What is SSL? Is SSL important to the website?

What is SSL and why is it so many people are interested in SEO and website management? Let's find out with the Network Administrator.

What is SSL?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a standard technology that allows to establish a secure encrypted connection between a web server (host) and a web browser (client). This connection ensures that the data transmitted between the host and the client is maintained in a private, reliable manner. SSL is already used by millions of websites to protect their online transactions with customers. If you have ever visited a website that uses https: // in the address bar, you have created a secure connection over SSL. If you have an online store or sell items on the website, SSL will help establish trust with customers and secure information exchanged between you and your customers.

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TipsMake.com has been equipped with SSL to securely connect to website visitors

Please refer to: How to host different SSL on an IP address using IIS 8 SNI?

The importance of SSL

It can be said that SSL is like a "backbone" in ensuring safety on the Internet. It helps protect sensitive information when they are transmitted through computer networks around the world. SSL is needed to protect your website, even if there are no sensitive information such as credit cards. It provides privacy, strict security and integrity for the data of both the website and the visitor's personal information.

SSL encrypts sensitive information

This is one of the main reasons why more and more websites use SSL. SSL keeps sensitive information encrypted when sent over the Internet and only designated recipients can understand it. This is important because the information you send on the Internet is transmitted from computer to computer, then to a destination server. Any computer between you and the server can see your credit card number, account name and password and other sensitive information, when they are not encrypted with an SSL (SSL Certificate) certificate. When the SSL Certificate is used, the information becomes unreadable to everyone, except the server where the information is being sent. As a result, hackers and thieves cannot read or steal information.

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How is an encrypted connection set up?

Secure SSL connection is made through the following steps:

1. Step 1: Enter or select a secure URL: https://quantrimang.com/
2. Step 2: Web server will receive your request and then send feedback that is trying to establish a reliable connection between web browser and web server, also known as "SSL handshake"
3. Step 3: After SSL Certificate confirms via SSL handshake, the data transmitted between the web server and the web browser will be encrypted to ensure safety and privacy.

SSL provides authenticity

In addition to encryption, an appropriate SSL certificate also provides authentication. This means that you can be sure that you are sending information to the correct server, not to an imposter trying to steal your information. Is this important? The nature of the Internet is that customers often send information through multiple computers. Any of these machines can pretend to be your website and trick customers into sending personal information to them. This can only be avoided by using an appropriate PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) and receiving an SSL Certificate from a trusted SSL provider.

SSL providers are also important, why? A trusted SSL provider will issue only one SSL Certification to a company, provided that the company is confirmed to have passed some identity checks. Some SSL Certification such as EV SSL Certificates, require more validation than other certificates.

How do I know if the SSL provider is trusted? You can use SSL Wizard to compare between SSL providers, available in most web browsers. The web browser will generate a confirmation that the SSL provider is pursuing specific actions and is checked by a standard third party using WebTrust.

SSL provides reliability

Web browsers will provide users with signals to know that their connection is being secured, which can be a lock icon or a green bar. As a result, customers will trust the site more and increase their ability to purchase and stick with the website. SSL providers will also provide you with a reliable sign to make your customers more confident.

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HTTPS also helps combat phishing attacks. A phishing email is an email sent from the criminal trying to impersonate your site. This email usually has a link to a criminal's website or Man-in-the-middle attack (criminals will trick customers into sending sensitive information to them) on the website's domain name. But an eavesdropper, hackers often find it hard to get an SSL Certificate, so if the site has SSL, they can't impersonate the website perfectly, and users will be less likely to be deceptive.

SSL is required for PCI Compliance

In order to accept credit card information on the website, you must pass the tests to prove that you are complying with the card payment standards - Payment Card Industry, PCI. One of the requirements is to use SSL Certificate.

SSL for SEO

Google has announced that HTTPS will be a criterion for ranking websites. This means that when giving results to searchers, websites with SSL will take precedence over the same site but without SSL.

Does SSL have any disadvantages?

Have. Cost is the most visible thing. The cost comes from establishing a reliable infrastructure and confirming identity. Next is performance. The transmitted information will be encrypted, which will consume more server resources than unencrypted information. But, this performance difference only becomes noticeable for websites with a large number of visitors, and can be overcome by using more powerful hardware.

In general, the downside of SSL over advantages, the importance of SSL is negligible. Using proper SSL will help protect customers, websites, data, build and maintain customer trust and sell more products.