Can you put a price on privacy? This is one service you don’t want to scrimp on. The cost of an SSL certificate can change from provider to provider, depending on the features you wish to include. We suggest that you make decisions about security with a focus on features, accreditation and compatibility with your business needs, rather than the price. The cheapest option may be right for some but not all businesses, so tread carefully when making your choice.

Although you may have a cPanel hosting plan which includes a shared SSL certificate, this certificate will always show your web host as the owner. A dedicated GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium certificate will show your company as the owner (via the click to verify link) of the security on your site, which increases your brand’s presence and improves your customers’ trust in your website.

Depending on the browser you are using, if a site is secure, you might either see a green or a grey padlock accompanied by the ‘https’ in the site address bar. As long as the padlock hasn’t got a red strike-through or a yellow warning triangle, it means the website you are using is secure. You might notice, for example, for a given secure website, that the padlock will be green on Internet Explorer but it will be grey on Chrome. However, that doesn’t impact the security aspect of the site.

If you are optimising your site to rank higher in Google, an SSL certificate could be your missing ingredient. Google now ranks websites with SSL certification higher than those without.

Visitors to your website will be alerted if your site doesn’t have SSL certification. This is not only to emphasise the importance of this level of security to website owners, but also to ensure the safety of Google users browsing the web.