What is SSL ? How important is SSL ? What is SSL ? How important is SSL ? What is SSL ? How important is SSL ?

If I had to rate from 1 to 10 how important is SSL certificate to your website, it would get a round 10. It is a must for every successful website which wants to grow and gain more and more visitors. So let me tell you why this SSL has such importance.

To know all the benefits of SSL, you first have to understand what this SSL is and how it works.

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer that is, in general, a protocol that establishes a secure connection between a browser and a website. It ensures that all the data which is processed during the online activity is immune.

So this means that whenever the user is entering or requesting data from the website, he or she can be sure that the data will be encrypted and no one from the third party would be able to encode it or read it. This fact is essential speaking about the importance of an SSL certificate.

SSL certificate lets your website visitors feel safe on your website. It makes your site more reliable, and if you are using it for e-commerce, your customers can safely enter their personal information, make payments and so on.

User can simply indicate if the website has SSL by checking the website URL. If it starts with http:// – site is not secured and doesn’t have SSL, however, if it starts with https://, this indicates that the website is secured and has SSL. Depending on your browser, it should also show the padlock; without it – your website is not fully secured, and it’s better to start investigating why! The best way to do it is by scanning your website with the Why No Padlock? Tool.

If you have the SSL certificate, but your website is still showing the “Your connection is not private” error, you should check what could be causing it and how to fix it.

So, now that we know what SSL certificate is, the question that’s left – why do I need an SSL certificate?

Better Security

Protecting your visitors’ data is a must, especially if your visitors are coming from the European Union. As you might know, from the end of May 2018, a new EU law was announced, called GDPR. It is responsible for protecting the personal data of all individual citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area. If you fail to protect your customers’ data security, you are risking to be penalized for up to 20 million euros.

It’s better to take all the measures to make sure this never happens, and one of them is a life-savior SSL, which provides a safer connection. What could be better?

Brand Credibility

Every website creator is dreaming about their brand succeeding; however, creating a brand and earning trust isn’t easy. You have to go through a lot of things as validating it, creating a logo that matches your audience, brand awareness and so on. Still, when you have a new brand that is not so well known around others, it is vital to building up brand credibility.

The brand which is thinking about the customers and their security looks way better than the one who isn’t. Not only – if you can guarantee risk-free transactions, but customers will also feel comfortable to purchase your services.

When you are installing the SSL certificate, your website goes through the Certificate Authority (CA) validation process. CA is able to verify the identity of your website and your organization, depending on the type of SSL certificate. Extended Validation SSL will even show your organization name with the padlock. Once the identity is verified, your customers not only will know that your website is reliable but also to who they are talking to. This validation can be compared to the one Twitter accounts or Facebook pages have – it enhances the brand’s reputation and provides proof that your website is credible.

SEO rankings

If you are interested in how you could improve your search ranking on Google, here is one of the answers! Google has declared HTTPS as one of its ranking factors. So now, most of the websites that are highly ranked on Google have SSL, and even though now it is a very lightweight ranking signal, over time, Google is planning to strengthen it. Why? Google has a goal to create a safe internet community, and encouragement for the website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS is one of the steps to reach this goal.

Once you have an SSL certificate, you can start improving your SEO ranking even more!

Traffic and Sales

Your website’s traffic and sales are closely related to SEO and the trustworthiness of your website, so in this case, you won’t be only ranking higher with SSL but also – users won’t leave your cart due to lack of security.

Also, if you are receiving payments, your website should be Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant. It has 12 primary requirements for the sites that are using online payment systems, and SSL is one of them.

If you are still doubting whether you should get the SSL certificate or not, just check the biggest websites you know – this should give you the answer to 
what should you be doing next to make your website shine among the others.