SSL certificates are the security guards of websites and, as such, they play an increasingly important role.
Especially now that Google has defined SSLs as a potentially strong website ranking factor, not only e-stores and subscription portals are expected to be SSL-protected.
SSLs are becoming a symbol of trust and security and your customers can get them as stand-alone products from your web hosting store
Why do I need to offer SSL certificates separately?
As SSLs are gaining momentum as must-have website attributes, site owners are getting more passionate about obtaining one for each of their sites.
When a security-sensitive prospect lands on your store, they will now easily be hooked on your service with quality SSL certificates at a reasonable price.
This opens up a whole new market dimension as far as your store is concerned, in contrast to before, when SSLs were only offered to existing clients in the Control Panel.
How can my customers get an SSL from my store?
As with all readily-available products on your store – web hosting packages, Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated servers, dedicated servers and domain names, the SSL certificates now also have a dedicated page from where customers can purchase an SSL for their sites.
On the Store Master theme, you will notice that the existing SSL certificates page now has an Order button added in the banner area:
From there, your customers will be taken straight to the order form with an SSL certificates-dedicated tab pre-selected:
On the order form, they will first need to select the type of SSL they need from the SSL type drop-down menu:
After that, the client will have to key in the hostname they want to use the SSL for. It could be any existing external host they choose:
After the hostname is selected, the client will have to specify an Approver’s email, i.e. the mailbox to which the SSL certificate authentication mail will be sent. It could be either one of the pre-defined generic email addresses generated by our system, or a custom one:
The following are another two required fields – Organization name and Organizational unit. Organization name is the exact legal name of the company or organization the certificate will be issued for (e.g. BestFood Ltd.). If the customer does not have a legally registered organization name, they should enter their own full name in the field.
Organizational unit is the department within the specified company or organization that will be featured in the certificate (e.g. IT, Marketing, etc.). It will be listed as Organizational Unit, or “OU”.
All of the aforementioned information, along with the location details listed below, will be featured in the certificate request (CSR) that we’ll submit to the Certificate Authority on your behalf.
On the right side, the customer can select the SSL certificate’s validity period (1-3 yrs), the payment currency, as well as the data center. The latter is needed so that the client could easily add a hosting package to their account, should they want to.
The client will have to fill in the account owner’s details, as well as the location of their organization. We’ll use this information both for their new account on our system and for the CSR request:
How can my customers get an SSL with a domain name from my store?
If your customers want to combine their SSL with a domain name, they will be able to do so from the domain search form.
The SSL certificate order option will be listed as a domain upgrade right next to the Whois protection service option:
The customer will be able to select an SSL type and to input an Approver’s email. The SSL’s validity period will be matched to the expiration date of the domain name.
In this case, the information needed for the CSR request to be processed will be extracted from the Whois details associated with the selected domain.
The SSL upgrade option will be available on all the other service tabs on the order form – domain names, web hosting plans, virtual private servers, semi-dedicated plans and dedicated servers.