An SSL certificate is one of the most important choices for any website. It forms an important building block for the security of any website as it protects visitors from phishing, MiTM and packet sniffing attacks, thus ensuring the safety of their data. And when it comes to e-commerce websites, it becomes even more important because of the nature of data that they store.
That’s why it becomes very important to buy SSL for your eCommerce website. A poor certificate choice can impact not only your sales but also your brand perception among customers. But don’t worry – in this article, we’ll tell you everything about how to choose an SSL certificate for eCommerce and which certificate is best for such sites. Let’s begin:
Three types of SSL certificates
- Domain validation:These certificates are issued after validation of domain name only. Once you verify the ownership of your domain, you’re issued a DV SSL certificate. Needless to say that these certificates are the easiest and most affordable ones to get.
- Organization validation: These certificates are issued after validating the existence of your organization, which requires submission and verification of some documents to establish your business identity. As a result, it takes some more time and money to get these certificates compared to DV SSL certificates.
- Extended validation: These certificates are issued only after validating business documents and at least three years of business existence (some CAs require an even longer duration of existence). They’re also distinct from the other two categories of certificates. When someone clicks on the green padlock icon, they can see the organization’s name to which the certificate was issued. As a result, they instill more confidence in your visitors.
Which SSL certificate is good for e-commerce sites?
Now, to answer the core question of this article, let’s take a look at what are the key elements necessary for an e-commerce website:
- Security:First of all, you need security. And not just any security, but more security than a normal website because you’ll be collecting and saving the sensitive payment information of your customers. Without proper security measures, you can’t even get a payment gateway for your site.
- Trust:Besides security, you need the trust of your visitors as well. While entering their credit card information, they’d want to make sure that their information is safe with you. Without that level of trust, no matter how secure your site is, you can’t make enough sales.
So, whichever SSL certificate you choose should offer both these elements. It should offer more security than the security of an average website, and it should also allow anyone to completely trust your website.
Now, DV SSL certificates don’t fit these criteria. While they can offer both security and trust, their security is that of an average website because they’re the most common choice among webmasters. As an e-commerce site owner, you need more security than an average website and the complete trust of your visitors. That can be provided only by an OV or EV SSL certificate.
An OV SSL certificate is much more secure and difficult to spoof than a DV SSL certificate because it requires your organization’s documents to be issued. It stands fairly well in terms of customer trust, mainly because it’s difficult to spoof. So that makes it a good choice for any e-commerce website.
However, if you want the complete trust of your visitors, that can be earned only with an EV SSL certificate. Not only it offers the security equivalent to an OV SSL certificate, but also it wins the trust of your customers more easily because anyone can check if they’re on your official website or not by clicking the green padlock icon of a site protected with EV SSL. That makes phishing attacks on your customers nearly impossible.
Budget and age-related constraints
By now, it may be clear to you that an EV SSL certificate is the best choice for an ecommerce business. But the time limit of at least three years for issuance of an EV certificate becomes a major roadblock for most newly established e-commerce businesses. Budget is another major constraint because EV certificates are costlier than OV certificates.
If that’s the issue with you, you can consider going with an OV SSL certificate. It won’t be a bad choice, and as your business attains the right age and right budget, you can upgrade to an EV SSL certificate during renewal.
Single domain, wildcard, or multi-domain?
Once you choose the type of certificate that you want to buy for your e-commerce business (i.e., OV or EV), another small choice in the process is whether to purchase a single domain certificate, wildcard, or multi-domain certificate. Here’s a brief description of all these options:
- A single domain certificate protects only one domain – that’s it! Nothing more, nothing less.
- A wildcard certificate protects your root domain and all of its first-level subdomains.
- And a multi-domain certificate protects all your domains as well as all the subdomains created under them.
Depending on whether you want to use multiple domains or not, you can choose between these variants. A single domain certificate works only in those situations where you don’t even need to create a subdomain (which is rarely true in today’s times). So, for most businesses, the choice is between a wildcard and a multi-domain certificate. It would help if you made this choice based on your budget and keeping your future scalability requirements in mind.`
Conclusion
So that was a quick explanation of which SSL certificate you should choose for your e-commerce website. Hopefully, now you’ll be able to choose the right certificate and securely start your online store. If you still have any questions on the subject, please share them in the comments, and we’ll try our best to answer them as soon as possible. If not, build your e-commerce site today with an affordable OV or EV SSL certificate from ClickSSL.