The internet now dominates every aspect of our lives. From the moment we open our eyes, we reach for our smartphone to clear a myriad of notifications that appeared on our screens while we slept. We carry our entire lives around with us on those same devices. Your visitors are ultimately trusting you to protect their private information.
Have you ever visited a website and noticed that next to the web address it displays the message ‘Not Secure’ in red text? Did it make you feel nervous, or did it alter your perception of the company behind the website?
Ensuring that your website is aesthetically pleasing and attracts visitors that stick around for more than three seconds remains crucial. But ensuring that they feel comfortable and confident when browsing your site is equally as important too.
Privacy, trust, and the safeguarding of sensitive data are increasingly important to customers, and there are many reasons why your business must have a secure website. But what exactly is an SSL certificate, and why does your business need one?
What is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate will change a web address from HTTP to HTTPS. The S stands for secure, and these certificates were traditionally only used by e-commerce websites and banks in the early days of the internet. Here in 2019, an SSL could determine who will find your website and how much they trust your brand.
SSL authentication can also help verify ownership of your website. Unfortunately, some cyber criminals make replicas of websites and attempt to divert your traffic to their fake sites. In simple terms, an SSL certificate is a data file that is stored inside your website’s root directory.
This file will authenticate your website’s identity and enable visitors can see you are you say you are. The green padlock next to your web address provides your business with both credibility and trust while also putting your business on the right side of Google’s search algorithms.
