What Is an SSL Certificate and What Is It Used For?
You have the perfect domain name for your website and your products are ready to sell, but customers aren't buying because your site isn't secure. To secure your site, you need an SSL certificate.
What is an SSL certificate?
“SSL” stands for “Secure Sockets Layer.” Simply put, it's a way for small businesses to communicate with customers so they can browse, buy products or services, and share information securely online. Without getting too technical, adding SSL creates a secure connection for these activities.
SSL is the backbone of a secure website, protecting confidential information as it travels across the world's computer networks. SSL is essential for securing websites, even those that don't handle sensitive information such as credit cards. It provides privacy, critical security, and data integrity for your websites and your users' personal information.
Before dismissing your site as “too small to be a target,” remember that most interceptions are automated, with no person deciding who gets attacked.
No website is too small to be hacked.
Hackers have one goal: finding vulnerabilities. Once they find them, their dirty work begins.
How an SSL certificate works
An SSL certificate establishes an encrypted connection between your visitor's browser and the server. A secure session is established through a “handshake,” an exchange between the web browser and web server that happens in the background without interrupting the shopping or browsing experience.
Does your website need an SSL certificate?
Accept payments securely
Do you want to put your customers at risk of having their credit card information stolen while shopping on your site?
Some online store and shopping cart software includes a built-in secure payment system. In these cases, a third party handles credit cards or provides another online payment method. If this applies, your small business may not need the additional SSL protection for its payment page.
However, there are other reasons to add SSL:
Protect passwords
One of the main reasons to add an SSL certificate is if any of your website's pages are password-protected. This includes WordPress, Joomla!, and other database-driven sites with an administrator login page.
Membership sites with multiple logins also create more opportunities for malicious hackers to attack.
The web is full of bots searching for poorly secured password pages to gain access to your website. You don't want to log in only to discover that your pages have been wiped or deleted.
Secure all web forms
Not everyone collects money online. Some websites collect information, such as potential customer inquiries or questionnaires about a client's employment history. Even if you're only collecting basic details like names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, your customers probably don't want that information leaked.
Without an SSL certificate, some form submissions can be intercepted. Some code is more reliable than others. Do you want to risk yours being vulnerable to hacking?
That's why securing online forms with an SSL certificate is also essential. You wouldn't do business with someone who skipped this step. Don't give anyone that reason to avoid doing business with you.
