The very first thing your customers see when they visit your site is the status of your SSL certificate. It’s right next to your URL in the form of a lock icon and the “https” prefix.

These indicators indicate that the user’s interaction with your site is secure, thanks to domain validation and data encryption. SSL is required to accept credit card payments and prevents browsers like Google Chrome from declaring your site as “Insecure”.

We couldn’t be clearer: if you receive sensitive information – addresses, credit cards, whatever – you must have an SSL certificate.