Website Q - SSL certificate?

[monkey44]

Does it make sense to purchase an annual SSL certificate if you do not sell anything on your website?

I believe that certificate is security for Credit Card customer, which I have none. Thanks M44

[silversand]

monkey44 wrote:
Thanks - I only have wildlife and wilderness images, and some info. I do have a link to my books on Amazon, but do not sell on my site. The site is basically a personal site, but with links to other artists on one page. No sales of anything.

....interestingly, this rv.net site shows up "not secure" when I browse through the Forum; however, when I engage the "Post A Reply", and send to the Forum, rv.net shows secure (I'm using Microsoft Edge).

Both of our hosted domains have not been SSL'ed as yet, and we don't plan on this any time soon (and I have Google Ads on 8 pages in one domain). We are not selling anything (not doing doing e-commerce) through either domain.

During surfing, we have a robust VPN engaged on all our computers (4 of them): ProtonVPN and a commercial subscription service (for work).

[mlslcan]

There is a free alternative (letsencrypt.org) that I have used in the past. It does not work with all hosting services due to how it works.

Mike

[mich800]

1492 wrote:
Personally, I would elect to secure (encrypted) a website to avoid some of the issues mentioned. Are you using shared hosting? Fairly common these days to include either a universal or personal certificate with shared hosting plan.

Since Chrome has now become the most used browser, you don't want your visitors to see the warning below? It suggests your site as being suspicious, and users will rarely bypass the warning to your site. Though should only appear if your site has fields that can pass potentially personal info unencrypted. If this warning does not appear, then I don't think many visitors even notice the URL flag as a Not Secure site.

Another option if you want your site secured is to open a free Cloudflare.com account. Basically, all traffic is passed through its reverse proxy servers. Your webpages appear secured, and offers additional protection against hacker attacks as they won't have direct access to your website. However, traffic from Cloudflare.com to your site will still be unencrypted.

That typically happens when a certificate is expired or has an installation issue. Not due to a non secure site. You can tell that looking at the address at the top is a https. So the error you posted is in reference to a improperly working ssl cert.

[1492]

Personally, I would elect to secure (encrypted) a website to avoid some of the issues mentioned. Are you using shared hosting? Fairly common these days to include either a universal or personal certificate with shared hosting plan.

Since Chrome has now become the most used browser, you don't want your visitors to see the warning below? It suggests your site as being suspicious, and users will rarely bypass the warning to your site. Though should only appear if your site has fields that can pass potentially personal info unencrypted. If this warning does not appear, then I don't think many visitors even notice the URL flag as a Not Secure site.

Another option if you want your site secured is to open a free Cloudflare.com account. Basically, all traffic is passed through its reverse proxy servers. Your webpages appear secured, and offers additional protection against hacker attacks as they won't have direct access to your website. However, traffic from Cloudflare.com to your site will still be unencrypted.

[mich800]

Y-Guy wrote:
Google has adjusted its ranking for searches based on sites with or without SSL. While I agree with your thoughts. If you are hosting it for your own personal use, don't bother - at least I don't. Our business website wasn't SSL until recently as we hand off our sales to another site that did have SSL, but we were advised to make the change. Most hosts will do it for free depending on the level of service you are paying for.

Agree, unless you are trying to improve your rankings or selling on the site wouldn't worry about it. With that said. Many hosts now offer SSL as part of the hosting package. So easy to do if you want to make the change.

[coolmom42]

monkey44 wrote:
Does it make sense to purchase an annual SSL certificate if you do not sell anything on your website?

I believe that certificate is security for Credit Card customer, which I have none. Thanks M44

Yes. Many virus protection packages will give warnings about the lack of SSL. People will not bypass the warnings, and will not come to your site.

[monkey44]

Thanks - I only have wildlife and wilderness images, and some info. I do have a link to my books on Amazon, but do not sell on my site. The site is basically a personal site, but with links to other artists on one page. No sales of anything.

[Y-Guy]

Google has adjusted its ranking for searches based on sites with or without SSL. While I agree with your thoughts. If you are hosting it for your own personal use, don't bother - at least I don't. Our business website wasn't SSL until recently as we hand off our sales to another site that did have SSL, but we were advised to make the change. Most hosts will do it for free depending on the level of service you are paying for.