Why is SSL Certificate Essential for Your Website?

Are you looking for ways to secure your website from malicious attackers? Do you want to gain customer trust? Do you wish to build your brand reputation? Is your site not ranking high in search engines?

An SSL certificate can be your answer.

More and more web owners are installing SSL certificates on their websites today. In fact, BuiltWith has detected 85,167,054 SSL certificates on the internet in 2020.

Don’t worry if you don’t have enough resources to invest in internet security as a new setup. You can still buy a cheap SSL certificate and can move your site to HTTPS.

Being the backbone of your secure internet, installing an SSL certificate is not only a requirement but highly essential.

Below are mentioned some crucial points on why SSL certificates are essential for your website.

● Protect your customers by encrypting sensitive information

An SSL certificate can encrypt sensitive information that you sent across the internet, allowing only the intended recipient to access it.

Other computers in between you and the server can’t see your usernames, credit card numbers, and passwords, and other sensitive information, thus ensuring safety.

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There are plenty of certificate authorities that issue SSL certificates if you are wondering where to buy SSL certificates. Even your web host and SSL provider provide a free SSL certificate.

● Gain customer trust

Reports have it that in 2018, in the U.S., there were 1.244 billion data breaches that caused the exposure of more than 446 million records.

No wonder people hesitate to provide their personal details online.

82% of Americans said that they are concerned about online security. 

When you install an SSL certificate, your browser will display a lock icon to let visitors know that their connection is secured.

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It means that your visitors will trust your website more and will be more likely to do business with you.

The trust seal provided by an SSL certificate also instills more trust in your customers.

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Basically, you will find three types of trust seals, namely, Privacy Seals, Security Seals, and Business Seals. Choose one or all three types depending on your site.

● Build your brand reputation

Your company may have done many good things, but a few mistakes can ruin your reputation.

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With the internet user base increasing day by day, there is an increase in the number of attacks such as Phishing, MITM attacks, and so on. Hackers can clone a website or a webpage and use it for nefarious means.

A good way to stay protected from all these risks is to install an SSL certificate. There is no way hackers can manage to have an SSL certified cloned site.

EV SSL Certificates are preferred for safeguarding the website from such kinds of attacks.

Moreover, from 2018, Google flags HTTP websites. It means if you have not installed an SSL certificate, all the popular web browsers, including Google Chrome and Firefox Mozilla, will punish you by displaying a warning message of ‘Not Secure’ on the URL bar.

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Thus, it will bring down your site’s reputation, and you will end up losing visitors.

As per the World Economic Forum study, a major part of a company’s market value depends upon its reputation.

● Rank high in search engines

Google takes internet security very seriously and has announced that it will start using HTTPS as a ranking signal. Though at present, it is only a lightweight signal, if you combine it with other SEO strategies, you will end up on top of search engines.

In research that analyzed one million Google results, it was found that HTTPS is correlated to Google ranking.

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Also, it has been estimated that 90.2% of the browsing time on Chrome is spent on pages that are secured by SSL.

Although 101domain says that less than 1 in 3 websites has an SSL certificate.

Buy an SSL certificate and install it to see positive results in your search engine rankings.

● Increase your revenue

If you look at the statistics, on an average, 74.18% of online shopping carts are being abandoned. And one of the major reasons behind cart abandonment is that users don’t trust the site with their credit information. Even below Baymard's research shows various reasons for cart abandonment.

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We can’t blame the users when one in ten URLs found online, is malicious.

Forrester reports that shopping cart abandonment can lead brands to lose up to $18 billion yearly in revenue.

One of the best ways to reduce cart abandonment rates and increase revenue is to switch your site to HTTPS and provide security to your consumers.

● Stay PCI compliant

If you are running a website that accepts online payments, your website ought to be PCI compliant. Installing an SSL certificate can help you achieve that by satisfying PCI/DSS requirements.

Moreover, installing an SSL certificate is among the primary requirements set by the payment card industry (PCI).

An SSL certificate thus becomes essential whether you are bothered about your user’s security or not.

Over to You!

By now, hopefully, you have gained the required knowledge about SSL certificates and their benefits. Consider installing one immediately if you haven’t done it yet and secure your site from hackers and their malicious attacks.

Having an HTTPS site will help you to gain your customer’s trust, build your brand’s reputation, stay PCI-compliant, and increase sales.

Don’t forget that there is a cheap SSL certificate available even if you have a limited budget to invest in paid certificates.

Moreover, with so many benefits that SSL has to offer, why lose out on it? Leverage on it today and scale your business.