Which SSL Certificate is Right For You?

You might be asking yourself “Which SSL should I buy”? We are going to go over the options and help you to make the best decision for your business. Let’s break it down. An SSL encrypts the information between you and your customers and gives your site that padlock next to the URL. Search engines prioritize websites with an SSL due to that level of security, so it also affects your SEO. To be clear, SSL is not website security. That means an SSL doesn’t protect your website from malware and other security risks. If that is what you are looking for, check out our Website Security product which also comes with a free SSL. If you are a GoDaddy customer and you use Websites + Marketing for your website, SSL and website security are included. If you use Managed WordPress that has a built in SSL. you don’t need to buy anything else. Let’s go back to the SSL options. If you have a single website, you have two options, do-it-yourself or Managed SSL where we do it for you. The basic do-it-yourself model is the DV, or Domain Validation SSL. If you go this route, make sure you do your research on how to install because it can be a little tricky. And you need to remember to manually reinstall this SSL every year. The second option is the Managed DV SSL Service. In this case, GoDaddy does the work for you. We install and maintain the SSL for the length of your subscription. If you have auto-renew turned on for your website, just do the same for your Managed SSL plan and you are good to go. Just set it and forget it! If you only have one website to protect, the choice is pretty much do-it-yourself or managed. If you have multiple websites, you may want to consider the Managed DV SAN SSL Service which covers up to five websites. It’s kind of a package deal with significant savings. If you have or plan to build out a bunch of subdomains for your website, we have an option for that. Subdomains are an extension of your primary domain but have the front part changed to direct traffic to a specific page. So, if you had events.mywebsite.com or store.mywebsite.com – you would need a Managed DV Wildcard SSL which covers the primary website and up to ten subdomains. And of course, all these options - Single DV, SAN DV, and Wildcard DV SSLs, are available in the do-it-yourself and managed varieties. The last two options convey a higher level of trust because they require a more stringent validation process. Organizational Validation, or (OV) SSL and the Extended Validation or (EV) SSL Certificate. Both of these SSLs require an additional level of validation before we issue the certificate. With OV, there are four steps to validate your business including a phone call. This is good for businesses that want the extra level of legitimacy, so customers know that you are who you say you are. In fact, Amazon has an OV SSL. Finally, the EV SSL has the strictest verification process. With EV, nine additional steps are required for authentication - including a domain fraud and content blacklist check. Businesses that use this level are usually working with government or financial institutions. Depending on the level of authentication you want for your business will determine if you want the OV or EV option. That’s it! Hopefully this video has given you enough information to make a confident choice in your SSL purchase.