Security
If your address bar says "Not secure", visitors see a warning before they see your business. An SSL certificate removes that warning and encrypts everything they send you.
Published 25 March 2026 6 min read
It proves your website is what it claims to be, and it encrypts the traffic between the visitor's browser and your server. Names, messages, passwords and card details travel as scrambled data instead of readable text.
When a valid certificate is installed, your address changes from http to https and browsers show a padlock.
Four practical reasons, in order of how quickly you will notice them.
Most websites need only the first.
Free SSL is included with every hosting plan, and organisation-validated certificates are available when you need one.
On our hosting it is switched on for every domain automatically and renews itself. If you are moving from a site without it, add a redirect from http to https, then fix any images or scripts still loaded over http so the padlock does not appear broken.
Nearly always one of these three.
Our engineers answer setup and migration questions in plain language, 24 hours a day.
