SSL certificates are a must for any ecommerce website owner. The reason why is pretty simple: If your customers’ sensitive information isn’t secure, they won’t trust you or your business.
Whether you have an online store or are thinking about starting one, our guide will teach you everything you need to know about SSL certificates and the best SSLs you can get for any budget.
What is an SSL certificate?
SSL certificates are a way to secure your website and give your customers peace-of-mind that they are secure while they visit your site. They also prevent attackers from seeing the pages they visit, which is especially helpful if you have sensitive information on your website.
SSL Certificates are issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) like VeriSign or Thawte who has been accredited by major browsers like Chrome and Firefox. When purchasing an SSL certificate, you must specify which browser platforms you want it installed on.
SSL certificates come in two types:
The first type of certificate is an SSL certificate for websites. This type of certificate adds special encryption codes to all links on the page, so that when someone clicks on the link, it takes them over to another site where the original link doesn’t work anymore.
The second type of certificate is called an Extended Validation Certificate (EV). These are more expensive than regular certificates but provide more assurance that your website is legitimate and has been verified by a trusted third party.
Why Do I Need an SSL Certificate?
An SSL certificate protects your customer data as they enter their credit card information and other sensitive information. They’ll also be able to see that your site has been validated as safe by Google, which means search engines will rank it higher in the results pages.
Some of the most important benefits of having an SSL certificate include:
Secure Customer Data – Your visitors’ credit cards and other sensitive personal information is kept private and secure with an SSL certificate.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Google’s crawlers can’t index unsecured pages, so search engines will rank them lower than secure sites (like ones with an SSL certificate). When a user searches for something specific on Google’s search engine, they’ll see your site listed at the top of the list
How do I get an SSL?
An SSL is just like an extra layer of security on top of your server (or hosting company). It encrypts all the traffic between your computer and their server so that nobody else can read it (including hackers). That way, no one can access your customers’ private information without knowing their password or getting into their account!
The most important thing about this type of security is that it will only work if both ends are using the same encryption algorithm — in other words, if there is some sort of mutual authentication process where both sides must use the same keys before they can communicate over a secure connection.
How to purchase an SSL certificate for your website?
When you’re looking to purchase SSL certificate, there are a few things you should think about. First, make sure you know what type of certificate you need. There are three main types:
Standard – Provides encryption for URLs, but not the whole website. This is the most common type of certificate and is the most affordable option.
Extended – Provides encryption for all domains on the site (including subdomains). It’s also the most expensive kind of certificate.
Wildcard – Provides encryption for any domain or subdomain on your site. This is the most secure type of certificate and will cost more than any other option.