Your website used to need an SSL Certificate if you were asking for any personal information, such as a potential customer filling out an enquiry form. However search engines and browsers are providing even more reasons to have an SSL Certificate in place.
SSL-secured websites display a padlock in the URL bar if they are secure, or an opened padlock if they're not. The websites are also served under slightly different 'addresses' or URLs. Note that this website uses "https://" rather than "http://" which the older more insecure protocol.
Many browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and others have began issuing warnings that non-https sites are insecure. They do this by displaying a warning page ahead of the website itself that discourages potential customers from going further - Ie. Actually visiting your website.
Google recently announced that SSL will form part of their weighting criteria. This means that unless you have SSL your site will become harder to find, impacting on your traffic and revenue. Competitors that have SSL in place will likely be shown ahead of your website in Google's organic search results.
The type of SSL Certificate you require will vary depending on the nature of your website, the importance of any data held and the size of your organisation. For most small businesses a self-renewing LetsEncrypt certificate is the easiest and most economic option. Prices are from $70 + GST, but we'll confirm pricing based on your individual case.
For larger organisations or extranets a different certificate may be best such as an extended validation (EV) certificate which display the organisation name in the URL bar. These require a higher level of 'proof' of the organisations existence and more documentation is required.
We can take a look and give you advice to implement an SSL Certificate for your organisation's website - just use the form below.
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