Why SSL certificates are important

SSL certificatesSecurityWebsite development
Written By Angela Hoskins

In 2017, Google's Chrome update marked websites without an SSL certificate with a warning 'Not Secure'.

If your site doesn't have an SSL certificate, it seems like a matter of time before Firefox throws up an error message something like:

Firefox message on website connections to sites that do not have an SSL certificate or if the certificate is not strong enough and can't be validated. The message states 'the owner of this site has configured their website improperly. To protect you…

According to Hubspot, 82% of visitors will turn away from visiting a site or would leave a site on learning that it is not secure.

SSL certificates matter

SSL (secure locket layer) certificates are important for all websites for the following reasons:

  • SSL certificates provide a secure connection between your site server and your visitors’ web browser. For ecommerce customers and general site visitors, an SSL certificate provides trust: important information like passwords, personal and credit card details are secure and protected by encryption when a site has an SSL certificate.

  • SEO (search engine optimisation). According to SearchEngineLand, Google’s ranking boost on search engine result pages for sites with an SSL certificate may serve as a tie breaker between two sites: if your website is equal to a competitor’s website in terms of speed, title tags, up-to-date and fresh content, but your competitor’s website has an SSL certificate and yours doesn't, Google will likely rank your competitor’s site higher than your site.

  • An SSL certificate is a digital public document that verifies that a legitimate company owns the website which is being accessed.

How do you know if a site has an SSL certificate?

In you browser's URL window, in front of the web address, you’ll see a green padlock,  with protocol notated as HTTPS if the site has an SSL certificate.

Websites without an SSL certificate do not have secure green padlock icon, with the protocol indicated as HTTP.

How do you organise an SSL certificate for your site?

Your website hosting company will likely offer SSL certificates for either a monthly or annual fee. Squarespace sites all come with SSL certificates built into their annual fee. 

For further information, see this great article by Andrea Zanin.

All websites developed by Site Content come with SSL certificates. 

Angela Hoskins

Built my first site in 2000 and steadily learned what it takes to make websites work. Dabbled in WordPress back then, still do. Since building my first Squarespace site in 2016, I’ve been impressed with the relatively streamlined approach to website design and development that Squarespace offers compared to WordPress. SEO was a major challenge from the start — I’ve spent a lot of time keeping up with what’s required to get sites working, ranking well on a SERP. I have confidence with what Squarespace offers for SEO.

Having worked for more than 10 years in the web team of an inland, regional university in Australia and dealing with frustrations that come with working for a large corporate enterprise, the idea of setting up my own web design business became my goal.

Set up my business in late 2017. Opted for a sea change, too: I now live on Coochiemudlo Island 45 minutes from Brisbane. Love working from home. Love working for small business clients. Still get casual work with the university.

Challenges? The main one is pricing my work for small businesses. Doing quality work, doing the research to be up to date in the industry, takes time; it’s hard to factor in this time to my pricing while being competitive in the market and affordable for many small businesses.

https://sitecontent.com.au
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