Are SSL Certificates Make or Break for New Blogs

Afternoon All (or morning depending where you are),

I've recently started getting back into making blogs as something to stop me watching rubbish TV when i get in from work, my question might be a stupid one, but as this is currently more of a hobby (no ad revenue as of yet, only launched a week ago however) is having an SSL certificate make or break in terms of SEO or general traffic/bounce rate for a new blog? If the answer is yes i have no problem spending the money, i would just rather not have a monthly loss (aside from hosting) associated with this hobby just yet

If the answer is a categoric "YES, THE WEBSITE WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT", Whats the best way to go about getting the website secure for the lowest cost

Cheers Guys,

Charlie

 

Hi Charlie, although I can't say for sure, I do believe that an SSL certificate ranks you more favorably in most browser algorithms. I'm aware that SSL can cost quite a lot but there are ways to get free SSL certificates. For example, I used Letsencrypt to secure my web-app. Doing a quick google search for Letsencrypt for Wordpress, I found many articles on how that can be achieved. Hope I was of some help, cheers!

 

Your SSL need to be installed properly. Make sure all the links on your website are coming through SSL. SSL make your visitors feel safe cause they won't see the red message coming on their browser. Yet I am not sure how secure your data is with Let's encrypt . But website owner are using it. If you have a eCommerce or website with important data. In that case you must use a premium secure SSL certificate from a trusted provider. Make sure http:// redirects https://

 

To add to AlphaNine's point, you can check the security level of your SSL with some online tools like SSL Server Test (Powered by Qualys).

 

If you're willing to use wordpress then You don't have to spent any dollars on getting SSL. There is a guide that shows you how to get one for free .In fact I'm using one for my website too!

 

Having an SSL certificate installed on your website is surely a good thing. An SSL certificate helps you to build trust among your visitors and also, boosts your ranking in Google. It also helps to keep the critical data on your website secure.

 

Since Google added it a ranking factor, I believe having an SSL certificate is the right way to begin your site creation journey. These day, almost every Web hosting company gives it away as a part of their hosting addons. They are tons of free SSL bearing sites and if you are tech savvy, then it won't take much of your time installing one for your site.