With respect to having an SSL certificate, starting in July 2018, to Google, it is not going to matter whether you sell anything online or not. If your website does not have an SSL certificate, Google is going to flag your website as “Not secure.” Meaning, the first thing a visitor or customer to your website will see in the URL bar is, “Not Secure.”

If you have signup forms, contact forms, search bars, login panels, once they begin to fill those forms out they will again see, the “Not Secure” warning.

What does SSL stand for anyway and what are the benefits?

One way to describe it would be the new “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and is the standard for encryption software. Meaning the information becomes unreadable except to the server the information is being sent to.  This will give your visitors trust that your website is secure.

How will my visitors suddenly know my website is secure? A couple of ways, first they will see a padlock and HTTPS in front of your domain address versus HTTP. Your benefits of installing an SSL certificate will be:

• Improves the speed of your website.
• Visitors experience becomes better on an https website.
• A better ranking in the search engine.
• You will be seen as a trustworthy brand.
• Google won’t brand you as “Not secure.”

We’ve all heard and some have experienced the skills that cybercriminals have. Yes, while not a skill I would want to put on my resume, it is a skill. If you don’t have an SSL certificate on your website, they will identify the weaknesses in your network and work to attain the information they are looking for.

“Cybersecurity Ventures estimates cybersecurity damages will cost the world over $6 trillion annually by 2021.”

Cybercriminals are continually refining their software to obtain your information or inject malware into your website. There is nothing worse than when a potential customer lands on your website and is redirected to a website you don’t even want to talk about.

Do you need an SSL certificate?

Do you need help installing one?

Let’s talk.