7 Benefits for a Small Business by installing SSL Certificate

26 October 2021

If you’re a small business owner who wants to ensure the security of his business assets like website, server, and other user data, then you’re already way better than a majority of small business owners who don’t pay attention to this facet business management. However, if you’re wondering where to start and what’s the first thing that you should do to ensure the security of your website, here’s our advice – install an SSL certificate on your server. It’s simply the best thing that you can do to start the cybersecurity strategy of your small business in the right direction. It encrypts the in-transit data between the web browser and the client-server.

If your small business has an online presence with multiple first-level subdomains, we suggest that you go for a premium yet cheap wildcard SSL certificate. It serves many purposes and provides multiple benefits to a small business owner. Let’s look at seven of them so you can understand why it is so important!

#1. Security of customer data

The first major benefit of securing your site with an SSL certificate is the security of your customer data. As you may know already, an SSL certificate instructs the web browser and server to encrypt all user data before starting to transmit it. Once it’s encrypted, only you and your visitors can see it – no middleman! That helps in the security of confidential user data like usernames, passwords, names, addresses, email addresses, credit card information, etc. It also protects your website visitors from phishing attacks, where someone creates a copy of your website on a similar-looking domain name for the purpose of capturing user credentials or other sensitive information.

#2. Better SEO

An SSL certificate also helps improve the SEO of your website. Google had announced a long time ago that it should be using HTTPS as a ranking signal in its algorithm, which means that if your website is not loading over HTTPS, then it may struggle to rank on the front page of Google for any keyword. You may do all that is necessary for the SEO of your website but still find it way below your competitors in the ranking if it’s not loading over HTTPS. And the way to make your website load over HTTPS goes through the installation of an SSL certificate. Therefore, installing an SSL certificate also helps your SEO.

#3. Increased customer trust

Installing an SSL certificate also increases the trust of your visitors in your business. If you don’t install it, then your site is shown with a “Not secure” label in web browsers, which casts doubt about the security of your website in the minds of visitors. On the other hand, if your website is protected with an SSL certificate, then it loads with a green padlock icon, and upon clicking the icon, a message appears that says, “The connection to this site is secure”. That’s how it increases customer trust in your business.

#4. With SSL, your website speed will not be hampered.

First, it makes your site load over HTTP 2.0, which is the latest version of the HTTP protocol, and as a result, much faster than the original HTTP protocol. HTTPS protocol has also been built on the top of HTTP/2, so your site loads on the fastest protocol by default after installing an SSL certificate.

Secondly, it also makes your site eligible for the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) technology of Google, which makes web pages load even faster on a mobile device.

That’s how an SSL certificate makes your site load faster.

#5. Better compliance

An SSL certificate is one of those basic requirements that are included in almost all cybersecurity standards and laws. Whether it’s GDPR, CCPA, PCI-DSS, or any other security standard – you need to have an SSL certificate installed on your server to comply with it. So, by installing it, you also improve the compliance situation of your small business. It will be much easier for you to comply with any of the data protection laws and security standards after installing an SSL certificate on your server.

#6. No one can spy on you or your visitors

As we explained above, once you install an SSL certificate on your web server, all data being exchanged between your server and customers is exchanged in an encrypted format. Now, the benefit of encrypted data is that no one can see it except you and your visitors. Not just any cybercriminals but internet service providers and even government agencies can’t spy on your visitors once an SSL certificate comes into the picture, something that’s insanely easy in case of a website loading on HTTP protocol without an SSL certificate.

#7. Prepares your business for future

Last but certainly not least, an SSL certificate prepares your business for the security requirements of the future. As new security protocols and technologies emerge, it’s becoming increasingly clear that almost all of them require an SSL certificate to be installed on your server in order to ensure the security of your site. So, if you install it on your web server today, you can be assured that your business will be better prepared for the new cybersecurity standards emerging in the future.

Conclusion

Thus, these were the seven major benefits of installing an SSL certificate for any small business. Needless to say, that it’s one of the most important things to do if you want to ensure the security of your business website and its visitors. Do it on a priority basis if you’ve not done it till now, and if you still have any questions about it, then leave them in the comments. We shall try our best to answer them as soon as possible!