Why Is Having an SSL Certificate Important For Your Website?
This article explains the importance of having an SSL Certificate to increase website security, especially for E-Commerce websites.
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Join For FreeUsing the internet in daily life has increased. Activities in our daily life are decided after the use of the Internet, and we spend lots of time on web pages from selling and buying to much more. Hence, online security has become a necessity. Indeed, Google loves its users, and therefore, every possible way to make users feel secure on the internet.
Google has announced they will flag the unencrypted websites from July 2018. This means if it is not protected, they will mark a website as ‘NOT secure’ in the URL bar. It's a part of making global webs secure.
So, What Is an SSL Certificate?
One of the most important components of online business is to create a trustworthy environment for customers where they can confidently make purchases. SSL ensures their purchases, transactions, and connections are secure. SSL is short for “secure sockets layer”, In simpler terms, when we buy and sell products or services from the internet, we share our personal information with online sellers.
SSL makes sure that our personal information and transaction is safe. SSL provides a safe connection for those activities. All E-commerce websites definitely need an SSL certificate. It is also online merchants' responsibility to make sure the customer information is safe.
SSL certificate will shield you and your customer by making sure no one encrypts customer information. Hence, Google has made it very important to keep transactions or information safe, and therefore, SSL was introduced. Google has mentioned that they will make 2/3 of websites unsafe if they aren’t under SSL. SSL can be seen in the URL of your website without SSL the website will be HTTP, and if you have an SSL, then it will show HTTPS. This ‘s’ stands for the safety and security of your website.
It is an electronic passport that has now become important for every website. If you have an SSL certificate, then your website will have a green padlock in its URL, and if it does not have SSL, then it will show a sign saying that your website is not secure.
If the user enters login credentials on the unprotected website, then an attacker can see this information in clear text and use it for the wrong purpose. This is the most dangerous possibility because users mostly use the same username and password on many sites, including bank accounts.
If the website is asking to save user login details or transaction details, then as an alert web user you should first check whether the website is protected with an SSL certificate or not. SSL certificates have now become your passport to become trustworthy to customers. As you enter the website, you can immediately see if the website is safe or not.
SSL Certificate Advantage in SEO
Having an SSL certificate even helps you with SEO. The ranking in SEO will be higher if you have an SSL certificate, as opposed to the websites that do not contain the SSL certificate. It is one of the requirements that Google has. So, it is really good if you have an SSL certificate. In addition to this, Google has publicly stated that if there are two websites that are otherwise equal in search results, if one has SSL enabled, it may be slightly ranking higher than the other one.
Related Post: Why Is Website Important For Business?
Safe From Cyberbullies
When a website has an SSL certificate, then all the transactions and your personal information will be safe from cyberbullies and there will be encryption of your information so it will become safe for people. Cyberbullies are smart nowadays, so it is important to have an SSL certificate. Cybercrimes have been on the rise ever since, so people need to have all their information safe to be protected at all times.
How Do You Get This Certificate?
The first thing you need to do is to check if your current website hosting provides SSL certificates. If yes, then it's really easy to get one. In the beginning, it was really costly to have an SSL certificate, so many sites did not have it. But, now, after the Google SSL initiative, many websites such as Symantec, are providing SSL certificates for free. Also, many people are becoming aware of the importance of the certificate, and therefore, it is important that we get one too.
In August 2014, Google launched its HTTPS Everywhere Initiative in an attempt to make the online world a safer place to explore. This initiative was created to boost web users to use HTTPS and highlight the significance of online security. Free purchase of the certificate will expire in 90 days, and then it has to be updated all the time. So, having a paid one is comparatively beneficial, and also, there are other features in the paid certificates.
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