An SSL Certificate is installed onto a web server to initiate secure sessions with browsers accessing your website and secure sessions with email clients accessing your organizations email. Once an SSL Certificate is installed, it is possible to connect to the website’s domain using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), as this tells the server to establish a secure connection with the browser. Once a secure connection is established, all web traffic between the web server and the web browser will be secure.
Why is the Root Certificate important?
SSL Certificates need to be issued by a trusted Certification Authority’s Root Certificate, and preferably by a 2048 bit Certificate that’s widely supported. The Root Certificate must also be present on the end user’s computer in order for the Certificate to be trusted so compatibility of the SSL certificate is an important requirement. If it is not trusted the browser will present untrusted error messages to the end user. In the case of an e-commerce website, such error messages will likely result in an immediate lack of confidence in the website and you will risk losing the confidence and business from the majority of consumers using your website.