Recently, a member of the forums was told that she 'needed an SSL certificate on her site' because she has a contact form and that 'many people won't use a contact form to send information if her site wasn't protected by an SSL (or security certificate)
Now, this is a bunch of hooey and I wanted to post this little bit of info for anyone else who isn't familiar with what an SSL is, does, or why you'd need one. Often times, a company is just trying to sell you something you don't need. Read on for more info...
SSL = Secure Sockets Layer
It is a 'certificate' that you can purchase and install on your website to encrypt or encode sensetive (private, confiential, financiale, etc.) information between your site/server and the person/computer who is interacting with your website/server.
For instance, if I have a shopping cart on my website and my customers are entering credit cards for payment, I need to have an SSL certificate installed to help protect my customers' private information. It 'changes' the information while it is in transition so that anyone outside who is trying to 'read' or steal that information sees only muck and no useful information.
So, unless your website's contact form is asking for exceptionally private information or you are handling transactions with a payment gateway (credit card processing - NOT Paypal) it is absolutely not something that you need on your website.
Here are some links that might be helpful:
What is SSL?
What is SSL? (another one
)
In answer to another thread: What is SSL? (Security certificate)
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