SSL (also known as TLS) offers the level of protection that the "S" in HTTPS symbolizes for. It makes sense that you would want to protect your website. After all, it has been surveyed that WordPress sites have been attacked up to 90,000 times per minute.

However, for a variety of reasons, it is a common misconception that SSL is sluggish, and adding an SSL certificate to your website would cause too much cost and impede performance. That may have been the scenario more than ten years ago, but its 2023, and 40,000 search inquiries every second on Google are now always conducted through HTTPS by default.

The same goes for you if Google can use SSL. In addition, after the release of Chrome 68, webpages that do not use HTTPS have displayed the term "not secure" in their address bar.

So, how does SSL affect SEO performance? Does an SSL certificate have anything to do with your webpage load speed? Let us discuss everything in detail!

COPYRIGHT_MARX: Published on https://marxcommunications.com/how-does-ssl-affect-your-website-performance/ by Keith Peterson on 2023-08-09T12:04:55.499Z

What is an SSL Certificate?

SSL certificate creates a secure channel between the server and the browser that keeps data in-transit private to save it from prying eyes. You may digitally authenticate your online presence. Any new website development debut or current website needs to include it. Credit card numbers, passwords, and other confidential details that users provide to websites are kept private and secure thanks to SSL certificates. SSL certificate is not a pricy deal nowadays, you can easily buy SSL certificate from authorized SSL providers and install it on your website, which can secure your sensitive information.

You could wonder why you need SSL encryption if you are not an e-commerce company and not taking credit card payments. Google views confidentiality as private and safety is its main concern.

Lastly, SSL certificate stands for secure socket layer, previously known as Transport Layer Security or TLS. It is a digital certificate intended to protect sensitive data or information.

It is simple to identify a website that possesses an SSL certificate because the address field of the site typically displays a padlock symbol. Customers who see this padlock are assured that a website is trustworthy and free to conduct money transactions.

How Does An SSL Certificate Enhance Webpage Speed?

Are you wondering? How SSL Improves Your Webpage Load Speed? Certain modest latencies introduced by SSL/TLS and HTTPS have already been removed with the introduction of HTTP/s. It resolves the issue of the web page slow down. HTTP/2 can send and receive multiple requests during an SSL connection, which slowdowns the latency period. The time it takes is so little that safety advantages outweigh them. Nevertheless, you may improve the performance of your website after installing an SSL certificate to make it both quick and safe.

Server Push

HTTP/2 includes Server Push as a standard feature. It enables the website's server to transmit additional resources to HTTP/2 compatible browsers whenever a user requests them. Individuals do not request such extra amenities. Yet, the server sends this kind of data right away. Server Push can decrease delay and server loading times. Server push is a request that the server makes in advance.

Increased Data Transfer

The problem of sluggish data transfer has been fixed with HTTP/2. Initially, the website has to be patient for a lengthy time after sending a request. After delivering a reply, the web browser must wait a while before returning one from the website's server. The loading time of the website suffered because of this. Additionally, a website with such short response times uses more bandwidth on the server.

Several web elements can be requested and received with HTTP/2. It only requires one connection between the website's server and the browser. Therefore, delays and loading times for the website are decreased. It reduces the time required for users to view a website.

Websites using HTTP and without employing an SSL certificate must wait between each request and its reply. A browser must hold off on submitting another request until it has received the server's answer to the previous one. The use of server bandwidth is required for this method, which decreases page-loading speeds.

Head-Section Compression

Headers let the web server know what information an individual seeks or searches for. The resources that will be sent from the computer's server to the user are specified in the headers. HTTP/2 reduces the dimension of headers and accelerates webpage loading. HTTP, on the other hand, can only support headers up to 800 bytes in size.

The effectiveness of a website has a direct relationship with its SSL certificate. Hosting companies now take into account the HTTP/2 function, nevertheless. A user ought to assess if the supplier offers the HTTP/2 technology before choosing a hosting package.

Some Other ways to improve webpage speed.

Caching

You can also do this to increase the speed of your website. Dynamic HTML files are made available to website visitors through caching. Page load speeds can be significantly increased by storing your content and sending stable HTML files to your users rather than updating information straight to your server.

Installing W3 Total Cache's potent WordPress caching plugin reportedly improves website performance by a factor of ten. It also claims to use up to 80% less bandwidth by minifying and compressing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and feeds.

Through CDN

By using CDN when you sign up for it, which stands for content delivery network, your webpage's loading time is improved because of how CDN functions. If you refrain from employing a CDN, the loading time of your webpage will be slow because of the variety of visitors from across the globe. With a CDN, however, the response will always be sent via the visitor's closest servers whenever an inquiry is sent to the server via a browser.

Conclusion

It can be seen that adding an SSL certificate to your website has many advantages. Along with enhancing safety, improvements in SEO and, more significantly, your webpage load speed may also be noticeable. Is your web page still using HTTP? It is the right moment to Purchase an SSL Certificate and install it on your website. Undoubtedly, an SSL certificate is one of the most efficient tools you can use to draw people and protect your personal information.