What is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection between a web server and a web browser. This ensures that any data transferred between the user and the website remains private and secure, protecting it from interception or tampering by third parties.
What this means is that any data that is sent from your web browser to the website is encrypted – both ways.
How do SSL certificates work?
When you visit a website with an SSL certificate, your browser, and the website’s server perform a process called an SSL handshake. During this handshake, the server sends its SSL certificate to the browser. The certificate contains information such as the website’s public key, the domain name, the certificate authority (CA) that issued it, and the certificate’s validity period.
The browser checks if it trusts the certificate and, if so, uses the public key to establish a secure, encrypted connection with the server. Once the connection is established, all data sent between the browser and the server is encrypted, making it unreadable to anyone who might intercept it.
Why Do SSL Certificates Matter?
At its core, an SSL certificate is about creating trust between yourself and your website visitor. You are showing that any data that they enter will be encrypted and not at risk from any hackers.
Secondly, you are showing Google that your website can be trusted. Google uses SSL certificates as a ranking signal in its search algorithm, meaning websites using HTTPS (enabled by SSL) can receive a slight boost in search rankings.
How Lens Digital can Help
Our WordPress Website Hosting has SSL security built-in, ensuring that your website is always secure for your website visitors.
