The importance of SSL certificate for your website

SSL certificate has a huge impact on your website for many reasons. SSL encrypted sites can boost users' experience. It also helps your website to make search engine friendly.

What is an SSL certificate?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer.  An SSL certificate is an encryption system that is a digital authenticity of a website. It creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. It makes internet connections secure and prevents criminals from using data transferred between two systems. This data includes potentially sensitive information such as personal details, credit card numbers, transaction data, and so on. SSL encrypted sites show a lock icon next to the domain name on the address bar.

How do SSL certificates work?

SSL encrypts data transferred between users and web servers, or between two systems under a process. 

The process works like this:

1. A browser attempts to connect to an (SSL certified) website server. 
2. The browser requests that the web server identify itself.
3. The web server sends the browser a copy of its SSL certificate in the response.
4. The browser requests to be encrypted if that SSL certificate can make trust.
5. The web server then returns a digitally signed acknowledgment to start a new SSL encrypted session.
6. Encrypted data is shared between the browser and the webserver.

Why do you need an SSL certificate?

An SSL certificate is not only essential for website visitors but also vital for website owners also. SSL is a big issue for website SEO, which leads to bringing the users to your website. After getting valuable users it is time to make trust that is why they will come back again to your website. By securing their information and data you can gain trust. 

Here are some points that is why you need an SSL certificate:

1. SSL Protects Data

To protect user-sensitive data you need to set SSL encryption system on your website. SSL pro product users communicated data from being hacked. The encrypted data only be visible to the intendant recipient whom the sender trust, all the data not even be unlocked by anyone. 

It is a very advanced encryption system that is almost unbreakable.

An SSL certificate makes secure information such as:

• Login credentials
• Credit card transactions
• Bank account information
• Personally identifiable information
• Legal documents
• Medical records
• Proprietary information

2. SSL Affirms Your Identity

SSL certificates provide your website authentication. This means you are ensuring your website visitors that you are sending information to the right server and no criminal trying to steal your information. Without proper authentication, a website can't become fully secured. One of the essential tasks of an SSL certificate is to provide identity to a website. 

3. Better Search Engine Ranking: 

It is very important to make your website encrypted using an SSL certificate to make your website SEO friendly. Because it is a very high ranking factor of Google after 2014. Google always try to show more perfect website on their search page, and the Google algorithm gives the upper hand to HTTPS-enabled websites. 

5. SSL Improves Customer Trust: 

To gain visitors' trust you must have to set up an SSL certificate on your website. Nowadays almost everybody is aware of security due to frequent security issues occurring in daily life. Even sometimes browsers prevent users from visiting unsafe websites which are not SSL encrypted. 

Encrypted websites show a sign next to your URL, it looks like a lock icon or a green bar. When visitors will see that sign, they will have to think 'oh it is the safest website to use.'

But your website is still could be shown as unsecured even after setting up an SSL certificate. You have to manually check your .htaccess file on your root folder and enable HTTPS redirection, which automatically redirects users' HTTP to HTTPS. Https refers that the site is encrypted and secured. 

6. Safety for all your subdomains: 

A specific type of SSL certificate known as a Wildcard allows you to secure your main domain as well as all your subdomains. Subdomains are separate from the main domain, and it is likely to be a new website. You need to secure your subdomain as well. 

Types of SSL certificate

• Extended Validation certificates (EV SSL)
• Organization Validated certificates (OV SSL)
• Domain Validated certificates (DV SSL)
• Wildcard SSL certificates
• Multi-Domain SSL certificates (MDC)
• Unified Communications Certificates (UCC)

Final thought 

Along with an SSL certificate, you should make your website perfect in every aspect, that is how your website will be more attractive and professional. It is not so easy task to maintain a website properly, so you can use some tools to analyze your website. Keep checking and solving issues regularly, it will boost up your website's overall performance. 

SSL encryption is just a part of making your website performance better by ensuring quality and security, but it is a vital part.