Building trust with your customers or site visitors is extremely important. However, the average website visitor may find the modern Internet daunting due to the rise in cyber attacks. A primary goal should be gaining the trust and confidence of customers in your business and, thus, in your website.
Enabling SSL encryption on your website is the best way to do this because it guarantees secure connections and safeguards the personal data of your visitors. Websites that have an SSL certificate, a digital document that verifies a site's identity, can only use the SSL protocol. You must become more informed about SSL and the SSL certification types in order to accomplish this.
The cryptographic protocol known as SSL, or secure sockets layer, encrypts data transmitted between two computers. Without SSL, the security of any personal information you deliver to a server, such as credit card numbers and passwords, can be harmed. That's why anyone building a website needs to use SSL.
An SSL certificate is a data file which is hosted in your website’s origin server. It contains all the important information to verify the website’s owner. It encrypts web traffic with SSL/TLS and contains the website’s public key, website’s identity, certificate issuer name, and all the associated sub-domain names.
To secure your website, SSL certificates assign a unique cryptographic key to your specific organization's details (e.g., a domain name) when users have to provide sensitive information, such as when filling out forms or logging into accounts.
When your server has an active SSL certificate, your URL will be converted from HTTP to HTTPS and have a gray padlock beside it in all web browsers. These visual cues will be recognized by your website visitors, who will then know that your website is reliable. In this way, having a certificate appear in the address bar of your website is similar to owning registered trademarks.
Furthermore, search engines like Google now encourage website owners to install SSL certificates. This can help in working towards SEO and enhance your website rankings.
The following are the primary benefits of having a website certificate:
-
Enhanced Security
A certain amount of verification is necessary when you enable any SSL certificate on your website. The certificate provider will investigate to confirm that your business is the legitimate owner of your domain. Additionally, any sensitive data that users enter on your website is encrypted by the certificate.
-
Increased User Trust
SSL certificates protect your website from being marked as insecure by web browsers in addition to encrypting it. If your page doesn't have a certificate, users will see a big red NOT SECURE warning and will almost certainly leave.
-
Better Search Engine Ranking
Google uses SSL certificates as a ranking signal within Internet search results. As Google is all about the user experience, promoting your website via secure HTTPS pages improves user safety and security while also making your website more user-friendly.
-
Lower Bounce Rate
An SSL certificate provides your website with an enhanced feeling of security, reducing the number of visitors who leave. If you protect their personal information with encryption and remove the red Google warning, more people will feel at ease visiting your website. This will lower your bounce rate, which indicates how often visitors leave your site and ultimately boost conversions.
SSL certificates are data files that confirm that your website and web server are connected securely using public key cryptography. Your website can encrypt every message sent to it with your private key, which is known only to your server. However, the public key found in your certificate is the only way to decrypt this message.
A reliable Certificate Authority (CA) creates and issues SSL certificates. There are various types of certificates, and each one is determined by the degree of validation.
The SSL certificates are categorized into multiple forms based on validation levels and multiple domains/subdomains. Each certificate is used to verify and safeguard your domain, company, several domains, and subdomains:
Category One: SSL Validation Levels
SSL/TLS certificates are available in three validation levels:
-
Domain Validation (DV SSL) Certificates
The most popular and basic form of SSL certificate is called DV SSL. A domain validation SSL certificate lets you verify that you are the legitimate owner of your website's domain name. They are simple to obtain and can be issued in just five minutes.
Because they provide complete encryption and fundamental trust indicators, this kind of certificate is perfect for internal testing domains or even blog entries. A DV certificate is not recommended for eCommerce websites that handle financial or personal data. If your website falls into that category, choose an SSL certificate type that requires more thorough validation (ideally, extended validation or EV SSL).
-
Organization Validation (OV SSL) Certificates
An OV SSL certification is one step above a DV certificate when comparing different types of SSL certificates on the basis of their validation levels. This is done because it demands you to verify not only that your business owns a domain but also that it is authorized through a series of steps. Among these validation requirements are:
-
Organization authentication: This process confirms the existence of your company or organization.
-
Verification of locality presence: This checks if your organization is authorized to operate from its registered address.
-
Phone verification: This method allows the certificate authority to confirm that the organization is reachable by phone and listed in a reliable internet directory.
-
Domain verification: It enables the CA to confirm that the registered domain belongs to your company.
-
Final verification call: In this final step, the CA must contact you or another organizational representative over the phone to confirm the specifics of your SSL certificate order.
-
Extended Validation (EV SSL) Certificates
EV SSL is significantly superior to the other two validation levels. Extended validation calls for a thorough validation of the business in addition to your domain. As a result of this thorough validation, web browsers may show your verified company name in the web address bar. This promotes greater trust or authenticity, which can have a significant positive impact on your bottom line.
Users are more likely to convert, create purchases, and provide information on your website when they have the assurance that their financial and personal information is secure due to EV SSL certificates.
Category Two: Types of SSL Certificates Based on Multiple Domains and Subdomains
This category includes certificates that can be used to secure subdomains and multiple domains (SANs). This definition applies to three types of SSL certificates:
-
Single Domain SSL Certificate
If you want to secure a single domain, it's helpful to know that there are options. The most common type of SSL certificate is a single domain certificate, which can be used to secure:
-
Your domain's "WWW" version (www.domain.com) and its non-"WWW" version (domain.com), OR
-
Just a single *.domain.com subdomain.
-
Wildcard SSL Certificate
Wildcard SSL certificates protect and secure every first-level subdomain on your web page that shares the same main domain. You can use a single wildcard certificate to protect an unlimited number of subdomains, so whether you have two or five thousand subdomains, you're covered. Choosing a wildcard SSL certificate has several benefits:
-
Permits the creation of an infinite number of subdomains.
-
Protects new subdomains automatically without needing to be reissued, making it a "future-proof" certificate.
-
Simplifies managing SSL/TLS certificates easier.
-
Provides limitless server licenses.
-
Multi-Domain SSL Certificate
A multi-domain certificate (MDC) is an affordable and flexible option for website validation if you want to secure multiple domains. You can use a single certificate to secure all of these distinct top-level domains (TLDs), for instance, if your primary domain is mydogsaccessories.com and you also own mydogsaccessories.net, mydogsaccessories.biz, and mydogsaccessories.co.uk. Each of these is regarded as a subject-alternative domain (SAN) domain, and they can all be covered by a single SAN/multi-domain certificate.
Here are the following benefits of choosing multi-domain SSL certificate:
-
Securing multiple domains (SANs).
-
A site seal from the CA of your choice.
-
Streamline the certification process.
-
Licenses for an infinite number of servers.
-
Multi-Domain Wildcard SSL Certificate
When it comes to SSL certificates, a multi-domain wildcard certificate is a master of all trades. It is the most versatile type of SSL certificate because you can benefit from both multi-domain and wildcard certificates in a single, easily managed SSL/TLS certificate. You can protect an unlimited number of subdomains and up to 250 domains, depending on the CA, without having to deal with managing multiple certificates. It saves you a great deal of money, time, and effort.
These kinds of SSL certificates provide the following benefits:
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an internet protocol for establishing secure connections between clients and web servers. It encrypts all data transfers, preventing third parties from stealing sensitive information like login credentials and credit card numbers. By enhancing search engine optimization and website security, getting an SSL certificate can make your website rank higher than that of a competitor.
Oxtrys is a cloud hosting and dedicated server provider that offers affordable SSL certificates on dedicated servers for website security. You can use affordable SSL Certificate solutions to promote your visitors' trust. Make sure your online security is protected by getting in touch with us right now to discover the ideal SSL certificate for your business.