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May 31, 2022

10 min read

What are SSL Server Certificates and How Do They Protect my Website?

Written by

Marc Chartouny
web hosting wordpress ~ Never take any risks when it comes to your server’s security! While your business will surely offer more and more online services and transactions, internet security becomes both a priority and a necessity for your customers’ online transactions, to ensure that sensitive information – such as a credit card number and personal information – are only being transmitted to legitimate online businesses like yours.   In order to keep customer information private and secure, you will need to add SSL certificates to your website, which are an essential component of the data encryption process that makes internet transactions secure.  In other terms, SSL are digital passports that provide authentication to protect the confidentiality and integrity of website communication with browsers. The SSL certificate's job is to initiate secure sessions with the user’s browser via the secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol. This secure connection cannot be established without the SSL certificate, which digitally connects company information to a cryptographic key.

What Effect Do SSL certificates Have on Your Business?

There are many benefits to using SSL certificates. Namely, SSL-based websites can:
  • Utilize HTTPs, which optimizes SEO and elicits a better rank in the search results of search engines such as Google.
  • Create safer experiences for customers, because data they submit is encrypted before it is transmitted through the internet.
  • Build customer trust and improve conversions.
  • Protect both the customer and internal data.
  • Encrypt browser-to-server and server-to-server communication.
  • Increase security of your mobile and cloud apps.

Technicalities anyone?

Here is how SSL certificates work:
  1. A browser or server attempts to connect to a website (i.e. a web server) secured with SSL. The browser/server requests that the web server identify itself.
  2. The web server sends the browser/server a copy of its SSL certificate.
  3. The browser/server checks to see whether or not it trusts the SSL certificate. 
  4. If so, it sends a message to the web server.
  5. The web server sends back a digitally signed acknowledgment to start an SSL encrypted session.
  6. Encrypted data is shared between the browser/server and the web server.
ssd web hosting

Self-Signed Certificate vs CA Certificate: What’s the Difference?

When using a self-signed certificate, you’re essentially vouching for your own identity. It’s like writing “I have graduated” on a piece of paper and
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