We all more or less know what an SSL certificate is, but it doesn't hurt to delve a little deeper into its meaning before addressing whether it is necessary to install it on a website nowadays.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology encrypts information sent between, for example, a laptop (or mobile device) and a website. In the absence of SSL, any information sent from your laptop to an internet site or vice versa could be captured and siphoned off by someone else.

SSL makes it so that digital information sent between your website and a laptop cannot be intercepted and perceived by hackers.

To make your website work with SSL technology you have to vary the protocol of your website, obtain the associated SSL certificate and install it (don't worry, we'll bolt it on for you). once a website uses the associated SSL certificate, the address of your website can be modified. the additional "S" indicates that your website is operating in a secure association.

Now back to the Why?
Until recently, the need to secure an Internet site with SSL was mostly reserved for websites selling products or requesting personal information such as names and addresses, however Google's changes and new web technology have made SSL a necessity for all websites.

Web users are increasingly sensitive to online security (e.g., they are under the impression that they favour the padlock image that indicates a secure website) and are more likely to trust a secure website than one that is not.

With the introduction of changes to its programme, Google proclaimed that it would rank secure websites above insecure ones. Initially, the results of those changes were comparatively small, however, all studies printed this year show that websites that install the SSL certificate measure much more certainly to rank higher in search engines than websites that have not modified.

If you use Google Chrome, you will have seen a warning when trying to visit an internet site that has put up an invalid SSL. The result of this warning is that a potential user of the website is likely to escape elsewhere rather than ignore Google's warning. Google's plans for the next few years are to issue warnings for all websites that do not appear to be secure, regardless of whether or not they have an SSL certificate associated with them. Any warning from Google that your website is not secure will have a negative impact on the number of tourists to your site and ultimately your business.

The World Wide Web is over twenty-five years old and up until now websites have been marketing over the web using a protocol known as HTTP. This has served the United States well until now, however with the recent demand to associate the web faster and faster, this previous protocol is being challenged. A new protocol known as HTTP/2 is currently in place and is supported by most web browsers, granting faster websites and can only be on the market for https websites secured with a legitimate SSL certificate.
Good network designers take this into account as they need to keep up with new technologies and in particular with reference to the security of their customers' personal information.

Security is likely to become a serious thought for anyone exploiting the web in the near future and for this reason it is wise that now might be the time to secure your website.