The short answer is: yes. Any commercial or secure website needs an SSL certificate if asking for personal information. Additionally, if your company relies heavily on internet traffic for basic marketing, brand awareness, sales or ecommerce purposes then you absolutely need them. Why?
The eCommerce and online world has many data breaches, and they’re rapidly growing. Every website owner should think about bolstering their site security because without SSL, your site visitors and customers are at higher risk of being having their data stolen.
SSL certificates also ensure encrypted private data is sent securely. SSL protects website from phishing scams, data breaches, and many other threats. Ultimately, It builds a secure environment for both visitors and site owners.
From a marketing and sale standpoint, search engines are cracking down on perceived ‘non-secure’ websites. Any websites without an SSL certificate will remain http while those with encryption will show https in users’ browsers. Chrome, Firefox and other browsers have begun issuing warnings that non-https sites are insecure. For SEO purposes, Google recently announced SSL is a ranking signal, so unless you have SSL your site will be harder to find. This is a huge issue for any business who needs digital visibility in either B2B or B2C sales.
Lastly, failed audits and lack of compliance are the costliest and most serious threats to an organisation’s ability to minimize the risk of unsecured digital identities and avoid costly fines, and undermining trust with customers.
There are different ways to show visitors that your site is secure. There are certificates to let your site visitors see the SSL belongs to a verified organization whereas basic versions simply show HTTPS in your web address.
Different websites have different requirements for the type of SSL they need. The one appropriate for your domain depends on a few factors.
If you’re wondering how many SSL certificates you need, be aware that single-domain SSLs cover just one domain or a subdomain. These are available as Standard, OV, and EV. To secure multiple subdomains, opt for a Wildcard SSL, for example, you might secure yourdomain.com which would also cover any subdomains such as blog.yourdomain.com and shop.yourdomain.com. Wildcard SSL is available as Standard or OV certificates.
With over 74% of organisations facing website outages from expired certificates, we work with the team at Entrust Datacard to help our customers manage thousands of digital certificates that encrypt web data and authenticate servers.
Aside from offering the standard SSL certificate benefits of their competitors, the the Entrust Datacard uses advanced technology to automate SSL server testing for low scores, as well as giving automated notifications if a certificate violates policy. Customers can re-purpose certificates without an extra licence cost, as well as track rogue certificates. The custom reporting and dashboarding feature creates instant information access, as well as auto-install features that reduce errors and save installation time.
Recently, we have teamed up with the Entrust Datacard team to offer a ‘Buy Three Years for the Price of Two’ subscription model to customers who need to update their SSL certificates. This gives customers access to an automated subscription plan with unlimited server licensing and unlimited re-issues.
