如今买家和在线服务用户越来越谨慎，当他们在网上购物或使用在线服务时，一旦需要提供私人信息，大多数人都会先检查浏览器底部是否有挂锁图标，甚至会检查地址栏是否有前缀"https://"。如果您的网站不支持加密连接，没有SSL证书，访客很可能就会离开您的网站，不会选择购物甚至免费注册，他们可能只是感觉不可靠，如果将信用卡或个人信息提交到不太安全的网站上。您可以通过购买SSL认证，增加网站可信度，赢得客户信心。

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) issued by a trusted authority such as RapidSSL or GeoTrust is installed on your domain's hostname i.e. secure.domain.com. When there is a client of yours that browse over https://secure.domain.com the connection between the browser and the server is encrypted with 128, 256 bit key. Any data send between your client's browser and the server is encrypted before sending and decrypted after received on the server. In that way information transmitted over the Internet is encrypted and signed as secured by this trusted authority. Browser when sending data over https:// checks the validity of the SSL Certificate with the issuance authority. SSL technology protects your Web site and makes it easy for your Web site visitors to trust you.

Valid SSL Certificate is a must if:

• 您的网站是在线商店并接受信用卡或其它支付
• 您的网站提供在线服务并要求订阅者注册
• 您的网站支持客户登录并包含私人或其它安全信息
• 您的网站有任何其它类型的客户数据传输

Regular SSL Certificates are issued and signed to secure single hostname of your domain. In other words you can use it only for one particular subdomain e.g. www.domain.com or secure.domain.com. If you want to have encrypted secure connection over several subdomains you need Wildcard SSL Certificate. It can be used to secure multiple (as much as you have) subdomains on a single domain name.