With it now becoming more important than ever to encrypt traffic, we recommend that all our customers invest in a SSL certificate for their website. Aside from providing critical security and data integrity for both your websites and your user's personal information, HTTPS is a requirement for many new browser features and is a ranking signal for search results.

Starting from January 2017, when you or your visitors login to your website using Google Chrome they will be told their login is Not Secure:

Nothing will have changed with your website, as this is part of a bigger push of Google and other companies to eventually label all non-encrypted webpages as non-secure.

So exactly what is SSL?

SSL, short for secure sockets layer, provides a secure connection between the web server of a company and the web browser of the customer that is interacting with the website. This secure connection ensures that sensitive information such as customer names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and of course, credit card details remains secure and private. Essentially, all data that is communicated between a customer and the website is encrypted and can be transmitted safely.

What are the benefits of an SSL certificate?

Protection. With an SSL certificate, like we said, all the information sent between the customer and the web server is encrypted and cannot be read by third parties, such as hackers or identity thieves. For any website that sells goods or services, this is critically important. Not only does an SSL certificate provide protection for your customer’s information, it also protects your information; for example, promotional codes or vouchers used by an online shop.

Trust. With an SSL certificate, you are able to offer your customer a safe and secure online platform on which to trade with them. The peace of mind that their information will be handled securely means that customers will trust you and have confidence in transacting online with your company. And SSL certificate helps customers identify your brand with a safe and assured online experience. Savvy online shoppers always look out for https in the URL of the website to ensure that they are about to interact with a safe and trustworthy site.

Compliance. If you wish to sell goods or services online, and take credit card payments, you need an SSL certificate. Payment Card Industry compliance ensures that sites that doesn’t meet their standards cannot take credit card payments.

Visibility. An online business can live or die by how well it ranks in Google for searches related to its business. Recently, Google advised that SSL certificates are positive ranking factors, and websites that have SSL security have a competitive edge over website that don’t have such security.

Interested to find out more about what it means to have an SSL certificate? Please talk to us today about securing your website with HTTPS.