Ever visited a website only to see this warning pop up in the browser, “Not Secure” when you type in the address to view it? And, have you looked lately to see if your website is showing that to your viewers? If you haven’t checked lately, you might want to. Is your website secure?
Many prospects and customers won’t proceed past the “Not Secure” warning message they see when attempting to visit your site. A problem right? Solution? Yes…The answer?….
Ever visited a website only to see this warning pop up in the browser, “Not Secure” when you type in the address to view it? And, have you looked lately to see if your website is showing that to your viewers? If you haven’t checked lately, you might want to. Is your website secure?
Many prospects and customers won’t proceed past the “Not Secure” warning message they see when attempting to visit your site. A problem right? Solution? Yes…The answer?….
The answer to this situation is an SSL certificate. Without an SSL certificate, you could be losing business.
But what exactly is an SSL Certificate?
SSL Certificates use something called public-key cryptography. If that sparks your interest, then you are free to google it, otherwise, we’re going to keep it very simple here.
In layman’s terms, it’s a procedure that is used to secure credit card transactions, data transfer, logins, and for browsing social media sites.
Why Do I Need an SSL Certificate?
Again, SSL Certificates protect your sensitive information such as credit card information, usernames, passwords etc. But they can also assist in protecting data and keeping it secure between servers, increasing your Google Rankings, but mostly—increasing the trust of your customers.
But there’s more…
You know how sometimes you’ll see an “s” in the http:www…? Ever notice the addition of the “s” to that http part? And then, other times, it’s not there? That “s” stands for “secure” and shows that an SSL certificate is in place.
Where Do I Buy an SSL Certificate?
Good question. If you have a very experienced webmaster, they can handle this for you. If you talk to the person who does your website and they look a bit confused, or pause, or aren’t fluent in this language, look to a pro to get you set up right. Don’t try to wing it.
Do I need to do anything?
Yes. You need to understand and know who handles the hosting of your website? Where is your website hosted? Is it GoDaddy? Green Geeks? Other? If you don’t know, we can help you find out.
How Much Does it Cost?
SSL certificates can start at $75/yr. Yes, it’s a fee to protect you annually. But if you are set up correctly, and if someone is monitoring your credit card on file with that certificate to make sure you stay current, it’s not a big issue or hassle. Pretty simple. Just the charge for the certificate and the labor charge to get you all set up.
With that, you might want to be sure you look into it a bit further. Here is a recap of what you will want to ask your webmaster if you don’t already know the answers to the below:
- Where is your website hosted? What company hosts your site?
- Who is the person who set up the hosting for your website?
- Did they set up a certificate for you? Is your website secure?
- Who handles your website now? Do they know what an SSL Certificate is?
- Do you have the logins to your web hosting account?
- If not, does the person who handles your website have those logins?
- If you don’t know what we just said, again, give us a shout, we can help.
Here’s to keeping it safe and keeping your website experience for your customer positive and profitable.
— Stephanie
