What are SSL Certificates and How Can They Help Your Website?

Your website needs to gain the trust of your website visitors and one of the ways to do that is with an SSL certificate.

When the concept of ecommerce was first bandied around, many people didn’t quite trust it. After all, just how comfortable would people be in giving away their credit card info to a faceless website? It took a while to gain that level of trust from consumers, and SSL certificates were a crucial factor.

What is SSL?

An SSL certificate signifies that a website uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Setting aside the technical mumbo-jumbo, what this essentially means is that the website is reasonably secure.
Firstly, the security is provided by encrypting sensitive information. The data a web user transmits to a site is in plain text and this means that any eavesdroppers (a.k.a. hackers) who intercept the data can just read the info easily. That’s not exactly a good thing if you’re transmitting your financial details, because Internet criminals can get your credit card info and use it to make purchases online. Hackers can also intercept login information, and it can publish a user’s membership in websites that may be embarrassing, like porn websites and dating websites for married members.

The other security layer here is that the website has also been confirmed by a reputable third party—it’s proof that it is owned and operated by a real company. Some criminals put up fake websites, with the goal of tricking people to give out their personal data. This is called phishing.

Issuing an SSL Certificate

The SSL Certificate is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA), which is a company that verifies a website has the proper security and identity. A web browser has a built-in list of CAs it recognises, so if a site has the requisite SSL certificate, then it will display a very visible sign. Usually, this means that HTTPS is used instead of HTTP, it’s in green or there’s a green bar on the address bar, or there’s a “lock” icon on display.

What this SSL certificate says is that the CA has verified that the particular site has the proper encryption. It also says that if you enter the website of your bank, then that website is really operated by that bank and not by anyone else.

So How Does an SSL Certificate Help You?

If you’re still wondering about this, then you’re thinking too much like a website manager and not as a website user. Using a website is all about trust, especially when money and credit card info are on the line. Gartner Research did a study on this and found out that almost 70% of online shoppers stopped their online order simply because they didn’t trust the transaction. The study also found that 64% of shoppers would have gone through with the transaction had there been a sign of a trust mark.

So there you have it. Normally, if you have 100 shoppers with the clear intention of buying, 70 of them will change their mind. But with an SSL certificate, a green bar, a lock icon, or the use of “https” instead of just “http”, you will be able to get back 64 out of those 70 to purchase. That makes SSL certificates a very worthwhile investment.