Without owning the site, it is possible that you have read about the value of security. One of the key components of such a security puzzle is a digital certificate, usually an SSL/TLS certificate. One of the most critical things in creating a safe and reliable online presence is the decision to purchase a certificate. But how does that process work?
In this guide, buy certificate for your site will be demystified. We shall discuss the importance of this and take a step-by-step guide of the buying process, the different kinds of certificates that can be used. We will also give some tips on how you can most appropriately pick one to suit your needs.
Reasons Why You Should Purchase a Certificate
We should first define the why before going down to the how. An online certificate, an SS (Secure Socket Layer) certificate, has 2 major purposes, authentication, and encryption. It authenticates that your site is who it says it is, as well as establishing a safe, scrambled connection between your site and your visitors. This is necessary because of a number of reasons.
- Securing Sensitive Data: Information that may pass through your site, as simple as a contact form submission, credit card numbers, etc., cannot be secured without encryption. This data is scrambled into a certificate which cannot be read by hackers thus securing the privacy of your users.
- Credible Touting! Publics visiting your site are now cautioned by new-fangled web browsers, such as Chrome and Firefox, once they access an insecure site. The presence of a Not Secure label has the power to send many customers away at a glance. Once you purchase a certificate, your site URL becomes HTTPS and a padlock is displayed indicating to the users that the site is secure.
- Improving Search Engine Rankings: The search engines such as Google desire the provision of a secure experience to its users. They have ensured that HTTPS (a secure version of HTTP) is a ranking signal. This implies that with a legit certificate your site will have an insignificant boost in ranking.
- Adherence to Compliance Standards: When you are going to offer goods or services online and accept payment with the help of credit cards, you have to adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). One of the main visits of the PCI compliance is the use of valid SSL certificates to encrypt all the transactions.
How to Purchase and install a Certificate Step by Step
It may look like the buying and installation of a certificate is a technical process, although it can be divided into several steps that are easy to handle.
Step 1: Creating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
The first one is a Certificate Signing Request or a CSR. It is an encrypted block of text that gives the details of your website and your organization. It contains such information as your domain name, business name, and business location. This CSR is created on the web server that is hosting your web site.
A vast majority of web hosting control panels (such as cPanel or Plesk) include an inbuilt tool which walks you through the process of creating a CSR. In the process, a personal key will be established as well. This is an important key which is exclusive to your certificate, which is required during installation. Also make sure that you save it somewhere safe.
Step 2: Make a right selection on the type of certificate
You have your CSR in hand, and you must choose the kind of certificate you want to purchase. These are primarily the level of validation and the number of domains to be secured. Immediate categories will be discussed further below, but the major ones include:
- Zone validation: 1) Domain validation (DV): Existence of ownership.
- Organization Validation (OV): Checks whether your business is legal.
- Extended Validation (EV): The most comprehensive business vetting analysis.
You are also going to have to think over whether you should use a single domain, Wildcard (subdomain), or Multi-Domain certificate.
Step 3: Choose a Provider (Certificate Authority or Reseller)
A certificate can be purchased at some Certificate Authority (CA) which is the issuing authority. Digicel, Section, and global sign are some of the most common CA’s.
Alternatively, one can purchase through a reseller. There are numerous domain registrars and various web hosting companies that are, in turn, resellers of the SSL. They also buy the certificates in large numbers with the CA, and furthermore, they sell at a reduced price. To a great majority of the people and small businesses it is a convenient and cost-effective way to purchase a trusted reseller.
Step 4: Complete the Purchase and Validation
After picking your certificate and provider, then you will check out. At this phase, you shall be expected to provide the CSR you have produced in Step 1. Once payment is done, the CA will initiate the validation process.
- This is automated and fast, in case of a DV certificate. You are normally asked to click on the link of a verification email or to add a DNS record so as to indicate that you own this domain.
- In the case of OV and EV certificates, it is a manual process and is time-consuming. You will need to present business documents and CA will check the legal status and address of the organization. It may require several days or just a number of hours.
Step 5: Perform Certificate installation onto your Server
The CA will forward you the certificate files after a validation is undertaken. Typically, these are a main certificate and CA bundle of intermediary certificates.
The last thing to do is to put up these files in your web server. The certificate files have contents that you can paste in your hosting control panel which is expected to have an SSL/TLS manager. The private key that you had created in Step 1 will also be required. After properly installing the certificate, your web page can be loaded with the help of a protocol HTTPS.
Factors to Consider Before You Buy a Certificate
Choice-making is determined by your needs. The following are some of the questions that you must ask yourself before you make a purchase.
What Does Your Website Intend to Do?
Do you have a basic blog, a company website or a big e-commerce store? A personal blog may not require a higher level of DV certificate. The business storing user data should use an OV certificate to gain more trust. A website using online commerce and a lot of transactions must invest in an EV certificate to have the best confidence.
What is the Number of Domains and Subdomains that You Have?
Provided you just need to secure your website such as www.yourwebsite.com then a single-domain certificate is sufficient. When you as well own the blog.yourwebsite.com and shop.yourwebsite.com, the Wildcard certificate would be a more productive and less costly option compared to purchasing individual certificates. When you operate a few different domains such as brand-one.com as well as brand-two.net a Multi-Domain certificate is the most suitable.
What Is Your Budget?
The prices of certificates are between 0 dollars and hundreds of dollars annually. Although sometimes it is so easy to go out and buy the cheapest possible service, the price is a number of times an indicator of the validation level, warranty, and brand reputation. Identify a budget which corresponds to your security requirements. Most web hosting companies provide free DV certificates, which is a good place to start with.
One of the basic aspects of a modern website running consists in the decision to purchase a certificate. It’s a bet on the protection of your users, the reputation of your brand and the presence of your site. It is possible to select and install the appropriate certificate to secure your online presence by knowing what actually happens, and assessing your needs.