organizations and businesses have not adopted SSL certificates despite their importance due to the complexity of implementation and associated costs. However, the landscape is changing with a greater initiative to provide them for free and to make their installation easy and straightforward.
Importance of an SSL Certificate
- Increase the Security of Your Website – SSL certificates help to protect sensitive data that is transmitted to and from your website. Sensitive information includes signups, addresses, login details, and payment or personal information. The SSL certificates help to encrypt the connection and protect visitor’s data from attackers.
- Safety for Your Subdomains – The Wildcard type of SSL certificate helps to secure the main site and its subdomains through a single certificate. The wildcard SSL certificate is extremely useful for business owners who maintain large websites that have several subdomains. The standard SSL certificate protects just a single subdomain and you will need several certificates for each site.
- Builds Credibility and Trust – An SSL certificate helps you gain the trust of visitors to your site. Visitors trust a website that has the security padlock in the address bar of their browsers. The SSL certificate indicates that the connection is secure and shows that you take the privacy and security of visitors to the site seriously. The opposite holds true with visitors labeling a website as not secure if it doesn’t have an SSL certificate.
- SEO Advantages – SSL certificates give an improvement in SEO rankings for your website. Google, through their HTTPS everywhere initiative, gives a small SEO ranking boost to websites that have an encrypted connection. The SSL certificate will surely give you an advantage over your direct competitors.
How to Get an SSL Certificate
Check if your hosting provider offers SSL certificates as the first step when you want to get an SSL certificate for your website. Previously, the SSL certificates were offered as a paid feature.
More companies are now releasing free SSL certificates as part of an initiative to democratize website security. For all your website security needs, contact Salient Marketing who will make it easy for you to get and install an SSL certificate that perfectly suits your business website.
Sometimes, it is better to make use of paid SSL certificates, especially for enterprise-level websites. For example, an EV certificate that makes use of a strict authentication process is recommended for enterprise-level websites. The EV certificate helps to add more visible trust indicators that include the name of your company, green bar in the URL bar of the browser and country abbreviation.
Salient Marketing has made it easy and quick to install SSL certificates for both business and personal websites in Ottawa and other cities. The benefits of SSL certificates are incredible including those of security for website visitors and building trust.