Also known as a Digital Certificate, an SSL Certificate acts as a bridge between a visitor’s browser and a website. SSL encryption is used in most social media browsers to give visitors a sense of security. By securing data exchanged between the website and the visitor, it gives a sense of privacy and keeps hackers from accessing sensitive information like passwords, bank account details, home addresses, and full contact information among others.
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Accredited Web hosts also have an end to end SSL encryption, giving their users a fine blueprint of what secure login and data protection is like. In a world where 90% of day to day operations are digitized, it is dangerous to assume your information is safe without securing safety features like SSL certificate.
Importance of SSL Certificate for your website;
- Secures sensitive information. An SSL Certificate encrypts all your data, keeping it away from hackers. Most businesses store their bank statements, bank account numbers, social security numbers and other sensitive information on their website. That information is not safe until you encrypt it. This keeps it from being legible to a third party because once it leaves your server, it becomes unreadable.
- It provides security. When you log into a browser, you need to make sure your connection is secured. That’s why web hosts establish visual cues like a green bar or a lock icon normally on the right corner of your browser page. This gives the visitor assurance that they can safely enter their details especially when one is visiting a page like PayPal, secret personal sites, bank account, etc.
- Proper authentication. Here’s why you need that; other fakes might be posing to be yours to hijack your users and trick them into sending them their sensitive Information if yours is a successful online presence. That’s where you need an SSL Certificate, it will authenticate your website, and this will make it easy for your users to know which one is the real website and which is fake. Yours will be visibly secured, unlike the fake ones.
- Search engine ranking. Websites that have enabled HTTPS have an upper hand since Google changed its algorithm in 2004 to favor HTTPS. As SEO gurus will tell you, search engine ranking is very important in putting your business on the map. The fastest way to grow an online presence and generate a lot of traffic is by coming first on the search engine when your product or service type is being searched.
- Helps in meeting GDPR and PCI/DSS requirements. For any website to collect data from GDPR, the security measures have to be increased. This is to allow you to receive and make online payments, change and set passwords that are verifiable and make more sensitive transactions without a worry.
- Secured links. When you have an SSL Certification for your browser, even the shortened links connected to your main browser have the same encryption. This saves in cost and improved coordination between your links as the management is one. This gives your audience assured safety when they try and use any of the links connected generating more traffic for your website.
- Offers verifiable business information. OV and EV are SSL certificates that are of higher value, and these are specific for business accounts and links. In their capacity, they can offer your users business information that is true and tried to make more informed business ties.
- It also blocks malicious content from being injected or stolen from your website. ISPs tend to insert their ads onto your site and this results into them stealing your revenues, space, and traffic.
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All in all, an SSL Certificate is essential for your website and to generate more users for you. It gives you peace of mind while conducting your online business.
Author Bio:
I’m the CEO of ClickDo Ltd. and SeekaHost– I help the business grow online with latest SEO services & digital marketing strategies.
