What is an SSL certificate and why you need one?

The importance of an encrypted connection.

What is an SSL certificate and why you need one?

First off, you always need to protect your website. Even if you don’t have any sensitive information on your site such as credit card and banking details, your site needs to be secure.

That’s why an SSL certificate is important. Here’s how it works…

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is security technology that establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link makes sure all data that passes between a server and browser remains private and safe.

To be able to create an SSL connection, a web server requires an SSL certificate. The certificate is basically a license that gets stamped as approved and the connection is verified.

What is an SSL certificate?

SSL certificates secure the data by encrypting it as it is sent through the internet between the browser and server.

How do you know if you have an SSL certificate?

You can see if your website has an active SSL by looking at the address bar, if you don’t have an SSL a ‘https://’ before the URL and a ‘Not Secure’ message will be displayed.

Trust Factor

An SSL is more than just an encryption method to secure traffic to and from your website. It plays a big factor in creating a trust factor for visitors to your website.

It is the minimum standard of online security. Users will not trust a site that has a warning in the address bar that has the danger sign of ‘Not Secure’. With the serious issue of online scamming and fraud to deal with, it’s no surprise that users will avoid a site like this.

An SSL is an essential part of confirming your online identity and creating a trustworthy website that users feel safe to browse.

Just ask yourself – Would you browse a site that was marked ‘Not Secure’?

It’s important to make your own site as secure as possible – as soon as possible.

How an SSL affects your Google ranking

Google aren’t known to volunteer details of how they do things, especially when it comes to rankings. One thing they have been very open about is their preference for sites that have an SSL.

They have even gone to the point of releasing articles such as this one – HTTPS as a ranking signaldetailing how ranking preferences are given to sites that have an SSL encrypted connection.

According to Google’s transparency report 94% of browsing is done on encrypted sites. They have openly stated that their goal is to increase this number to 100%. It’s little wonder they give a heavy preference to sites that are SSL secure.

You can read more about it via this link to the full Google Transparency Report

Making sure your site is secure and ranking

It’s essential for any site to have an SSL. You need to make sure that your site has the correct SSL security and is able to rank as highly as possible.

All your hard work in making sure the user experience and your products and services are presented in the best possible way will be wasted if you are not SSL secure and Google can rank you properly.

If you need to discuss how to get your SSL sorted, ask the friendly expert team who can take you through things step by step.

Talk to Digital Animals today and make the most of your tomorrow.