What’s an SSL certificate?

In this quick guide, we explain in layman’s terms what an SSL certificate is and more importantly, why your website should have one.

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What’s an SSL?

An SSL certificate helps “encrypt” the information sent through your website, which means that it keeps it safe. For example, if a customer is filling out a contact form on your website, an SSL certificate helps ensure their personal details are protected.

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How can I tell if a website is SSL-secured?

There are two easy ways to determine if a website has an SSL installed:

1. Next to where the web address is displayed, it has a padlock symbol
2. The web address starts with https instead of http

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Why is an SSL important?

There are two main reasons why having an SSL certificate is important for your website.

It helps boost your website in Google

Google wants to make sure it’s sending people to secure websites. For that reason, Google prefers websites that are SSL secured and will rank those websites higher.

It helps convert website visitors into leads

If a website does not have an SSL installed, people who visit the site will be met with a message of “not secure”. Here’s what it looks like in 3 of the most popular web browsers:

This is what a non-secure website looks like in Google Chrome:

And what it looks like in Firefox:

And in Safari:

To build trust with potential new customers and help push them to get in touch, it’s important to have an SSL certificate installed.

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Any questions? Get in touch

If you have any questions we can help with, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the BUILT team today.

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