Google has been fighting diligently to obtain the web safer and has now started to mark websites as “Non-Secure” which do not have an SSL certificate connected but still exchange user data. Therefore, it has now become a must to serve your website over HTTPS/SSL to ensure your visitors’ data and also to show that your name cares about safety. Coming to Chrome Push Notifications, although not a reservation, SSL is recommended for your main domain. There are a lot more advantages to joining an SSL certificate to your website including increasing your search rankings. In this post let’s dive deep into SSL certificates, their types and how you can set up a free SSL on your website.
What is an SSL certificate?
On most websites now, you will see that they start with “HTTPS://” in the URL with a green catch saying safe, that’s enough for the use of an SSL certificate. But that’s not just for indication, there is a lot going on behind the scene.SSL or Protected Sockets Layer helps build an encrypted link between your web server and the website visitor. This ensures that all data passed within the two is private and no one in the center has a way to it. Even if someone leads to tapping the attachment, the data will be of no advantage to them, as it is encrypted end-to-end. Getting back to the SSL certificate, it is a little file that connects a cryptographic key with your business and domain’s details. It is located on the server to allow HTTPS protocol and based on the kind of SSL certificate used, the Certificate Authority makes some checks on the organization’s knowledge. The browser and Operating system vendors run with these Certificate Authorities to embed the Root Certificates within their software so that the certificate can be confirmed and a reliable connection is placed between the web server and the end-user.
With an unsafe HTTP connection, third parties can snoop at the traffic passing among a web server and the browser to accumulate private data including email addresses, passwords as well as usernames. That is the purpose why Google, security experts are urging for the use of SSL on websites so that you get the rest of the mind that even the most essential data is protected from being intercepted.
Why do you need an SSL certificate on your website?
While eCommerce websites, banking companies have been using SSL for a very long time – small and medium enterprises, individual websites, blogs are starting to get back on plan now. Apart from the principal advantage of obtaining user knowledge and restriction of data leaks, one of the major driving factors has been Google’s webmaster guideline. It declares that SSL will be included as a ranking factor in their study algorithm. This was published and since then several websites have begun transitioning to HTTPS.So websites with an SSL certification are bound to get assistance in SERPs. Although it may not be a large ranking factor, it is definitely a positive signal. Moreover, lately, Google Chrome, the most extensively used browser on both desktop and mobile also began showing HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as “Non-Secure”.
This would absolutely have an influence on your visitors who would think twice before typing any data on a website which the browser calls non-secure.
What are the different types of SSL certificates which one should you get?
Widely, there are three types of SSL certificates:
- Extended Validation SSL Certificates
- Organization Validation SSL Certificates
- Domain Validation SSL Certificates
All three change in the guard and validation they offer along with cost. Since this blog is about a free SSL certificate.
What about the Extended Validation SSL Certificate?
These are assigned to organizations are the Certificate Authority confirms the particular right of the organization to use the detailed domain name along with the following: Physical, Operational Survival of the organization along with the legal license.
Authorization by the business for issuance of the EV SSL Certificate.
Organization Validation SSL Certificate
For an OV SSL Certificate, the CA will evaluate the right of your company to use the domain name. Some of the other analyses mentioned for EV SSL certificates may also be brought out. Your website visitants will be capable to see information about the organization.
Domain Validation SSL Certificate
This is the most fundamental form of an SSL certificate. Your license to use the domain name will be imposed. Users will be capable to see details about the encryption. Details about your companies are not shared.
How to secure your website with a free SSL certificate?
The simplest way to get a free SSL certificate is to sign up for Cloudflare.
- First Create an account on Cloudflare
Type your details and then click on ‘Create Account’
- The second step is to Configure your website
Include your complete website URL and click on Scan. Cloudflare will now scan your website. Enter on ‘Continue Setup’ once the scan finishes.
- The third step is to Configure your Website DNS Records
- The fourth step is to Select a CloudFlare Plan
- The fifth step is to Update your NameServers
- The sixth step is to Set up SSL for your website
- The seventh step is to Redirect traffic to HTTPS
From the website view, select Page Rules from the top of the page. Now we need to add a couple of rules here.
You want to add www.mywebsite.com/* and mywebsite.com/* independently, and for each of these URL patterns select ‘Always Use HTTPS’. One thing to note here is that this decision will only be available once the SSL certificate is issued.
The configuration will take a few minutes to go through. Once done, you can then open any page on your website, and it will open on HTTPS.
If you have any doubt about SSL don’t hesitate to contact us. Airzero cloud will be your digital partner.
Email id: [email protected]
Author - Johnson Augustine
Cloud Architect, Ethical hacker
Founder: Airo Global Software Inc
LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/johnsontaugustine/