NameCheap SSL Certificates Review

If you’re a blogger or a website administrator, great chances are that you have heard about SSL certificates – particularly NameCheap SSL certificates.

Great chances are too that you have wondered whether buying one of them (at one point in time or the other) would be a smart thing to do.

However, our bet is that you have not bothered with investigating further what an SSL certificate is or how it will benefit your site, traffic and security wise.

It is further, our bet that, you may even see an SSL certificate as a waste of time and an expensive reality/investment that is likely to drain your funds and provide little ROI (if any at all) in the end.

Accordingly, like all smart online businesspersons, you may have discarded it right out of your mind and straight into the recycle bin of archived projects.

If you’re that blogger or website administrator, this article is for you.

If you are not that (exact) online businessperson, but will do with an improved site security, would love to enhance your overall trust and trip conversions over, this article is also for you.

Kindly read on.

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What is an SSL Certificate?

An SSL certificate, according to GlobalSign, (is a small data file) that binds a cryptographic key to an organization’s details.

When such a certificate is installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.

Typically, SSL is used to secure credit card transactions, data transfer and logins, and more recently is becoming the norm when securing browsing of social media sites.

Essentially thus, an SSL certificate achieves two things primarily:

1. It binds a cryptographic key to an organization’s details and
2. It encrypts connections/communications between a web server and a browser accessing files on that web server.

This, in summary, is what an SSL does with majestic ease and effortless glory.

Why Should you Consider an SSL Certificate for your Website or Blog?

Having known what an SSL certificate is, why should you bother with one either for your website or blog?

There are a ton of good reasons. However, the most important of them are:

1. An SSL makes your blog or website more secure. Hackers and snoopers are less likely to break through or breach your security.
2. A site with an SSL certificate attached to it inspires more trust in your visitors/customers. This increased trust naturally translates to more leads and sales.
3. Finally, an SSL certificate is now officially a Google ranking signal. This means that, sites that have deployed this protocol will be favored by Google so far as organic traffic is concerned (all other things being equal, of course).

As you can see, the three (3) reasons chronicled above are not reasons any serious webmaster or blogger will play with.

This is because they go right to the root and very essence of a site directly and bother on the very reason your site is online in the first place.

Before we proceed however, let’s put things straight: is there any hope for your site without an SSL certificate or the ‘https’ protocol? 

Is There any Hope for your Site without an SSL Certificate?

Google recently announced that more than a handful of the first 100 sites in the world (accounting for over 25% of web traffic worldwide) do not offer https by default.

For many other webmaster/bloggers who have not deployed this security measure, this is huge consolation 🙂

However, before you jump into that rather hasty consolation mood, kindly understand that:

• The information above is more than a year old already.
• Many sites that actually made the initial list are now 100% compliant, SSL wise.

This means that, the battle for a secure web is an ongoing one – one that cannot be relented or lost.

To prove this, as early as 2017, WordFence published that Google will begin labeling non https compliant sites as ‘Not Secure’.

The implications of the above cannot be relegated into the background.

For non compliant sites thus, the following is going to happen (on a more dramatic scale) in the days to come:

1. More organic traffic will be lost in favor of sites that are compliant.
2. Sales will be lost as visitors/customers will be very reluctant in sharing their financial information in such an unsecured environment.
3. Lead acquisition will prove more difficult as visitors to a site will become reluctant to share their emails/details on a non secure platform.
4. Finally, raw, direct traffic will also be severely affected as direct visitors will not have the confidence to continue browsing such a site especially after such a notification of insecurity while at it.

 These are not issues you’ll appreciate as a webmaster or blogger, believe us. Accordingly thus, the reality of maintaining and running a non https compliant site is as outdated as Windows 95!

Now that you’ve seen that you need an SSL certificate for your blog or website, the next question is – where should you buy one?

We have a suggestion: NameCheap.

NameCheap SSL Certificates: 5 Good Reasons why you Should Buy Your SSL Certificate with NameCheap

To ensure that your site is https compliant (to enable you cash up on all the goodies that come with the compliance), it is only smart that you make the all important switch immediately.

We have taken a good look around and see that your best bet is with the NameCheap SSL brand of certificates.

However, we do not intend that you should follow our lead blindly. Here are 5 (five) good reasons why we sincerely believe that you’re better off with a NameCheap SSL certificate (as against the other brands in the market).

