The Importance of SSL – Top 6 Advantages
The importance and advantages of SSL Certificates have to do with both security and website optimisation. If your website contains, receives, or transmits sensitive information, you need an SSL certificate. SSL stands for secure sockets layer. In computer talk a socket is an endpoint of a two-way communication link between two programs over the internet or on a network.
The most important term, of course, is secure. Your customers’ names and all their personal information, including their credit card numbers are targets for bad actors on the web, and an SSL certificate provides the indispensable—and often mandatory—privacy and security you need to do business on line.
Ask yourself, do you have forms on your website that sends data if it’s submitted? Most ‘contact us’ pages have a form and therefore SSL is required.
- An SSL certificate encrypts sensitive data
An SSL certificate encodes data—i.e., encrypts it—to render it unreadable by those who don’t have the key. When a customer fills out an Internet form, for example, the data often relays from one computer to another in its journey to a final destination—your website.
When the information makes a split-second pause before heading towards you, it becomes vulnerable to unauthorised third-party access. The SSL certificate adds random characters into the customer’s original information. Without the encryption key, the information is useless.
- SSL ensures the information goes where it is intended
The SSL certificate acts as a “handshake” between communicating browsers. It shows your customers that your website is current and not a fake rendition looking to scam or bilk the customer out of payments. Look for the “S” after the “http” in the web address line. Also, there is a small “lock” image on the same line.
- An SSL certificate meets PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance standards
If you want to securely process credit card payments with proper encryption, an SSL certificate will open the door to instant payments and higher profitability, because it inserts an industry standard 180-bits of encrpytion. The bottom line here is: no SSL certificate means you will not be able to process credit cards.
- SSL guards against scams
Scammers have a particularly difficult time in replicating authentic SSL certificates. Without that certificate, customers are wary and suspicious. They navigate away.
- An SSL certificate promotes customer confidence and trust
Your customers take a leap of faith when they shop on line. Lose that trust and customers will never return. They expect your business to treat them honestly and provide value for the money they spend. Adding an SSL certificate adds another layer of trust and operability to your online business.
- An SSL certificate improves SEO
Search engine optimisation is what gets your site to the top of Google’s search results. It is a combination of great content, savvy keyword /Adword use, and optimal web design.
To stay on Google’s good side and even get a minor search engine ranking boost, add an SSL to your site. In Google’s view, SSL promotes a site to be “trusted and certified” because of the extra authentication and security.
In addition to the increased SEO ranking and the security advantages on the web browser search page, an SSL certificate designates the owner as a trusted third party. Anyone with an SSL certificate is instantly recognised as being who they say they are.
Contact us for more information on secure hosting and how SSL can be best applied to your business website.
