Google is constantly updating its search algorithms to make it harder for websites with poor user experiences to rank highly in search results. One signal Google uses to measure user experience is the presence of secure browsing indicators called SSL certificates. An SSL certificate stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a protocol that enables secure communication over a network. If you’re running an e-commerce website or any other kind of website that deals with sensitive data, then you need an SSL certificate to keep your visitors safe and avoid hurting your SEO ranking. In this blog post, we’ll explain why you need an SSL certificate for your website and what are the best practices when it comes to implementing one on your site.
Why You Need an SSL Certificate for Your Website
Contents
- Why You Need an SSL Certificate for Your Website
- Google’s Important Role in Maintaining Website Security
- Improving User Experience for Better SEO
- How to Get an Affordable SSL Certificate
- How to Install an SSL Certificate on Your Website
- Best Practices When Installing an SSL Certificate
- How to Migrate Your Website to HTTPS
- Conclusion
The primary reason why you need an SSL certificate is to protect your website visitors. In a non-SSL environment, all the information that a visitor types into your website is sent in clear-text format. Anyone who has access to the network packets can easily read the information being transferred between the visitor’s computer and your website. Hackers can use this information to obtain a user’s personal details and potentially damage the user’s credit score by opening fraudulent accounts in the visitor’s name. To avoid such problems, website owners should install an SSL certificate on their website to keep all communication between users and the website encrypted. SSL certificates use trusted third-party root certificates to issue digital certificates that encrypt all data transferred between users and the website. This means that all data is sent in encrypted format, making it harder for hackers to read and use the data. SSL certificates have another important use as well. They act as a trust signal to Google’s search algorithm that ranks your website higher in the SERPs.
Google’s Important Role in Maintaining Website Security
When you install an SSL certificate on your website, Google recognizes that you’re taking extra measures to secure your website and protects your visitors. If a page on your website is not secured with an SSL certificate, then Google puts a “not secure” warning message at the top of the page for users who are browsing from a non-SSL-enabled browser. In addition to the not secure warning message, Google may also demote your page in the SERPs. If you want to avoid these negative consequences and improve user trust in your business, then you’ll want to install an SSL certificate on your website. If a visitor types in your website URL into a non-SSL browser, the browser will block the website because the connection is insecure. To avoid this, you need to install an SSL certificate on your website to keep your visitors safe and secure.
Improving User Experience for Better SEO
Not only does an SSL certificate improve your website security, but it also improves your website user experience. A website that uses SSL has a more modern look that gives off a professional vibe. SSL certificates bring trust and authority to your website and drive more traffic. More than half of internet users expect websites to be SSL-protected. You can expect more visitors to your website when you install an SSL certificate on your website to protect and secure your visitors’ data. SSL certificates also help you maintain better conversion rates. If you have an e-commerce website and you’re not using SSL, then you’re losing about $3.6 million in sales per month. That’s because visitors who don’t see the “https” in the URL will not trust your website enough to give out their credit card information. They may even leave your website and shop somewhere else where they feel more secure. Eighty percent of consumers abandon their shopping carts when a website is not secured with an SSL certificate. SSL certificates can help you recover these sales by reassuring your customers that their payment information is safe and secure.
How to Get an Affordable SSL Certificate
You can purchase an SSL certificate from a third-party vendor. SSL certificates come with a price tag, but you can find affordable SSL certificates if you search for them online. At CheapSSLWeb.com, you can find Cheap SSL certificates starting as low as $2.99 per year. If you don’t want to spend extra money on SSL certificates, then you can also find free SSL providers like let’s encrypt.
How to Install an SSL Certificate on Your Website
Installing an SSL certificate on your website can be a daunting task if you’re not familiar with the best practices. However, you can get help from website development companies if you don’t want to do it yourself. The first thing you need to do is purchase SSL certificate. This can typically be done online and will only take a few minutes. Once you receive the SSL certificate, you need to install the certificate on your website. This can be done by uploading the certificate file to your server. Once you’ve uploaded the certificate file, you need to configure your server to use the certificate.
Best Practices When Installing an SSL Certificate
Once you’ve installed an SSL certificate on your website, you need to make sure that you follow a few best practices to get the most benefits from it. Make sure that you install the SSL certificate on all your subdomains. Not only should you install the SSL certificate on your “root” domain, but also on all your subdomains. For example, if your website is example.com, then you should also install the certificate on test.example.com, seure.example.com, and any other subdomains that you may have. This step is important because you don’t want to leave any portion of your website unsecured. If you don’t install the SSL certificate on a subdomain, then a visitor may think that you don’t care about their security and click away from your website.
You can secure unlimited sub-domains with Wildcard SSL Certificate. and you can get the Cheap Wildcard SSL Certificate at $29.99/yr from CheapSSLWeb.com with Free Site Seal and Installation help.
How to Migrate Your Website to HTTPS
If you install an SSL certificate on your website, then you’ll want to migrate your website to HTTPS. This is important because Google is giving a SEO advantage to websites that have migrated to HTTPS. Google announced that it will mark all HTTP websites as non-secure in the upcoming months and that HTTPS is the only way to secure websites. All you need to do to migrate your website to HTTPS is install an SSL certificate. Once you’ve installed an SSL certificate, you’ll need to redirect your traffic from HTTP to HTTPS. This can be done a few different ways. You can install a redirect rule in your web server. This rule will tell your server to redirect all traffic from HTTP to HTTPS. You can also install a redirect extension for your web server. This is the easiest and fastest way to redirect your traffic from HTTP to HTTPS.
Conclusion
By now, you’re probably convinced that you need an SSL certificate for your website. Not only do SSL certificates improve your website security, but they also improve your website user experience and help you rank higher in the SERPs.