beginnerGeneral
SSL/TLS Certificate
A digital certificate that enables HTTPS encryption and verifies a website's identity.
An SSL/TLS certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables encrypted HTTPS connections. Certificates are issued by Certificate Authorities (CAs) like Let's Encrypt, DigiCert, and Comodo. For domain owners, having a valid SSL certificate is essential — browsers show "Not Secure" warnings for HTTP-only sites, and Google ranks HTTPS sites higher. Most hosting providers and CDNs (like Cloudflare) provide free SSL.