Hello Guys, How is the new year is coming for you. Today I have a debate with myself on should I use an SSL certificate for my site or not. SSL certificate is great, I mean they put your website apart from all the other website. I mean when the green icon show at the top it looks cool. With the SSL Certificate your visitor will use the https (http secure protocol) instead of regular http.
Recently Google also declared that having an SSL will give you an advantage over your competition. But after some research I find out that there are some disadvantages that come with an SSL.
What are SSL Certificate?
SSL certificates are a small file that contains a cryptographic key. So basically that file is bonded to the server on which your site is hosted. After that any client or user that wants to wish your website will have a direct secure connection to the server.
That guarantee one thing that all the requests and acknowledgment will only pass through the user and the server. With that no other services or hacker can gain access to your crucial data.
Whenever you open a website having a SSL Certificate then a green color will be seen on your address bar with a lock (in Chrome). Like the below image.
And when you click on that lock it will show some additional info about the certificate.
Why Should You use SSL Certificate on your site?
If your website is an eCommerce site then it is mandatory for it to have an SSL Certificate. But there are certain things on applying the SSL certificate over the complete site. It is not mandatory to apply the SSL certificate on your complete site. The SSL certificate is necessary on those pages which contains the transaction or are used to put some crucial information.
For an example, – My friend, who is a graphic designer, is providing a logo design service. He has many posts and pages, but he only used SSL on the checkout page.
I have a question now if they can apply the SSL certificate to the complete site then why are they using on the checkout pages only?
For an example, if you will see at Flipkart or Snapdeal then you will find out the SSL only exist on their checkout pages. But on the other hand Amazon uses SSL on its complete site.
So securing information and doing some encrypting stuff is the only thing an SSL can do?
The answer is there is one more thing what an SSL certificate can do.
Google Search Engine Change – Https will be a factor
Recently Google announces that having an SSL certificate will give you a little more advantage in getting a good SERP. That means that SSL certificate will now contribute as a factor in the search engine algorithm of Google.
With that change, many bloggers and webmasters are applying an SSL to their complete website. So to gain an upper hand on their competition.
But there is a problem on Google algorithm as well. Google will only rank those pages which are SSL enabled. That means if you have only a checkout page with SSL that your site will not be affected.
With this change, Google encourages every webmaster and site owners to apply SSL certificate. It won’t be a matter now that you have a transaction or not. Google also told that in 2015, it will be giving more credit to the SSL. So that means the importance of SSL will grow in 2015.
That’s the thing that why you should use the SSL certificate. Now I am gonna tell you that why you should not use the SSL certificate.
