Dramatic title, we know. But seriously, if your website still hasn’t got an SSL certificate installed, you’re now walking a rather dangerous path.
Not having an SSL certificate these days is a risky and damaging issue for most websites. Not only are many popular web browsers actively warning users not to trust websites that do not have an SSL certificate installed, your website’s search engine ranking may also take a significant hit.
Additionally, if a visitor arrives on an unprotected website, it is a fairly early and obvious indication that the website is old, and that a more modern website may be a safer option. If a hacker arrives on an unprotected website… well that’s another story altogether
Below are some of the common things we hear when business owners still haven’t got their websites protected by an SSL Certificate.
“I don’t sell anything on my website, so why would I need an SSL certificate?”
Long gone are the days where SSL certificates were exclusively recommended only to websites that were collecting credit card details.
Nowadays, it has been recognised that SSL certificates should be in place for far more reasons than just protecting credit card details. Instead, they are now an absolute necessity to protect every single interaction between your website and your visitors, including any personal information they provide to you through things such as newsletters subscriptions or contact form submissions. Regardless of what kind of website you have and whatever hosting plan you are on (from shared hosting to dedicated server plans) you should make sure your data is protected by SSL certificates!
“Who cares about contact form data, there’s nothing of value there… is there?”
These days, all data is highly valuable. The last thing you want is for your contact forms to be intercepted by a third party. The main reason for this is that you are legally responsible for protecting any data given to you by a visitor, and with privacy laws always evolving and becoming more stringent by the minute, this becomes more important to have covered on your website everyday.
Another reason that this could be very damaging for your business is that hackers will frequently intercept data on unprotected websites, for the purpose of selling that data to others. Who do you think is buying that data? Conspiracy alert – it could be your competitors.
“My website has been safe for years and I haven’t ever touched it. It’ll be fine.”
This is the scariest one we hear. Mostly due to the person saying it usually not realising that what they are saying is extremely relevant as a reason for why they should immediately do something. Leaving your website unmaintained and outdated is the biggest reason to take action, rather than evidence that it should never change. If you’re in this boat, you have possibly had a run of extraordinary luck, but you may soon be pushing it.
Privacy law, data hacking, protecting your visitors and your reputation as a business should all be strong motivations to keep your website in line with at least the basics of current security practices.
“But I don’t know how/have time to install an SSL certificate.”
This one is the easiest one to solve of them all! If you’re not sure what you’re doing, or are strapped for time, we’re here to help!
First up, choosing an SSL certificate can definitely be confusing if you’re new to it. There are many, many options to choose from. We’ve created a super easy SSL certificate wizard to help you drastically narrow down your choices based on your individual needs.
If you’re pretty confident, or are happy to get stuck in and find your way, you can instead opt to check out our full range of SSL certificates.
All of our SSL certificates come with easy step-by-step installation instructions. It often only takes a few minutes to get your SSL certificate up and running! If you get stuck however, our team are always here to answer your questions and guide you in the right direction.
“Aren’t SSL certificates expensive? How much are they?”
SSL certificates don’t have to be expensive. Our range of premium SSL certificates start at just $49 for one year of protection.
For further reading, we’d recommend checking out our blog post on all the recent changes that search engines and website browsers have taken to penalise websites that still don’t have proper security in place.
If you’ve got any other questions about SSL certificates, please don’t be shy! The team are always here to help.
Simply call us on 1300 MY HOST (694 678) during business hours, or submit a ticket through OnePanel and one of the crew will be in touch!
