Do you sell your jewelry direct-to-consumer from your own ecommerce store? If so, you’ll want to do everything you can to earn your customers’ trust and demonstrate that they can feel safe purchasing jewelry from your site. One of the easiest ways to do that is to get an SSL certificate.

The acronym SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer”. According to SSL.com, “SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser.” Basically, when SSL is active, it encrypts any data you provide to a website, so no hacker can intercept that data and use it against you. As long as you’re browsing a site with an SSL certificate, you can feel confident making a purchase, sending a private message, or sharing other sensitive information.

History of SSL

In an effort to secure communications on the web, Netscape developed SSL in 1994. The current version of SSL – SSL 3.0 – was released in November 1996. One of the most exciting things about SSL is that it enabled ecommerce, since it provided a safe way for shoppers to submit payment information and a reliable method for determining whether or not a site could be trusted. Without SSL, ecommerce giants like Amazon likely wouldn’t exist.

Benefits of SSL for jewelry marketing

One of the biggest goals of marketing, especially in the age of social media and information overload, is to build trusting relationships with consumers. Brands can do that by upholding a standard of professionalism, protecting consumer information, communicating in a consistent and reliable way, doing right by their customers, earning the trust of influential people, and receiving awards and accolades. An SSL certificate definitely plays a role in how a consumer judges the trustworthiness of your online store.

Without a doubt, implementing an SSL certificate is an easy way for you to increase your ecommerce conversion rates. In 2015, data company Statista found that 15% of ecommerce sales are lost due to concerns about security. In addition, in 2017 the ecommerce UX research company Baymard Institute found that the percentage of sales lost to trust issues was actually closer to 19%.

Finally, the SSL certificate could potentially benefit your search engine rankings. In fact, SSL plays a role in Google’s search ranking algorithm. In 2014, Google announced on their Webmaster Central Blog that the search engine was “starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.” In this announcement, they strongly encouraged all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to promote safety on the web. Adding an SSL certificate to your site won’t magically propel you to #1 in Google search results, but it can give you an advantage over unsecured websites. Wouldn’t you want to give yourself every advantage possible?

How can you tell if a website has SSL?

The easiest way to check for SSL is to inspect the URL in your browser. Secure sites use the protocol https:// rather than http:// in their web addresses. The next time you surf the web, observe which sites use the former protocol rather than the latter. Next, check for a padlock icon in your browser’s URL bar. When your browser recognizes a site as secure, then it will display a padlock. Please be aware that just because a URL has https:// doesn’t mean the SSL certificate is valid and current. To double check the certificate in the Google Chrome browser, go to View -> Developer -> Developer Tools. From there, you can click the Security tab to view the certificate and check whether or not it has expired.

How can you get an SSL certificate?

One of the best things about setting up a store with the Shopify ecommerce platform is that every store already comes with a built-in SSL certificate. In 2016, Shopify announced that they’d ensure “all pages, content, data…everything, on all 200,000+ online stores powered by Shopify can be accessed using SSL encryption.”

If you don’t use Shopify, and your ecommerce platform doesn’t already include your SSL certificate, then you’ll have to do a little extra work. First, you’ll need to buy the certificate, which can often be obtained through your domain name provider. For example, if you’ve purchased your domain name through GoDaddy, then you can visit this page for details about purchasing a certificate. As a promotion, other domain name providers may include an SSL certificate with your domain purchase. By default, most standard SSL certificates that you purchase are available for one to two years, so be sure to check the term before you buy one. Once you have the certificate, you’ll need to install it, which can be as easy as utilizing a plugin (with a WordPress site) or hiring a web development expert for a custom-built site.

Does your jewelry ecommerce site have an SSL certificate? Are you hoping to make your site more secure in 2020? We’d love to hear your thoughts about SSL and how you can start using it to improve your brand reputation and increase conversions.