In a world where online transactions and e-commerce are a daily occurrence, it’s imperative to take the appropriate security measures to keep your customer’s data safe and instil trust at every level.
This is where having a recognised SSL Certificate on your website can really hold some clout. It’s not just about having the certificate for all to see, but more about what the certificate means for keeping your customer’s data safe and secure and making them aware of this.
What Does an SSL Certificate Do?
Before we look at whether you need an SSL Certificate or not, it’s important to understand exactly what they do and how they work. For any business operating online, SSL certificates are an integral part of keeping the internet secure.
SSL Certificates work by encrypting any data that is sent across the Internet – whether it’s credit card details, email addresses, usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information. This encryption makes it unreadable, so as it passes from computer to computer to reach its final destination server, only the intended recipient will be able to read the encryption. This ensures it doesn’t get into the hands of hackers or identity thieves.
In addition to encryption, SSL Certificates also provide authentication of the recipient so customers can be sure that their details are being sent to the right server and they are only issued to companies that have passed a number of identity checks to ensure they are authentic.
Why Should My Clients Have SSL Certificates?
If you conduct any business online that requires payment or regular transactions, then you should definitely look at obtaining an SSL Certificate.
Besides the obvious point of keeping sensitive data safe and secure, you will also benefit from gaining your customer’s trust, which is an exceptionally valuable commodity when it comes to customer retention. SSL Certificates will give your customers visual assurance that they are on a secure site, such as a lock icon or green bar next to the URL. If they trust you with their data once, they’re likely to keep coming back time and time again
SSL Certificates can also help in other ways such as SEO performance, as Google is increasingly using web security to calculate a website’s ranking factor.
In answer to our initial question of whether you should recommend SSL Certificates to your clients, we would definitely say ‘yes’. The advantages of using SSL Certificates will far outweigh any initial cost outlay and it will give you and your customer peace of mind and complete confidence with all online transactions.
