What is an SSL Certificate
SSL certificates are widely used on the internet to encrypt data and secure the connection between a user and a website.
There are 3 types of SSL certificates: Domain Validation, Organization Validation and Extended Validation. The type of SSL certificate you need depends on your organization’s needs and your budget.
Types of SSL Certificates
Domain Validated (DV) SSL Certificate
This type of certificate is the cheapest and quickest to setup. It only takes a few minutes to install and is good for one year. The downside is that it doesn’t provide the highest level of security, but it’s still an upgrade from HTTP to HTTPS.
Organization Validated (OV) SSL Certificate
This certificate takes a little longer to get approval, but it’s more expensive in exchange for better security. OV certificates are typically used by companies with a high volume of customers or those who want their website to be more secure than just using DV certificates.
Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificate
Like DV and OV, EV SSL Certificates also activate HTTPS and the now grey padlock in browser address bars. The added cost and time spent in verification makes it harder for a phishing website to obtain an EV level certificate, meaning your web visitors can use this (amongst other factors) as an indicator of trust. Visitors can have greater trust that the website is actually run by your company and feel safer conducting communication and financial transactions.
Does an SSL Certificate on your website improve your SEO rankings?
Yes, when you install an SSL Certificate, it will force your website to use HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP protocol. This means that all the information you send and receive will be encrypted and cannot be intercepted by third parties. This leads to higher rankings in search engines as Google has announced that they use HTTPS as one of their ranking factors for mobile searches on Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
Does the type of SSL Certificate on your website improve your SEO rankings?
According to a study conducted by Moz, the type of SSL certificate used by a website has no effect on its ranking.
The study found that websites with more secure encryption, like Organization Validated (OV) SSL or Extended Validated (EV) SSL, did not perform better than those with weaker encryption, such as Domain Validated (DV) certificates.
They do however provide customers with the confidence that you’re protecting their information and care enough to make it secure.
