Why is SSL Becoming a Necessity?

What is an SSL certificate? An SSL Certificate or Secure Socket Layer certificate is a way of securing a connection to a website to prevent eavesdroppers from collecting and stealing the personal information you give to a website. Many people know this certification as the https:// at the beginning of a website’s address.

For years, most website visitors and webmasters alike have viewed an SSL certificate as something only ecommerce sites needed. Now, this field is changing as a major movement is in progress to make a more secure internet by requiring that all websites have SSL certificates. With the growing market of free WiFi hotspots almost everywhere you go, you want anything you do and send online to be secure. Being able to see other people’s personal information from any website is something anyone can do without much work at any public hotspot, if the users are using unsecured connections to websites. This alone is enough for every website viewer to want to be able to visit their favorite sites over a secure connection and encourage webmasters to start implementing SSL on their websites.

Current websites are already being penalized if they are not using an SSL certificate.  Starting in 2014, Google started taking into account whether or not your website has an SSL certificate into the ranking procedure for your website to appear in search results. This means that if you are not using SSL on your website and your competition does they are gaining an edge on your online searchers. Google and other organizations are now taking this even further by planning on making active warnings whenever users come across a non-secure website in their browsers. These warnings could potentially scare off some viewers who just see a warning and decide to leave the website. The Internet Engineering Task Force has even gone as far as approving new standards, called HTTP/2, that will become the new norm over the next few years for website traffic and require that all sites have an SSL certificate in order to be reached by future browser versions.

So, if some of this implementation still hasn’t happened why should you care? Already, many people look for a secure site when submitting anything on the web, and there is a chance if you don’t have an SSL that you have lost at least one customer. By getting an SSL certificate for your website now you are preparing for the future, as SSL certificates will be required to be on all websites. The cost for SSL certificates is extremely inexpensive and come in many varieties from a basic website encryption all the way up to extend validation certificates that prove to your web viewers that you are a government registered company. If you are ready to hop on board and get an SSL certificate for your website, give us a call and we will help you not only purchase the SSL certificate that is right for you but help you install it, as well.

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