Do I need an SSL certificate?

What is an SSL certificate?

An SSL certificate is a ‘digital certificate’ that authenticates the identity of a website and enables an encrypted connection.

Sounds great! But what does that actually mean?

You can think of SSL certificates like ‘electronic passports’. These passports establish a business’ identity online. An SSL certificate can ensure that a provider is who they claim to be and will initiate secure connections between users and the websites themselves.

Why is that important?

Let’s take online shopping as an example, something tens of millions of people do each day on the web. At some point in the checkout process, a user will enter personal information such as name, address, contact and payment information. This data now has to be sent to the website’s server so that the shopping order can be processed. Without an SSL certificate, this information is sent in plain text and can easily be read and even modified by hackers. 

Clearly this can lead to catastrophic problems for both users who are losing their personal data and businesses who are responsible for providing these services.

With an SSL certificate, users take advantage of the ‘HTTPS’ protocol. You might have seen this at the start of a web address in your browser address bar (https://www…), or indicated by a ‘padlock’ icon next to the address. Now your device has a secure connection with the website’s server, meaning your sensitive information is passed securely to the website with no way for hackers to intercept the data. The ‘encrypted’ data is jumbled up into large strings of random characters that only your device and the website know how to understand.

Now the online order can be placed in confidence and the user is no longer at threat of having any personal information sniffed out by hackers.

Does my website need an SSL certificate?

If you’ve read the example above, the answer to this should be clear. Yes!

Whether your website is a small portfolio website or a large scale e-commerce platform, your website should be using an SSL certificate. 

This guarantees that information sent between your website’s server and a user’s device is safe and secure. This is important enough to be recommended by the ICO under GDPR.

How do I get an SSL certificate?

SSL certificates can be purchased from a number of trusted suppliers online, such as DigiCert and Comodo.

Some web hosting companies will also offer certificates which can be purchased on top of your existing hosting plan.

After purchasing an SSL certificate, it will need to be installed on your website’s server. If you’ve purchased a certificate individually, this will usually require a developer or agency to install on your behalf. If you’ve purchased the certificate as part of your hosting plan, some hosting companies offer a ‘one click install’ where they will take care of the installation automatically.

Keep in mind that SSL certificates do expire. Once a certificate has expired a new one will need to be purchased and installed. SSL certificates typically expire after one year unless a longer period has been purchased.

How much do they cost?

The cost of a certificate can range between free and hundreds of pounds per year. This all depends on the type of certificate that suits your business and where you’ve chosen to purchase it from. 

Some organisations have very strict security requirements for their websites, which require the most recognised and trusted certificate providers, this is when the certificates start to get expensive! Otherwise most businesses certainly shouldn’t need to spend a lot of money on an SSL certificate to keep their site secure.

How can Shutter help?

Here at Shutter we believe that security, such as SSL certificates, should come as standard. That’s why we offer our clients a range of managed hosting plans which all include SSL certificates out of the box. 

Every website we manage is secured with an SSL certificate from the day it goes live. We provide the certificate, installation and renewal all on your behalf, so you can spend time focusing on what you do best.