SSL Certificate – Basic Information For Blog Owners

SSL Certificate definition – Types of Certificates

SSL is also called secured sockets layer. SSL protocol establishes establishes links between a web server and a browser with high level encryption for an online communication. This encrypted protocol certificate offer confidence for blog or website visitors that the information and authoritative and trusted. This encrypted technology confirms the data transition between the web server and browser remain secure. These digitally signed small files that converts ‘http’ sites to ‘https’ sites with green secure lock displayed on the browser. They secure clients data, credit card, login data and social media sharing.

**Secure website from ‘http’ to ‘https’ through SSL Certificate**

There are three types of security certificates.

Domain Validation SSL: Domain This certificates checks the domain registry and offers a security certificate. This is a basic certificate against domain validation. This certificate does not check organizational details and not used for commercial and commerce websites.This certificate is issued for small blogs and websites that are not commerce and traffic intense. Bloggers can start with this certificate and as business grows opt for higher version of security certificates.
Organization Validation SSL: This certificate is offered at the organization or at business enterprise level and thus more trusted. To issue this certificate the authorities talk to business owners and exchange documents to validate and check the authenticity to prove their worth to use the certificate. They look into business information and evaluate the legality. These certification is recommended for commercial websites with huge traffic. Organization validation or OV certificates conform to the X.509 RFC standards.
Extended Validation SSL: Very big enterprises opt for extended validation certificate.Certificate authorities like Comodo, GeoTrust DigiCert, GlobalSign, Symantec, Thawte, IdenTrust,.Entrust issue a digital certificate to certify the ownership of the website. The demand for trustworthiness of the commercial transactions like banking transfers, credit card transfers that involve login credential necessitated online shopping portals to switch from organization validation to extended validation. Website users are aware of vulnerabilities and cyber attacks and look for authentication before a purchase or service through that site. All consumers look for ‘https’ with green bar on the websites along with Symantec Seal or VeriSign seal before a purchase.Extended Validation decides brand image, reputation and security of a website. It is not easy to get a extended validation certificate. It takes more than a week to check credentials of the applicant before certifying the website with extended validation SSL. But the percentage of websites migrating from OV to EV is constantly growing. With this certification the traffic and sales volume noticed a growth of 30% by companies.

The difference in these certification is not in encryption level . The verification process differs for issuing different certificates and extends the look and feel when the site is displayed on the browser address bar. In addition two more security certificates are issued to large enterprises and multi domain websites.

Security is important for any website or blog. Security, trust and reliability is equally important for visitors to view, perform or purchase a product or service on a website or blog. When visitors do money transactions they are more worried about their .bank security and login credentials. That will be assured by this security certificates. Google recently started rating blogs and websites and browsers display websites as unsecured when they are not supported by security certificates. Look for details at transparency report by Google.

Let me ease the work choosing an SSL certificate to new blogs and websites. Without pinching their pockets , I have a suggestion. There are free security certificate offered by Cloudflare and Comodo to name few, They evaluate the the domain authority and ‘who is’ details of the domain and issue a universal SSL certificate. Test this certificate for an year and evaluate the traffic and visitor growth before opting for paid certificate.