SSL Certificates

Even if you’re not running a business, selling online or collecting customer data, our basic package, 123-SSL, is a great place to start. This essential security and encryption will be enough to satisfy Google’s requirements for SSL-encrypted sites, and you may see a rankings boost as a result. In addition, 9 out of 10 users are more likely to trust a website with visible security indicators like the padlock in the search bar and “Secured by” seal.

Recommended: 123-SSL or Domain SSL

If you’re running your website with a content management system, you should secure your login and administrative areas, protect customer data transfer and ensure that feedback received from your comment sections and forms remains confidential. We’d recommend either Domain SSL or Organisational SSL in this situation, depending on the level of customer confidence you’d like to display.

Recommended: Domain SSL or Organisational SSL

If you have a customer login, any protected content or collect any form of confidential data, you need our Organisational or Extended SSL for our maximum security and the highest level of customer confidence. Both offer high security, but Extended SSL Certificates are ideal if you want to offer extra reassurance to your visitors and make every transaction a confident one.

Recommended: Organisational SSL or Extended SSL

For any online retailer, we recommend Extended SSL. This ensures your payments, customer logins and members-only areas of your site remain secure from online threats. According to a recent study, 90% of users are more likely to leave their details or make a purchase when they know that their data is sent over a secure connection.
Recommended: Extended SSL

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and it is the predecessor of TLS – Transport Layer Security. It’s most commonly used when websites request sensitive information from a visitor, like a password or credit card number. It encrypts information sent between your website and a visitor’s web browser so that it cannot be read by a third party as it is sent across the internet.

When you buy SSL, you’re actually buying a certificate – a small data file that digitally binds a cryptographic key to your business’ online details. When installed, it secures the connections from a web server to a browser.

This is issued by a trusted authority who will go through the necessary vetting to identify you, your site or your business and ensure you are who you claim. When you’re approved, you can install this certificate onto your domain name and encrypt the pages on your website.

If you have a website package with us, we’ll automatically install your SSL for you – and if you don’t, our support will help walk you through the process.

Anyone who does business online should be using an SSL Certificate. They are most commonly used with ecommerce websites, but can be used on any website where sensitive information is exchanged, for example:

* Entering credit card details
* Logging in with a username and password
* Viewing or sending emails
* Downloading a customer database
* Conducting online banking or sharing financial details
* Chatting in a private room

If you’ve ever bought anything online, you’ve probably used SSL without even realising it – but there are some sure-fire ways to tell and these are the things your customers will look for on your site when they buy online.

Most web browsers display a padlock when you’re viewing a site over a secure connection. Additionally, the addresses of secured pages start with https:// instead of the http:// protocol.

Any domain name at all! There’s one-click installation with our web hosting, or you can purchase a standalone security certificate and we’ll help you install it elsewhere. Please note that these SSL plans are not currently compatible with our Website Builder and Ecommerce packages. Ecommerce already comes with a free SSL included so you don’t need two.

This type of certificate secures your domain name as well as an unlimited number of subdomains.

For example, www.yourbusinessname.com, shop.yourbusinessname.com, and secure.yourbusinessname.com can all be protected with a single Wildcard SSL Certificate.

It works the same way as a regular SSL, undergoes the same validation processes, and is available either as 123-SSL, Domain SSL or Organisational SSL.

When generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for a Wildcard certificate, add an asterisk (*) to the left of the Common Name where you want to specify the wildcard.

Examples:

*.yourbusinessname.com secures www.yourbusinessname.com, secure.yourbusinessname.com, etc.

www*.yourbusinessname.com secures www1.yourbusinessname.com,
www2.yourbusinessname.com, etc.

*.mail.yourbusinessname.com secures secure.mail.yourbusinessname.com,
www.mail.yourbusinessname.com, etc.

It might sound complicated – but it’s really not! Our friendly support team is always ready to help make the process fast and easy.

All our certificates work with every major web browser, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome and Safari.

As you can imagine, the proportion of people using browsers that aren’t compatible with our SSLs is tiny – around 1% – and because our Certificates are industry standard, every other provider will have the same compatibility rate.

Every secured website gets a small padlock image in the browser bar – but for those sites who have the maximum security level available (Extended SSL), the browser bar will also turn green and display their websites credentials.

* It’s only available to businesses which have completed extra vetting steps. In order to use the green browser bar, businesses have to pass a more stringent vetting process. It’s added trust for the consumer and looks better on your brand.

* It displays your business name and location. This gives visitors to your site immediate reassurance of who you are and makes it very difficult for any other sites to pass themselves off as your business.

* It’s very visible and obvious. The green bar is positioned right at the top of a browser window, not down at the bottom – and (as you might expect) it’s bright green. Customers can instantly tell they’re on a secured site.

In order to get the green browser bar for your site, you need to purchase our Extended SSL.

When you buy a 123 Reg SSL Certificate, you can use one of the site seals on your website. These instantly-recognisable badges confirm to visitors that you’re protected.

When a customer clicks on the site seal, they’ll be able to view more information about your site’s identity and confirm that you really are who you say you are.

123-SSL comes with a basic 123 Reg site seal. For extra brand awareness, you can use a site seal with our Domain, Organisational and Extended SSL certificates.

Starfield Technologies has been a Certificate Authority since 2004 and have over 1 million active SSLs in use around the world which receive over 1 billion security checks every day. Starfield certificates are trusted by every major browser in the world.

Starfield are committed to ensuring high performance standards and maintaining their high levels of security. They successfully complete 3 annual WebTrust audits of their SSL Certificates and are members of Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Google and Oracle’s root programs, among others.

Alongside this, they are also a founding member of the CA/Browser Forum and participated in the development of the EV SSL standard.