An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between a visitor’s browser and your website. On the visitor’s side, it shows up as https:// and a padlock in the address bar. Encryption means that data sent through forms (phone numbers, email addresses, order details) doesn’t travel across the internet as plain text.
What happens when a website doesn’t have SSL?
The browser shows a warning such as ‘Your connection is not private’ or a ‘Not secure’ label next to the address. To a visitor, that’s a signal to get out. Without SSL, an online shop or a site with a form has practically no chance of converting, and it looks careless as well. Google has treated https as the standard for years, so a missing certificate doesn’t help your visibility either.
How much does it cost, and what should you keep in mind?
For a typical business website, nothing. Free certificates (such as Let’s Encrypt) now come as standard with good web hosting and renew automatically. There are two things we keep an eye on when we launch websites: automatic renewal (an expired certificate makes the site look ‘broken’ to every visitor, usually at the worst possible moment) and redirecting all traffic from http to https, to a single canonical version of the address.
Related terms: domain, web hosting.
