Want to skyrocket your business? The best way to do so is undoubtedly getting it on the world wide web. In this advancing world where everybody needs the internet for their tasks, spending a day at ease without it seems impossible.

With the increase in the adoption of the internet over the years. There are now more people to avail of your services or use your products. But if we talk about running a business on the world wide web, it is not as simple as it seems – and it is mostly due to the online threats.

For you to deliver a product or render a service, you need some information from the client. But how do you ensure that the end-user trusts you and will convert on your website? The threat to the data transmitted being stolen has increased rapidly, with the hackers getting more advanced by the day.

There is not a day that goes by without hearing about some fraud or identity theft. One of the significant risks regarding identity theft while the data being transmitted happens via man in the middle (MITM) attacks. This occurs when the perpetrator intercepts the communication between the two parties and succeeds in stealing the exchanged information.

Many big, once successful companies had a hard time mostly because of the reason that their online stores were not secure enough and so the conversion rates dropped. It is important to remember that to be successful; you have to ‘earn’ the customer’s trust.

One of the best ways to do so is to buy a cheap SSL certificate for your site. With more people becoming concerned about their security on the worldwide web, having an SSL certificate is a must.

What is SSL?

SSL, also known as a secure socket layer, turns the HTTP protocol carrying the plain text into Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). SSL works by encrypting the information so that only the endpoints of transmission know how to encrypt or decrypt it.

The data is encoded before being put up on the transfer channel and is decoded at the end. Hence, even if hackers or some malware succeed in getting hold of the information being transmitted, they will not be able to make sense of what they stole. Thus, SSL helps to keep the client free from the most common cyber-crimes, and his/her identity remains safe. 

Role of an SSL certificate

SSL certificates act as a shield and combat your client against the attacks that occur during data transfer. To become successful on the internet, the most crucial factor is ‘trust.’ If your website does not provide a safe environment for your customers, it is unlikely that they would make purchases or revisit your site. This is the root problem that an SSL certificate helps you solve. Having an SSL certificate lays a foundation of trust between you – the owner and the end-user.

These certificates are issued by trusted third parties called certificate authorities (CA). These authorities ensure that a secure and encoded network is created between the communicating parties. By encrypting the data, they make sure that no malware or hacker steals your personal information while being transferred.

Kinds of SSL certificates

The certificate authorities are entrusted with the task of authenticating the domain name and company who has applied for an SSL certificate. There are three types of certificates based on the level of validation that takes place:

• Domain Validated (DV) SSL certificates

These certificates are known to have a least-strict level of validation. In this case, the CA or certificate authority only verifies that the domain that applied for a certificate is controlled by a valid organization and is not a fraud.

After this simple proofing, a Domain Validation SSL certificate is provided to the concerned website. This has been the cheapest way to obtain a certificate and can be attained easily via email. To verify, you can alter the DNS record associated with the domain or upload a file that is supplied by CA to the domain. This is usually an automated process. 

When these certificates are granted to a website, a padlock is shown to left of the site’s address window. This kind of certificate is considered a good option for sites that are not involved in selling products – such as blogs and small businesses. 

• Organization Validated (OV) SSL certificates

These kinds of certificates have a modest level of validation and involve a manual examining process. The certificate authority authenticates the organization that made an application, though not with a lot of details. Further, they investigate more and contact the organization to ensure that it is not a fraud and is a safe site for users.

Humans do this, so it costs comparatively a little more than DV certificates. This process takes a few days to get issued. This SSL certificate provides information such as the ownership of the domain and the address of the company. 

When these certificates are issued, a certificate is shown with the concerned details of the website. These OV certificates are commonly used for S/MIME email certificates, document signing, client authentication, and code signing.

• Extended validated (EV) SSL certificates

These certificates are known to have the strictest level of validation. The certificate authorities execute a complete background check of the organization that has applied for an EV SSL certificate. The authority checks the legal existence of the company and even their physical location.

It also ensures that the organization is aware of the SSL certificate signing request made in their name and only approves it. Due to a high-level human involvement, it costs the most among all SSL certificates. This process may take some weeks because of the deep level of verification that takes place. 

The browser URL turning green indicates that an EV SSL certificate has been issued to that particular site. These certificates are usually bought by companies that handle sensitive customer data such as credit card numbers and passwords. For instance, e-commerce stores and banks.

Validation in A Browser:

Here is a high-level description of the validation process used by client browsers when interacting with a site that uses SSL:

• The website presents its SSL certificate to the browser, validated by the browser against the CA that issued it.
• All browsers come with a pre-installed list of all significant Certificate Authority’s public keys. The signed certificate is verified, and using the associated public key; the data is decrypted and shown in an understandable form. 
• Once authenticated, a secure HTTPS connection is established between the browser and the website using SSL.
• All certificates come with a private key that encrypts the data from the server’s end.
• The encrypted data is transferred securely and, on the other end, is decrypted in the web browser. The same mechanism is used in the reverse direction.

Conclusion:

So what are you waiting for? Buy a cheap SSL certificate, one of the most cost-efficient and best ways to earn the customer’s trust and make your site secure for customer data exchange. Having an SSL certificate will increase your conversion rates and expand your business across boundaries you would have never imagined. You also stand to gain from an SEO boost, which means free targeted organic traffic – eventually leading to an increase in your bottom line.