An SSL certificate helps to ensure that any information sent between your website users and your internet server is encrypted and secure.
As well as the obvious security advantages that this brings, there are multiple other benefits to having an SSL certificate for your website.

Boost your Google Ranking
Google uses a number of signals to determine how high up in their rankings a website sits and the content of your page isn’t the only one. Google has announced that websites that use SSL certificates to make their connections secure will receive a ranking boost in return for doing so.

It’s not entirely clear how significant this boost is but in the cut-throat world of search engine optimisation, it’s well worth taking advantage of anything that will allow you to score an edge over your competitors. Of all the things that you can do to improve your Google ranking, adding an SSL certificate to your website is one of the most straightforward.

Improve User Trust
The average internet user is much more aware of the security risks that come with using the world wide web than they were five years ago. That means that they’ll be wary of any website that isn’t using encryption.

Google Chrome now displays a small green padlock and the words “secure” next to your URL if you have an SSL Certificate installed.

SSL Certificate
If you don’t have an SSL certificate installed you will see the following and shortly, you will start to see a red triangle and “Not secure” next to your URL which could be a concern to the user.

Non SSL Contact Forms
Also, if forms on your website announce to the user that they’re being sent in an insecure way then there’s every chance that they won’t submit them and may even abandon your website at the first opportunity, costing you leads, business, and customers.

An SSL certificate ensures that you’re meeting the security expectations of your users and doing everything you can to protect their valuable data.

25-second summary:

• The faster your website, the higher your chances to engage with new visitors and potential customers.
• The closer a server is to your visitors, the smaller the latency they’ll experience. That’s why it’s key to know where most of your visitors are based to define your server’s proximity.
• The crucial aspect you need to keep in mind is the flexibility your theme provides: are you able to customize it and even to disable features that you’re not planning to use? If “yes” it’s your answer, that’s a good theme to test.
• You shouldn’t worry about the number of plugins you’re installing as long as those plugins are coded properly.
• Caching can help your server remember your content to make access to your pages faster.
• Large images can significantly affect your site’s load speed and it can be one of the critical aspects many site owners overlook.
• Work on building a light and minimal template for 404 pages and serve that instead of the default one.
• Comments can negatively affect the load speed of your pages. Optimizing native WordPress comments, disabling them altogether, or using a third-party system can be a fix for that.
• If you are not running a blog on your site, you could simply disable the RSS feed to improve WordPress performance.

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme provides all of the front end styling of your WordPress site. Most WordPress themes provide:

• the overall design or style of your site
• font styling
• colors
• widget locations
• page layouts (or templates)
• styles for blog posts and blog archives
• additional stylistic details

What is a WordPress Plugin?

A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress.

Due to a websites specific function and use, it may be necessary to create custom WordPress plugins or themes for your website. Database intensive sites may require specialized data linking and alert responsiveness and so custom plugin programming may be required. Contact us by filling out our form to the right for custom plugin pricing as we have a range of talented developers to meet the challenge.