Latest News & Blog
The importance of SSL for your ecommerce website
05 May 2011
With SSL certificates being so affordable there is no excuse for cutting corners when it comes to customer's privacy.
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How much does a professional logo design cost?
01 May 2011
Developing a memorable logo design for your business is so important, here's our guide to how much you can expect to pay.
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How much does an ecommerce website design cost?
26 Apr 2011
There are lots of factors that contribute to the cost of your ecommerce website design and this brief guide will give you an idea of what to expect.
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What makes a good ecommerce checkout page?
14 Apr 2011
Ensure your customers have a great ecommerce checkout experience with these effective tips.
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A few tips for writing a great website design brief
13 Apr 2011
A clear and well detailed website design brief is the foundation upon which a successful website is built so use these tips to help you.
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Why an SSL certificate is so important to the success of your website
Before we look at why it's so important to secure your ecommerce website with an SSL certificate lets first take a quick look at exactly what SSL is.
SSL or Secure Sockets Layer to give it its full name is a method of encrypting data sent or received over the internet. Most commonly used on websites that requires you to enter sensitive information such as credit card information, password entry or address information.
So why is it so important to have SSL on your website?
The importance of SSL is obvious when you own a website that requires your users to enter sensitive information. Having a secure website not only gives customers the confidence to part with their information but helps assure customers that you value their privacy and security. If you choose not to secure your website with SSL then what kind of message does this send to your customers?
Ask yourself this question; if you we’re asked to enter your credit card information on an
ecommerce website that did not have any form of SSL would you?
How would you feel about their attitude towards your privacy and security?
Let's take an ecommerce website design as an example as this is where you would most likely see the use of an SSL certificate.
When the customer is browsing the website, looking at products and even adding items to their cart, the customer is not parting with any sensitive information so we don’t need any form of encryption here (we'll look at this an a little more detail next). The customer adds a few products to their cart and decides to purchase those items so they click 'Checkout'.
Now we don't even need SSL at the View Cart stage as again no sensitive information is being requested here, but as soon as the customer clicks the checkout button, we now need to encrypt the data sent over the internet. Why? Because from here on we are requesting sensitive information from the customer such as name, email address and password information (if they are first creating an account) and later on we will be asking them to enter their credit card information to pay for the items.
When the customer sees that the information they enter on your ecommerce website is secured you are assuring that customer that it's safe to enter their information and that you value their security and privacy and that could make or break a sale.
Why don't I secure my entire website?
Some webmasters like to secure their entire website, believing that it gives customers even more confidence and that switching between un-encrypted and encrypted web pages will confuse customers and while we don't agree with this and it's not something we practice, experience suggests that users don't expect SSL encryption on an entire website.
SSL encryption is not just for ecommerce.
Don't think that because you don’t have an ecommerce website you don't need SSL encryption. Any professional website design where you require users to enter sensitive information could benefit from having SSL. Do you have an account creation form on your website? Why not secure it with an SSL certificate?
Shared vs personal SSL?
A shared SSL certificate is commonly used on shared hosting environments and is basically an SSL certificate and encryption that all website's on that server can share. It's the entry level form of SSL encryption. A personal SSL certificate is a certificate that is assigned exclusively to you/your domain name and is not shared with anyone.
If you are on a budget then shared SSL is certainly cheaper, in fact we provide access to shared SSL with all our website design and hosting services. But if you are doing high volume sales or are taking credit card information on your website and want to give your customers the utmost confidence in your website then you really should consider a personal SSL certificate.