Here we go:

1. Fair & Affordable Pricing

It doesn’t make any sense to spend more money when you can get the same value elsewhere for far less.

This is exactly the very first reason why we recommend that you purchase your SSL certificate from NameCheap directly.

NameCheap SSL certificates are as cheap as $9 for a whole year. It is smart to note that, this amount is fair and quite affordable, a deal/reality that you can hardly find anywhere else online.

2. An Ultra Secured Account

As the online world becomes more complex, it is only natural to make certain that accounts online are protected with the greatest level of security. One of such smart ways of ensuring an ultra secured account is two factor authentication.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of SSL merchants/sellers today do not have this feature.

This means that, anyone who successfully hacks or guesses your password has access to your hard earned account as if it were there very own!

With NameCheap however, things are very different: each account is protected with two factor authentication which can be turned on and off at pleasure.

This means that, even if one guesses or steals your login details, logging into your account will still be a challenge – especially is the fellow has no direct access to your cell phone.

This smart feature implies something that you cannot afford to neglect in a hurry: added security and utmost peace of mind!

3. Various Payment Options at your Fingertips

For many webmasters who would otherwise appreciate an SSL certificate, their greatest challenge/worry remains a reliable payment method that is accepted by the issuing merchant.

Most merchants simply opt in for Paypal – leaving the rest of the world without a reliable Paypal alternative (or any other option for that matter), completely stranded.

NameCheap has brilliantly tackled this issue by making certain that it provides a variety of payment options, making sure that you get at least one option (available in your country) to pay for your SSL certificate.

The options available are: American Express, Bitcoin, Dwolla, MasterCard, Paypal and VisaCard.

With these options, it is difficult to see how webmasters – even from developing countries will have a challenge issuing payments to NameCheap for their SSL certificates.

4. Superior Support for Clients/Customers

No matter how great a product or service is, it is completely useless without awesome and fast support.

This is because, even as a seasoned professional, you would need the help of your certificate issuer every once in a while. This is where we again believe that opting to go with a NameCheap SSL certificate is the best option for you at the moment.

If you ever need the attention of NameCheap, you’ll be pleased to find it in a plethora of ways: by reading the articles in the knowledge base, by using the ticketing system, contacting online chat in real time or submitting your query via email.

The sheer number of support options open to clients/webmasters is an indication that in the event of any challenge, NameCheap will be glad to come to your aid or assistance in the most timely manner.

This should give you the much needed assurance to positively make up your mind to opt in with this provider.

5. Compatibility Across all Modern Browsers

Finally, not all certificates are compatible across browsers.

This means that, if you are unfortunate to purchase your certificate from a provider that issues certificates that have compatibility issues with browsers that are not very popular (e.g. IE and Safari), you will, instead of making the life of the readers of your site easier, compound it.

The advantage of NameCheap SSL certificates remains that, they are compatible with all modern browser types.

This implies that, you certainly have no fear or issue…your certificate, bought from NameCheap will work across all the modern browsers in use today – no matter how unpopular or rarely used they actually may be.

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Having treated why we believe you should opt in for NameCheap SSL certificates for your site, let’s see the types of SSL certificates available, their differences and the one that will best suit you.

Stay with us…

What Type of NameCheap SSL Certificate is Perfect for your Site?

There are more than 10 (ten) different types of NameCheap SSL certificates.

While each does an awesome job of protecting users privacy and enhancing rankings as a result, each of the under-listed NameCheap SSL certificate is meant to tackle a particular site type.

Here’s a smart Guide:

With this guide, it is quite easy to see that you’ll have no challenges at selecting the certificate that best suites your site and budget.

Happy shopping.

MORE: Top 10 Best Hosting Companies With Free SSL

Wrap Up on NameCheap SSL Certificates and the Importance of Online Security of Data

Online security today (as far as your website/blog is concerned) starts with an SSL certificate.

You will also be pleased to know that the organic rankings of your site and its conversion rate is also tied to how the search engines and your readers (respectively) view or perceive your site.

If you are thus serious about:

1. The security of the (often personal) details of your readers.
2. Organic rankings &
3. Good conversions,

You should embrace an SSL certificate (from NameCheap) today without further ado. We’ll see you on the other side of (increased) security, organic ranking and conversions!