Online security is a very important factor of any operation that decides to enter the marketplace. The lack of online protection can cause some heavy drawbacks to our operation as a whole and cause us to struggle to establish ourselves. One of the security protocols we see frequently employed is SSL. However, the meaning and use of it may be foreign to some people despite it being an important aspect of our overall security. To learn and understand its function and benefits, read below.
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What is an SSL certificate?
Source: znetlive.com
The term SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. This protocol’s key use is securing of internet connection and ensuring the safety of information during exchanges between parties. SSL utilizes encryption algorithms that make data impossible to read during transfer, so even if somebody manages to take a “look” into the information being exchanged they won’t be able to read it.
Once the information has reached its destination, it is decrypted into readable data. You needn’t worry about any loss of data during this transfer as the SSL protocol remains all the information, it just turns them into a coded message during transit. Unauthorized parties are thus left out of the loop while data is routed to its desired destination.
Benefits of SSL
It’s important to know what SSL but when it comes to bringing over its usefulness it’s better to showcase the practical applications of SSL rather than just explaining what it does. They may even help you make up your mind about getting a certificate for yourself.
SSL can save you money
Source: bmmagazine.co.uk
While indirectly, SSL can also save you quite a lot of cash. If we have constant unsafe communication between a client and our server, a cyberattack is bound to happen. It can compromise the information of the customer and thus land us in troublesome waters if the customer decides to sue.
Even if they don’t start anything of this nature there’s still the fact that said customer most likely won’t be returning to our business, resulting in the loss of a paying customer.
Information that’s leaked could also compromise some of our other security measures, leading to a complete overhaul of our digital security which can cost a fair bit of money.
SSL reinforces confidence and safety
Whether or not our site is SSL protected will be showcased by the padlock icon next to the address of the site. That way, everybody can immediately gain information on our level of online security. It’s safe to say that nobody wants to use an unprotected site no matter the enticing factors that could be inviting them to visit the site in the first place.
Basically, the padlock gives a quick insight into our site’s security which can be both good and bad. If you are SSL secured the padlock will be green and when clicked on will display that the site is secured. It may also contain additional information that some customers could find important when deciding where to spend their money but the padlock is the key factor in the way they will feel about using our site.
Making our site secure means that customers visiting the site won’t feel anxious or uncertain about purchases made on it. Lack of security usually makes customers suspect something could be off about the site and may even choose not to interact with it out of fear that their personal information won’t be handled well. Having an SSL certificate makes sure our site’s visitors and potential customers will feel safe.
Source: networksolutions.com
The customer’s trust is very important when it comes to maintaining a customer base as well as turning simple visitors into paying customers. By using SSL you enhance the overall online presence of your brand so an SSL certificate is likely going to pay itself off rather fast. If you wish to obtain one fast, visit dandomain.dk
SSL acts as a good defense against phishing and other cyberattacks
The expected part of the internet is that there will be people who try to take advantage of any situation to earn money, even if it’s through illegal means. Cyberattacks usually have that as the final goal but even if they aren’t financially troublesome they can hamper the overall experience of users.
If these attacks happen on our website, its reputation will suffer. By getting an SSL certificate we heavily reduce the chances of these attacks, especially phishing. The most usual phishing tactic involves cloning a website. These clones will usually have some distinctions that set them apart from the real deal but less internet-savvy customers may miss out on these. However, it’s nigh impossible to get an SSL certification for a cloned website which makes it so much easier to distinguish scams before they harm our users.
SSL boosts SEO ranking
Source: storyhunter.dk
The SSL certification of your website adds the aforementioned trust indicator to the website that’s using it. This trust indicator actually affects the ranking of your website. The added security is looking into when the algorithm is sorting out the websites by ranks. The ranking system decides how well the traffic flows into our website, affecting our overall interactions.
Although it may not be a hugely impactful part of SEO ranking, every little bit helps. More and more companies are optimizing their websites to new standards every day so SSL could be the edge you need to bump your own past the competition.
Secure payments
The ability to make secure payments may be the most useful part of SSL certificates. This is paramount for anybody operating an online shop or service. When customers purchase wants to make sure their money is going to be safely transferred along with their personal information. It’s also key to reinforcing the trust and reliability of our brand which improves our brand’s overall reputation.
While you could operate online payments without SSL, it’s a risky business to do so. The farther away the transaction is the riskier the transfer is. Although the actual time it takes for money to travel between parties is only a few seconds, in the background it switches quite a few routes to get to us. The more routes it has to switch the higher the chance data will be stolen on one of them.
