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SSL Certificate: What is It and Why Do You Need It for Your E-commerce Website?

This article will tell you five reasons why an SSL security is vital for your e-commerce business.

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SSL Certificate

Life has become quite comfortable with the advancement of technology in the last few years. Today we can find any information easily by doing a simple Google search about it. But with technology evolving every second, the number of cybercrimes is also growing. People using the internet and various types of websites are prone to many kinds of cyberattacks. And it is a subject of considerable concern because, in many of these attacks, people’s personal and confidential information stays at stake. So, it is no surprise that several technologies and solutions have also been developed to help people keep their communications secure over the internet.  7 Best SEO Practices That Can Boost Your E-Commerce Sales

SSL certificates are also one of those solutions. Though they are of crucial importance for any business, for e-commerce sites, their importance is much more. This article will tell you five reasons why SSL security is vital for your e-commerce business. But before that, let us go through a quick introduction to these certificates. The Importance Of UX in E-commerce Business

What is an SSL Certificate?

SSL certificates provide a secure browsing experience by ensuring that the user’s information is transferred to the intended destination only. They achieve this by enabling HTTPS, which guarantees secure transmission of data over the internet. When a user sends some information to a website (let us say username-password), it travels over the internet to reach that site’s server. As it passes through the various internet networks, someone who uses the same network or has access to the network infrastructure can capture the data being sent. SSL security prevent this from happening by doing all data transfer over secure HTTPS protocol. 

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Need for SSL Certificate in E-commerce Websites: 5 Reasons

When customers buy something from e-commerce sites, they crave for a secure browsing experience. The first step to ensure such an experience is an SSL Certificate. It is essential for all websites, but e-commerce websites need it more than others. Why? Well, here are five reasons:

#1. It encrypts sensitive information

When the data is transmitted between server and user, it travels through a network (internet). That network may be accessible to many 3rd parties (in case of a public Wi-Fi), or many intermediaries (i.e., government, Internet service providers) even in a private network. Suppose the data is not encrypted, which is the default situation. Then it may be exposed to the cybercriminals who use the same network or to the intermediaries involved in the control and management of that network. This can put the integrity and confidentiality of data in great danger. Bring sensitive data such as IDs, passwords, credit, and debit card numbers, etc. into the equation, and you can imagine how dangerous this problem can be. 

Here SSL security come into play to ensure secure transfer of data by encrypting the data before transmission. Encrypted data packets, even if captured by someone, cannot be used to extract any information. Information can be extracted only after decrypting the data packets through a private key, which exists on your server. 

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#2. It verifies your website identity

Many times, hackers make fake websites for tricking users. They can also create a cloned copy of your website for tricking your users. When a user submits data to such a website, it is sent to the hacker’s server and not yours. The only way out of this problem is by verifying your website so that your users can identify it easily among all the fake ones. 

How to get your website authenticated? The answer again brings you to the SSL security. The verification of your website is done when the SSL certificate is generated and issued for it. You go through a validation process, executed by a third party known as Certificate Authority (CA) before they create an SSL certificate in your name and issue it.

The verification depth mostly depends on the validation type that you choose for your certificate. There are three validation types available to choose from:

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● Domain Validation: It is the most affordable and easy choice. The verification depth is least in this case, as the CA only verifies the domain control rights in this case.

Organization Validation: This type of validation includes your company name and address to ensure that you are a genuine business. If you are applying for the OV SSL certificate, you must prove that your organization is real, requiring some documentary proof of existence. 

Extended Validation: This type of validation comes with the highest level of trust and reliability. It requires your company to be in business for more than three years, and only an employee of your organization who has the authority to sign a certificate request and a subscriber agreement can apply for it. 

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After an SSL certificate is issued as per your requested validation level and installed on your server, a green padlock is shown as an indicator of verification on your website. It appears before your URL in the address bar, which means that your website is authentic and validated, and users can trust you with their personal information. It becomes a unique feature of your site that can be checked easily by the customers to avoid being tricked with a fake site.

#3. It helps your SEO

A website with little traffic is worthless as it cannot attract as many customers as deserved by your business. Wasting time on such websites is a dead-end process and cannot get you anything in return. So, to get the maximum ROI, you need to make your website popular. A higher ranking in the search results of Google can help you achieve this. But the thing is, the absence of an SSL security can become a roadblock here too. There was a time when websites were only required to have good content and be unique and creative for high search engine rankings, but now Google says that only a website with an SSL certificate installed can get a high ranking in its search results. They started using this as a ranking signal way back in 2014.

#4. It increases customer trust

With the increased rate of cybercrimes, customers are becoming more careful in their use of the internet. Now they know how to look for various security elements to see whether a website is safe or not. A website without SSL certificate loads over the default HTTP protocol, and a ‘Not Secure’ label shows before its URL in the address bar. As you can imagine, it is enough to demotivate the customer from browsing your site. 

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A webpage with an SSL certificate installed, on the other hand, shows a grey padlock of security in place of that Not Secure label, which informs the customers that the webpage is safe. Therefore, they feel safe to buy from your website. 

Therefore, an SSL security is also essential for an e-commerce site to gain the trust of customers.

#5. PCI DSS requirements mandate it

If you are planning to accept online payments from your website, then you must fulfill all the requirements of Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). As their name suggests, these standards have been drafted by the Payment Cards Industry, and without following them, you cannot get approved by any payment gateway to receive online payments. There are 12 requirements that you need to fulfill under PCI DSS and installing an SSL certificate is also one of those requirements.

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Conclusion

Securing your customers’ information should be the priority of any website if they want to earn the trust of their visitors. Installing an ssl for ecommerce website takes you one step closer to achieving that trust. And if you are an e-commerce website owner, it becomes even more crucial for you due to all the reasons given above. So, get it installed on your site today!

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