Those of you that run a business online

or have thought about doing so have probably seen or heard of SSL at some point or another. This can be an extremely important, not to mention useful, thing to have if you’re going to let people purchase items from your site by credit card.

What is SSL anyway?

It stands for secure sockets layer, and is used for securing credit card data. To make a long process short, it works by using encryption keys when the internet browser requires a secure connection. All internet browsers support these types of transactions, and it’s likely the user doesn’t even know it’s happening. All they have to do is input their information, and the browser, site, and server do the rest.

For your business to offer SSL transactions

you have to be able to offer a digital certificate. Some web hosting companies have their own certificates available and will let you use them, or you can obtain one of your own. To do so you’ll have to get one from a certified company and pay a yearly fee. The amount of the fee varies, but normally doesn’t surpass $100 a year.

In order to be able to offer SSL transactions

you must have a static IP address for your website. Keep this in mind when you’re choosing a web host for your site, as many web hosting plans only offer variable IP addresses. The digital certificate isn’t enough by itself, so be sure you go with a hosting plan that will offer you a static IP address. You may have to pay an additional fee over the normal monthly hosting fees.

While it does take a little extra work

and entails an extra fee or two, once your business’s web site is set up to take credit cards, you can easily make that money back in no time at all.