Is an SSL certificate necessary for your website? The short answer: Absolutely! This article will give you all the details about SSL certificates, their importance, and the consequences of not having one. Currently, Google strongly encourages having an SSL certificate by continuing to list this as a ranking factor and by giving users a warning screen when entering an unsafe site, leading to higher bounce rates and less trust. If you don’t want to lose out on business due to an unsecured site, you need the help of a web design company who can address some of the more technical components of getting an SSL certificate.
How Beneficial & Important Is An SSL Certificate?
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate protects your personal information such as your email, user name, password, and credit card information, among other important things. Some sites run HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) in order to present the website to users. Others use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), the secured version of the former. With an SSL certificate, the transfer of data between the user browser and the website itself is protected. Without this layer of security, it is much easier for hackers or bots to catch the user data being submitted to the site for nefarious purposes.
While Google still gives you the option to use an SSL on your site or not, they have stated that it is a factor in ranking websites, and definitely a recommended feature for any site that wants to create trust with their clients, or that collects data, particularly credit card or payment info.
Consequences of Not Having an SSL
Google does punish websites for not having an SSL by obliquely redirecting their traffic and stunting their new users. When a search user clicks on an HTTP website, Google automatically serves them a warning page to tell them that the site they are about to visit is not secure. The search engine giant further deters traffic to unsecured sites by making users select more info and confirm that they want to visit an HTTP site. Searchers are looking for fast answers to their questions and are more likely to leave a website giving this warning than to click through to the site. Even when you get a user all the way to your landing page, even if it’s the best landing page in the world, you’ll still have to convince this lead that it is worth the security risk to purchase through your site, if you offer purchasing or booking options.
Making sure that your site complies with Google’s quality and ranking guidelines is important to the health and ranking of your business. For some sites, getting and SSL Certificate is easier than others.
The Easiest Way To Get A Secure Website Design
An efficient web design service will include SSL certification setup. If your web designer isn’t including this important ranking factor in their work, it’s time to look at other options. Visit https://webdesignottawa.com for more important information regarding website designs and services.
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