Gone are the days where the masses took up the trouble of driving down to different shops to purchase items/accessories of any kind. After all, who would take up such a trouble, when they have the liberty of ordering anything without leaving the comforts of their home and that too with few mouse clicks? Yes, online shopping is booming with time and the master minds behind respective websites that cater accessories online are scrambling to lure in more customers. In such scenarios, gaining the trust of people who are looking to purchase online, becomes an absolute necessity. Not only the products you cater should be genuine but the website which showcases them should also be tagged with a trust label. One such trust label is known by the name Secure Socket Layer or SSL.
What is SSL?
SSL is a security protocol that plays a vital role in handling sensitive information like customer details in the most secure manner. The protocol is responsible for creating a secure/constantly monitored connection between a web browser and the server of the service provider. Apart from securing customer details, SSL certificate also ensures that the URLs and browsing history is encrypted. In the present scenario, most of the websites which are bound with money transaction of any form comes tagged with an SSL certificate, if you come across an online business website which is not SSL certified; it is always advised not to perform any transaction with it. There are three types of SSL certificates:
- Domain Validation (DV)
- Organizational Validation (OV)
- Extended Validation (EV)
Domain Validation (DV)
Domain Validation SSL certificate is literally used to prove the ownership of a domain. Literally transformed, this certificate is issued to a domain owner once it verifies that the domain is registered under his name. The CA verifies the domain owner in the WHOIS database and sends a mail to the registered domain owner, response to this mail is regarded as a confirmation and the certificate is issued. The DV SSL certificate only validates the domain owner, the company name remains invalidated.
Organizational Validation (OV)
The organizational Validation, as the name indicates is characterized by the validation of the name of organization, domain, and some additional information. OV certification comes with additional validation and therefore, if you are planning to launch an ecommerce website then it is essential that you get it at least OV certified. Such a certificate will come with the details such as organizational and domain name.
Extended Validation (EV)
Extended Validation certificate is the most secure among the SSL certificate types. Such a certificate is issued only after some strict and additional authentication procedure. As a customer to an EV certified site, you can be certain of the fact that the website is governed by an identified legal entity and it also supports encrypted communications. An EV certificate will come with several details like domain name, registrant jurisdiction, business address and name, registration number etc.
There are several advantages of SSL Certification:
Server Authentication
SSL certificate is not only about providing safe transactions to the customers, but is also plays a crucial role in securing the respective websites. Purchasing SSL certificates tags the server of any online business to digital certificates. These digital certificates can be verified by the customers to the site and is literally a proof that the server is not fraudulent.
Secure data transaction
Any transaction through an SSL certified website passes through constantly monitored channel and that too in an encrypted format. Literally transformed, SSL certificates encrypt any sensitive data like credit card details, customer names, account number etc passed to and fro. This information can only be decrypted using a decryption key at the hand of the website owner. Therefore, even if the sensitive information falls in the wrong hand, they have no means of decrypting it and hence it becomes utterly useless.
Earns a place in search engine’s & customer’s good books
In the present scenario, people are more aware of the importance of shopping with an SSL certified website. If you are in search for building a sensation of trust among the visitors to your site (which you should) then, SSL certificate becomes an indispensable aspect. Lately, Google and other search engines also proclaimed their affinity towards SSL certified websites. Google made this official in August 2014 and following was quoted from the Google Webmaster Central Blog.
“We’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now it’s only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content”
Even though Google has stated that they will be considering SSL certificate only as a light ranking factor, they are certainly planning to consider it inevitable with time.
Results of recently performed case study (based on SSL certificate) on a number of people who does online shopping on a frequent basis:
| EV Certified Website | OV and DV Certified Websites |
|---|---|
| 93% of people said they found it safe doing business with only EV certified sites. | 2% people said they don’t mind doing business with a site that is not EV certified. |
| 81% people who were asked to share information like credit card number and address said that they actually felt it safer to share it with EV certified site. | 18% of the people who were asked to share the same info said that they did not mind sharing it with a non EV certified site. |
| 67% of the participants admitted they will abandon a site that which is not EV certified. | 33% of the same participants said that they will not mind shopping with a site which is not EV certified. |
| About 59% of the participants will stop shopping with a site which came with an EV certification and lost it recently. | 40% of the same participants wont mind shopping with the same website. |