What is An SSL Certificate and Do I Need One For My Website?

If your like me you probably been online and surfing the web for many years and even making websites and have come across some terms you never quite understood what it meant or what it was for. In a sense you were oblivious to what it was, you just knew it was apart of the web and thought it was needed for it to work.

Well as I began my journey to becoming a front end web developer I made it a mission, or an obligation, to begin to study what makes up the web and why things are on a website and if it’s really necessary.

This post, I feel, finally answers a long awaited question I’ve asked myself for years but never took the time to answer, sadly, but now I have.

This topic, as stated, in the title is the famous SSL. Sounds important doesn’t it, but if your like me you don’t know and today is the day we find out.

Ok to start things off let me ask you a question. If you ever built a website you know that you need at some point to purchase hosting. Has this happened to you? While you buying your basic package to host your site your given an array, that’s a list for those who don’t know–thats a programming term lol, and in this array there were many options you had no idea of what they were asking for or more importantly what they were offering. You just saw that it added to your bill and why would you buy something you didn’t know you were getting and if your were even going to use it.

That’s exactly what my thought process went through when buying hosting. I did this for years and overlooked, or rather ignored, every option. Now that I’m taking web development seriously and decided to embark on this journey and learn all what I can in this arena I figured it was important what makes up a website and what is important.

So let’s look into these options that they give us and dive into what an SSL Certificate is.

What Is An SSL?

Before I go into the details I like to begin anything with a definition. It is always important to me, so what SSL stands for is…

Secure Socket Layer

Have you ever heard a term and wondered why they chose certain terms, I mean whats up with the socket?

Moving on, the best way I think I can explain it is it creates a layer between the server and the browser. A layer of security that is. An SSL certificate, what it really is known as, is used for securing specific, important and personal data. Some of the data that is included in this is login information and credit card info.

Fun fact did you know the s at the end of https actually stands for security.

That is why when you visit any site like amazon, team treehouse or any other site that requires either login credentials or credit card transactions security is needed. This is where the SSL certificate comes into play. It provides security from the site to the server and because of the SSL certificate it actually changes the status of http to https.

So if you learned anything from this post its that you know a site is secure when the site’s address begins with https.

But how does an SSL work to secure a site. Well let’s explore that next.

How Does An SSL Certificate Work?

Ok so I’m going to explain to the best of my ability to how I understood it. It really is quite a simple process but explaining it might be different. So we know that a browser communicates to a server and requests data to either be sent to or from the server to the browser.

Well along that transfer there are crooks waiting along side the road trying to steal your valuable information.

For example lets say you were going on a trip and you had to drive in between a path and in that path there were corners and dark crevices perfect for crooks to hide. Along the way they decide to sneak up on you and rob you for all that you have. Now you wouldn’t feel safe before or after that experience.

So an SSL gives you a sense of security and trust to go down this path.

So how an SSL works in your favor is it generates 2 keys: a public key and a private key. The public key is generated by the browser and the user sending information to the server and the only way for the message to be received is by unlocking it with the private key where only the site owner has access to.

But your probably wondering how the information that is being transferred being protected? Well when the data is being transferred the SSL certificates binds the data to an encryption key that can’t be decrypted unless you have the private key. So cyber crooks my see the data but cannot access it without the private key to decrypt it.

Sounds a little bit like fort knox to me but at least you know your data is safe.

So What Benefit Is This To You?

If your like me you probably never even noticed the symbol of the lock pad in the address bar, or you probably have but never knew what that stood for and why it was there. Well now you do. It means your data is safe and won’t be stolen. What does this mean for a user and an owner. As a user of someone else’s site it gives validation that the site is secure, hint be sure to look for the https, lock pad, or even a green status address bar, thus leaving you to browse with an easier peace of mind.

For the owner of the site there are a couple of benefits. One it builds trust for your visitors, two it improves conversion rates, and three it helps your google rankings. I don’t know about you but all those reasons sound like great reasons to me.

fun fact I forgot to mention there are 3 levels of SSL certificates and the last one, which is extended validation, actually turns your address bar green for visitors to know that your site is secure.

So the last question to ask is, is this important and should you invest in it? I can’t answer that for you but let me ask don’t you feel better when you have some form of security protecting you? You may say but courey I’m not asking for anyones personal information and payments. I thought the same thing but after doing a little research I am reconsidering my decision. And yes if you are running an online business it is imperative to have an SSL certificate.

I mean let’s think about it, if you have your own website you need to think of your site as a business and you wouldn’t want anyone to rob you of your stuff regardless of how small it is. So like me think twice before you skip that option when purchasing that hosting package for you or your next project your working on.

I hope this sums up what a SSL certificate is and brings more clarity for you and you know what simple things such as https stands for when you visit a website.

Stay continuing to learn how to code and how the web works to become a better web developer.

Be sure to check out the video below for a quick synopsis of what an SSL certificate is and how it works.