Safe file transfer is one of the main concerns when creating or using a website. While reading or sending e-mails and uploading data on your website, in most cases data is sent without any encryption. If someone wanted to take over the flow, all data could fall into the hands of that someone.
Due to this security concern, it is always recommended to use SSL certificate for a website. It is especially important when hosting an e-commerce or basically any other website which has a signing in or payment option.
The main reasons for ordering SSL certificate are:
keeping data secure when transferring between servers;
higher customer trust;
better ranking in search engines.
After ordering and installing SSL certificate, the data transferred from the website becomes encrypted. Then, if someone stole such data, it could not be used anywhere because of encryption.
Which SSL certificate should you choose?
There are many types of SSL certificates available. So, the first thing to consider is how many domains you want to secure:
Single domain. This certificate is for protecting only a single domain or subdomain. (hamster.tips and www.hamster.tips);
SAN. One certificate can secure up to 3 domains or subdomains. (hamster.tips, new.hamster.tips, ssl.hamster.tips);
Wildcard. The main domain and all of its second-level subdomains will also be protected. (hamster.tips and *.hamster.tips).
SSL certificates are also chosen by validation level:
Domain Validated. The most popular and the cheapest SSL certificate option. It has basic encryption and verifies the ownership of the domain it is provided for. It takes up to few hours.
Organization Validated. Such certificates provide basic encryption and the ownership is validated by additional organization checking (address, name, etc.). These certificates cannot be issued to a private person. It takes a few days to receive this certificate.
Extended Validation. Before such certificate is issued a thorough inspection of the organization is conducted. This is the highest available protection for a website. After the certificate is issued, the name of the company is shown next to the name of the website. This type of certificate takes from a few days to several weeks to be issued.
All of these certificates are available at Hostens.
How to install SSL certificate?
First, you should order it on the Client Area. To see how it is done, please find our tutorial here https://www.hostens.com/knowledgebase/how-to-order-ssl-certificate/
If you host your website on a shared hosting server, issuing and installing the certificate is pretty simple. There are a few steps you need to take in order to receive and install SSL certificate into your hosting package. You can see how it is done on our Knowledgebase here https://www.hostens.com/knowledgebase/installing-ssl-certificate-to-shared-hosting-cpanel/
If you use the VPS, SSL certificate installation will have more steps, but it is still pretty simple. See tips on how to do it on our Knowledgebase here https://www.hostens.com/knowledgebase/installing-ssl-certificate-to-vps-hosting-apache/
After installing a certificate, you will be allowed to use the HTTPS protocol for your website. If the certificate is installed into your website and server correctly, you will see a green padlock near your domain name. That’s it!
