Ankit Vora
May 20, 2022

3 Reasons an SSL Certificate is a Critical Part of Your Website.

“SSL certificates have become a necessity if you’re going to run a successful business website that’s safe for your users.”
– Anonymous

These days, we’re witnessing an ever-increasing number of people totally relying on the internet for different purposes – from ordering food to paying taxes and more. And while performing these actions, they have to share their personal information on the internet.

And as we already know, people are extremely concerned about their privacy these days.

They don’t want their personal information to fall into the wrong hands.

And this doesn’t just involve your name, address, phone number, and other basic information but also includes banking-related information like credit card or debit card details, PayPal credentials, etc.

This brings us to the BIG question:

“How secure is the internet actually?”

That’s where SSL certificates come in. Technically, it’s TLS – but people like to stick to the old name, so they use TLS and SSL interchangeably.

Data fetched from a report indicates that more than 46 million websites use SSL by default, with the United States number standing at a staggering 22.2 million.

But what exactly are SSL certificates? How do they work?

And why is an SSL certificate incredibly important for your Boise-based business website in today’s digital world?

Allow us to answer your queries and clear any doubts you may or may not have.

Throughout this blog post, we’ll be covering:

What is an SSL Certificate?
How do SSL Certificates work?
Three reasons businesses should obtain an SSL Certificate

I’m so excited to share this information with you. Without further ado, let’s dive straight into it.

What is an SSL Certificate?

When your website visitors submit a form on your unsecured website, there’s a possibility that the information they enter will be intercepted by a hacker. And as we mentioned already, this information can be anything – from basic information to banking-related information.

Ever noticed some URLs start with http:// whereas others start with https://? If you look closely, you’ll find an extra ‘s’ in the latter one.

So – what does that extra ‘s’ mean?

If your website URLs start with https:// – that means the connection to your website is secure and encrypted. Any data shared by your customers with your website is shared safely – which means they don’t have to worry about their information being intercepted by hackers.

And the technology behind that extra ‘s’ is SSL – which stands for “Secure Sockets Layer.”

SSL is a security protocol that builds an encrypted link between a web browser and a web server. SSL certificates are nothing but small data files that cryptographically do that. Since the inception of SSL, there have been numerous versions of the protocol. However, all of them were subject to security troubles at some point.

So – a revamped version of the protocol followed called “TLS” – which stands for Transport Layer Security. However, people are so used to “SSL” that they prefer to call TLS “SSL.”

If you want to know whether your website is secure, you can do so by visiting your website. And if you see the padlock icon next to your website URL, it means that your website is secure.

For example:

Any information you submit on our website is 100% secure and safe.

How Do SSL Certificates Work?

Here’s how SSL certificates work:

Browser attempts to connect with the website (webserver) secured by SSL.
Now, the browser will request the webserver to identify itself.
The webserver will send a copy of the SSL certificate to the browser.
The browser will analyze the SSL certificate to determine whether it trusts it. If it does, it’ll send a signal to the webserver.
Upon receiving a signal, the webserver will return a digitally signed acknowledgment to initiate an SSL encrypted session.
Now, the data shared between the webserver and browser is encrypted.

This process is commonly referred to as the “SSL handshake.”

After going through the above-listed steps, you may feel that it’s a lengthy process. But the shocking part is that it takes place within milliseconds.

Let’s look at the three reasons why your Boise-based business website needs an SSL certificate.

3 Reasons SSL Certificate is a Critical Part of Your Website

The following points are three BIG reasons for why you should ensure that your website is secure:

Secure sites protect data
A secure site will help improve your search engine rankings
A secure site will help improve trust with your customers

Protects Data

As we mentioned already, the primary aim of adding an SSL certificate to a website is to secure the data of website visitors. Upon installing SSL, every bit of information submitted on your website will be encrypted – which means the data will be locked and can only be unlocked by the browser or server – nobody else.

This means you won’t have to worry about your information falling into the wrong hands.

Helps Improve Search Engine Ranking

In the early days, securing your website via SSL wasn’t compulsory. But fast forward to today, rapid technological advancements and an ever-increasing internet adoption have made it incredibly important for websites to secure their connection. And with Google already being at the center of all operations conducted on the internet, its algorithm has been modified to give an upper hand to HTTPS-enabled websites.

In fact, Google flags websites without an SSL/TLS certificate. And so do popular website browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Even if you build an incredibly high-quality blog post with truly value-adding information, Google will avoid ranking your blog post at the top of the search result pages.

Helps Build Customer Trust

It’s incredibly important to make sure that users feel safe when they hop onto your website. If they don’t see the padlock icon next to your URL, they’d be hesitant to submit their information on your website.

On the other hand, if your website is secure, they will most likely be more comfortable and motivated to add their personal information to your website.

If your Boise-based website isn’t secure, allow our strategic experts to help you out immediately. From building customer trust to taking the much-needed steps to position yourself as a relevant authority in front of Google, an SSL certificate is critical for your website.

So, what are you waiting for?

Hire the #1 digital marketing agency in Boise to help you secure your website.

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