Why You Need SSL Security for Your Website

If your website is vital for your business, SSL security is vital for your website. It’s that simple.

SSL certificates protect a huge amount of traffic on the internet. According to Google:

• SSLs protect over 68% of Chrome browser traffic on Android and Windows devices;
• SSLs protect over 78% of traffic on Chrome and Mac OS;
• 81 of the top 100 sites on the web use https:// by default.

As you can see, having an SSL certificate on your website will put you in good company.

If you’ve been holding out because you weren’t sure if you needed one or how to get started, never fear. In this article we’re going to give you a few reasons why you’ll want to set up SSL security on your website.

Increase Your Website’s SEO

SSL certificates do more than keep your data safe, too. Believe it or not, they can also help your site rank higher in search engines.

Google wants all websites to have SSL certificates, and they’ve made no secret of their efforts to reward compliant sites. As far back as 2014, they began giving HTTPS sites a small boost in search results. In December 2015, Google even admitted that they give search priority to these more secure sites.

With this mounting pressure to have more SSL coverage, it’s likely that sites with SSLs will continue to benefit from Google’s search algorithms. This means that, even for simple websites that don’t request customer data, having an SSL certificate will help your site get found in organic searches.

Promote Trust Among Your Site Visitors

Building trust with your customers may be one of the best reasons to set up SSL certificates on your websites.

Anyone who visits a website wants to be sure that their data is secure, especially when providing credit card information or other sensitive data. In fact, according to Baymard Institute, on average 69% of customers indicated they would abandon their shopping carts if they thought the website was unsafe.

And even for sites that don’t require credit cards, trust is still important. SSLs provide reassurance and in turn, give your blog or membership site more credibility. Why? Every time someone leaves a comment or logs in, they are transmitting data. An SSL is a simple way to show that that data is kept private and secure.

As mentioned above, HTTPS sites (especially those with the green bar visuals) also help reassure visitors that they’re on the correct and official site, and not a fraudulent or phishing site.

The bottom line is that by increasing your customer’s confidence, they will be more likely to do business with you.

But What If I Don’t Run an E-commerce Site?

You may be a small business owner or blogger who doesn’t feel the need for SSL right away. For instance, you take payments using PayPal rather than through your site, or you may not be worried with SEO because your clients are not finding you through search engines.

Apart from client confidence, are there other advantages to adding an additional safety layer such as SSL?

Absolutely. Securing data on your personal corner of the web is one more step in creating a less vulnerable, more robust, and generally more trustworthy network. Hackers don’t always target big business as a point of entry to a network. In some cases, sites with even a peripheral connection to that network can provide a perfect insertion point for malware. Think of adding SSL as contributing your own link in a wider protective fence around the Internet.

The threat to non-e-commerce websites is even more ominous, according to Mad Tomatoes, an internet content marketing and blogging magazine:

“Personal data is just as lucrative as financial information, if not more so. While credit card companies and other financial institutions have taken major steps to combat fraud. Thereby negating the value of financial and payment card information on the black market, other personal information like home addresses, social security numbers, healthcare information, and email addresses and passwords still goes for big money on the dark web. Making it an enticing grab for hackers, and an easy grab without encryption.”

So, even if you’re not making a dime from your website, if you choose not to secure it, you still have a lot to lose.

How to Get an SSL For Your Site

Whatever website you operate, we hope you know now how essential it is for you to add an SSL certificate to your website.

The supplier submits your data to a distinct business known as a Certificate Authority (CA) such as Comodo for validation once you have selected the SSL guarantee that is best for your website. The CA then validates your data and issues your SSL. In the form of a cryptographic key protecting information from your site by encryption.