Now that GDPR is out of the way – the digital world has found something new to panic about endlessly. Welcome to, “Does my site need an SSL Certificate?”
If you’ve ever looked up the official definition, you’ve probably been greeted with phrases like “cryptographic protocols” and “digitally binding a cryptographic key to an organisation’s identity.”
Let’s put it in plain English.
An SSL certificate is essentially a digital security pass that encrypts the information sent between your website and your visitors. Instead of data travelling across the internet in plain text, where it could potentially be intercepted, SSL scrambles it into a secure format that only the intended recipient can read.
Think of it like sending a letter. Without SSL, it’s like writing your message on a postcard for anyone handling it to read. With SSL, it’s sealed inside an envelope.
Fortunately, you don’t need to understand encryption to spot an SSL certificate.
There are a few obvious signs:
A few years ago, some browsers displayed a green address bar for certain certificates. While that’s largely disappeared, the padlock and HTTPS are now the standard indicators that a connection is secure.
Many people assume SSL is only important if you’re running an online shop. That’s no longer the case.
Even if your website only has a contact form or collects email addresses, visitors are sharing personal information. SSL helps protect that information while it’s being transmitted.
It also helps in several other ways:
When visitors see the padlock, they know your website takes security seriously.
If they instead see a warning saying “Not Secure”, many will leave before reading a single word of your content.n
Google has confirmed that HTTPS is a ranking signal.
While SSL alone won’t send your website to the top of the search results, having a secure website is one of many factors that contribute to better search engine performance.
Not anymore. In fact, many web hosting providers now include basic SSL certificates free of charge.
Premium certificates still exist for businesses that need additional validation or more complex security requirements, but for most small businesses and standard websites, a free SSL certificate offers more than enough protection.
If your website is still running on HTTP instead of HTTPS, now is the time to make the switch.
Because these days, an SSL certificate isn’t really a “nice to have”—it’s simply part of running a modern, professional website.
Contact our team today, and we’ll ditch the Jargon and get your website secure and seen.