Imagine you’re sitting at your local coffee shop, sipping a nice piping hot cup of java, while you surf the internet with your laptop. You’re connected to the coffee shop’s wifi network, and everything seems normal. As you find some website that you like and want to find out more information, you go to their Contact Us page and type in your name, address, phone number, email, and maybe even a password for a new account.
Little do you know, there’s someone else in the coffee shop that’s not really there to read the news, but to steal your data. If you’re connected to a website that isn’t secured with an SSL certificate, you might be the next victim of that hacker.
These types of scenarios do happen, and worse yet, they are becoming more common. If you want your potential clients/visitors to trust your website, then you should strongly consider having an SSL Certificate installed by a professional webmaster.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates are installed on the webserver where a website is hosted. You can think of an SSL Certificate as a “key” to encrypted data. When a visitor connects to a website with HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure), the webserver sends the browser it’s certificate, which enables your browser to receive and send encrypted data.
Here are 3 major reasons why SSL Certificates are important:
Encrypted Data
When visitors connect to your website, and SSL Certificate gives them a private connection, where data passing between the browser and the server cannot be seen easily by some bad actor attempting to intercept the data. So for example, when someone goes to your Contact Us for, types in their information like, name, address, phone number, or maybe even a credit card, this data is sent to the server when the visitor hits the send button. If you have an SSL Certificate installed on your server, that means that the connection is private and all data transmitted is in an encrypted format.
Search Rankings
Back in 2014, Google decided to include SSL (HTTPS) as a ranking factor in search results. While the ranking factor was initially a lower priority, in 2017, Google will be adding more importance to SSL in order to push ALL WEBSITES to use SSL. In fact, if you’re website is not secured with an SSL Certificate, the Google Chrome browser will start identifying websites as insecure starting in January 2017.
Credibility
Privacy has become an increasingly important topic for all devices that are connected to the Internet. In fact, in a survey by Pew Research, it was found that 86% of users have taken some level of steps to protect their privacy. Therefore, when visitors come to your website, they will be more and more aware of what that little green lock means up next to your website URL. And if it’s not there, they may decide to go elsewhere.
Don’t wait until it’s too late! Give your visitors the privacy they deserve and the credibility you need by having an SSL Certificate installed on your web server. Contact Monster Tamer Web Services for more information.
