You might read this question and wonder what an SSL even is! So we’ll start with that
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and it is an extra layer of security you can apply to your website. You have to answer a range of questions to confirm that you are a real person or business before your hosting provider applies the SSL. The SSL will then scramble data in transmission between your website and another.
A few years ago there was a lot of chat about an SSL improving your SEO – I wrote an FAQ about this then, and you can read that here, but the real reason to have an SSL is to provide an extra layer of security to your website visitors.
You need this extra security if you are sending people’s personal information across the internet. If you have an ecommerce website and therefore are sending payment data it is essential, but even if you are just sending email addresses or postal addresses this is still personal data that needs to be secure, so even if your website links to PayPal to take payments, so you are not storing credit card details, you should have an SSL.
Added to this, modern browsers will now alert your visitors that your website is insecure if you do not have an SSL installed!
Your web developer or hosting provider can install it for you and it will probably cost between £50 – £150 per annum depending of what level of security you need.