5 Good Reasons To Smarten Up and Get Your Website Secure

It’s free, good for your business, your customers will notice it and it will boost your Google rankings!

What is it?

A web site padlock is a small green padlock that is displayed in the far left hand side of your browser bar.

It indicates your website is protecting sensitive information as it travels across the internet – using data encryption (SSL certificates). Whilst it’s by most peoples standards a particularly dry topic and would cause you to switch off – today you shouldn’t and here’s 5 good reasons why.

1. Boost your Google rankings

Google uses SSL as a ranking factor when displaying results. So web sites without SSL will be ranked lower than those sites with SSL.

2. It’s now free

For many years data encryption SSL has been the preserve of big business, expensive and complicated to setup. Well now it’s free and simple to implement. An organisation called Let’s Encrypt has been established to bring encryption to the masses.

• Free: Anyone who owns a domain name can use Let’s Encrypt to obtain a trusted certificate at zero cost.
• Automatic: Software running on a web server can interact with Let’s Encrypt to painlessly obtain a certificate, securely configure it for use, and automatically take care of renewal.
• Secure: Let’s Encrypt will serve as a platform for advancing security best practices
• Transparent: All certificates issued or revoked will be publicly recorded and available for anyone to inspect.
• Open: It’s an open standard that others can adopt.

Most of the reputable web hosting providers are starting to offer the Let’s Encrypt service. So reach out to your hosting provider or website management company now and ask – don’t be left out in the cold whilst your competitors take advantage of this.

3. It’s good for you and your customers

For one simple reason it keeps the conversations between your website and your customer’s computer secure. Protecting you and your customer’s from hackers and identity thieves.

4. Your customers will notice

More and more internet users are starting to notice visual cues, such as a lock icon or a green bar, to make sure visitors know when their connection is secured. This means that they will trust your website more when they see these cues and will be more likely to buy from you.

5. You’ll need it if you intend to accept payments via your website

If you intend to accept any kind of payments on your website you absolutely must have an SSL certificate.

So don’t delay make that call to your website management company and ask for your free Let’s Encrypt certificate to be installed.

Prepared by: The Buzz Blog  | Buzz Web Consultancy