The number of businesses embracing e-commerce growing massively over the years. Companies with online platforms used for conducting e-marketing and sales activities are increasingly becoming targets to hackers. Notably, there are many ways that you can increase business website security in this digital age where malicious attacks on businesses have become more widespread, advanced, and aggressive. One simple thing that will get you off to a good start is investing in a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
SSL is an encryption technology designed to provide a secure client-server connection over the internet. It encrypts all the data transmitted between your website and your clients’ computers. If your company’s website is using SSL, you’ll be assured with an SSL certificate to provide your users with a visual confirmation that they are browsing a safe and secure website. So why does your business need an SSL certificate?
SSL Protects Business Data From Exploitation by Cybercriminals and Hackers
Did you know that on average, 30000 websites get hacked daily? The majority of the compromised sites are owned by small legitimate businesses. This should give you a good reason enough to boost your business website security by using an SSL certificate to encrypt your data. As a business owner operating an e-commerce platform that collects sensitive personal information from customers such as credit card numbers, passwords, or anything else deemed sensitive. Having SSL on your site will encrypt all the data being transmitted between users and your website. Consequently preventing cybercriminals and hackers from getting hold of your business data.
Since it is common for business sites to have the main domain plus many other subdomains. You could particularly opt for example a wildcard certificate that secures your entire website by encrypting information on your main domain and all subdomains. The wildcard helps secure e-commerce sites where numerous subdomains are there. In addition to securing your entire digital portfolio, a wildcard certificate will also save you time and the overall cost of managing multiple single-domain SSL certificates.
An SSL Certificate Increases User’s Trust in Your Business Website
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As internet users become increasingly aware of top security threats they face while browsing online and how to protect themselves. One of the safe web practices that most users widely adopt to ensure they don’t end up on malicious e-commerce sites is verifying that they are visiting secure sites. They do this by confirming that there is an ‘S’ after the ‘HTTP’ part of the address they are visiting plus a padlock sign in the address bar. A missing padlock sign on your address bar, therefore, means that your business could be losing many potential clients capable of growing your revenue.
Apart from a Domain Validated (DV) certificate which doesn’t verify whether a company is registered and recognized by the government or not. All other types of SSL certificates (Organization Validated (OV) and Extended Validated (EV) certificates) require that businesses provide documents to the Certificate Authority (CA) verifying that they are legitimate legal entities before issuance of SSL certificates.
The secure connection provided by SSL is indicated by the padlock on the address bar. Plus the extra level of validation whose details can be viewed by users when they click on the padlock badge in their address bar. Provides your visitors with extra confidence that they are dealing with the right business that’s not out to defraud them of their hard-earn cash. This earns your business more credibility from both returning and first-time customers. And what’s better than your customers feeling that their details are secure on your site?
SSL Improves Search Engine Rankings
Having an SSL certificate is one of the over 200 factors that Google uses to rank websites in their SERPs (search engine results pages). Back in 2014, Google confirmed that having an SSL certificate would give a site an advantage in SERPs ranking over other similar sites without the certificate. Precisely, if there are two similar business sites with all the other ranking factors equal apart from the presence of an SSL certificate. The website with the certificate installed will have a slight advantage in SERPs ranking over the one with no certificate.
Furthermore, no doubt being SSL certified improves the overall user experience of a business website, which is also another factor considered in search engine rankings. While using the SSL encryption technology on your website is not the only factor that will magically propel your business website SERPs ranking. If you are taking care of all the other factors considered by the search engines right. Having the certificate installed will give your website the boost required to rank better than other sites in your highly competitive niche.
SSL Certificate Ensures You are PCI Compliant
The major stakeholders in the credit card industry including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express came up with a set of rules and requirements known as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards). Mandating credit card companies to secure transactions across the industry. The requirements have specific recommendations on the most effective SSL certificate for a website including the minimum supported TLS version, private keys, and much more.
If you are a merchant accepting credit card transactions. Heeding the PCI DSS requirements is a must. Obtaining a CV, DV, or wildcard certificate from a trusted CA will not only ensure that your customers are safe when transacting online but also guarantee full compliance with PCI standards.
Conclusion
How detrimental would it be for your customers to meet a warning from their search engines that your site is not safe enough for them to visit? Because that’s what happens if you don’t have an SSL certificate installed. In addition to increasing users’ trust in your business website. The certificate comes with a few other advantages including protection of business data from malicious parties, improved search engine rankings, and PCI compliance. So, if you’ve been holding back on your decision to invest in an SSL certificate. It’s time for you to act fast and add that extra layer of security that will earn you more credibility from visitors.