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Are you aware that 43% of cyber-attacks are targeted toward small businesses? But it does not mean big names in the industry are not immune to cybersecurity threats. In February 2018, My Fitness Pal faced a data breach attack that impacted 150 million of its users.
If you own a business, maintaining security should be your main concern because 71% of breaches are financially motivated. Implementing an SSL certificate is one of the most practical steps you can take to safeguard your business information and customer data.
Today, many website owners are switching from HTTP to HTTPS. But it is not solely for security reasons. Once you buy an SSL certificate and install it, you will gain many benefits. Boosting your SEO game and increasing sales, authenticating your business identity, gaining customer trust, and becoming PCI DSS compliant are some SSL cert perks that you get along with the security gain.
Let us go through the five ways in which SSL certificates can improve your business.
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Beef up your website security
You must have heard about the recent largest-ever DDoS cyber-attack targeted on Amazon, the giant e-commerce store. Luckily, they were about to thwart it, thanks to their AWS Shield.
But not every business is prepared to tackle cyber-attacks.In fact, 73% of small businesses do not have a cybersecurity strategy.
Among the rest 27%, administrators who have an AWS SysOps certification maintain data integrity, monitor performance, and create backups to manage disaster recovery.
Installing an SSL certificate cannot guarantee that your website will never be hacked. But it can encrypt the link between a server and a client. Thus, all the sensitive information, including your credit card numbers, social security numbers, and passwords, can be transmitted securely on your website.
The certificate encryption strength will be determined by the number of bits present in the key to encrypt data. The bigger the number, the harder it will be for hackers to decrypt the enciphered data.
An SSL certificate can help you provide a safer customer experience, which is crucial for a business website. Plus, it will discourage scammers from attempting phishing attacks and DDoS attacks.
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Boost your SEO game and increase traffic
One of the main reasons why people do not engage with a website is because they are receiving “Not Secure” warning signs. The popular browser Google Chrome with a global market share of 65.47% has changed its indicators to alert web browsers that a website using HTTP is not secure.
Many heed this warning sign and flee. And in the process, you lose traffic.
Moreover, in 2014, Google announced SSL as a ranking signal. Though the impact might not be very strong, its benefits show when incorporated with other SEO strategies. In order to increase your business website conversion, you need quality traffic. An SSL cert can help you gain more followers.
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Authenticate your business identity
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Would you be willing to share your information or purchase a product from a business website that you aren’t sure is genuine? Probably, not. Likewise, customers would hesitate to shop from your site if your business is not authenticated.
An SSL cert can authenticate your business as you have to undergo an identity verification process before the certificate is issued to you. A trusted CA who issues the digital cert will perform the verification. If you are an e-commerce site, it is advisable to use an EV cert as they have the most thorough selection process. Customers who click on the padlock can view your certificate details. EV certs bring higher transparency and security.
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Gain customer trust and improve customer experience
Whenever you Buy SSL Certificate, you can obtain a trust seal that you can display on your website. Since it is an indication that your site is secure and you care about the customers, people will be more willing to associate with your business.
It is said that 70% of customers would cancel orders online because of trust issues. 48% of potential shoppers say that their decision to purchase a product is affected by the presence of trust marks on a website.
Moreover, people do value customer experience to the extent of paying more for a product. SSL cert can enhance the customer experience by offering more safety.
And websites secured by SSL can’t be cloned, which adds to the benefits your business can avail.
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Stay PCI DSS compliant
It depends on where you have registered your business and the kind of data that is gathered or transmitted on your site, but installing an SSL/TLS could be obligatory to stay PCI DSS compliant, especially if your business requires you to process card payments.
As per the requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, every website that processes card payments should be secured by a TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3 to prevent card information theft.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, an SSL certificate can bring plenty of benefits to your business, and it all comes from keeping your site secure. It can encrypt the data on your site, improve SEO rankings & increase traffic, build customer trust, and help your business comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requirements.
When you buy an SSL certificate, make sure that you are obtaining it from a trusted CA as many browsers will not recognize a self-signed cert or certificate from an untrusted CA. When implemented along with other online security measures, installing an SSL cert can have a strong, positive impact on your business.
