What are the benefits of having an EV SSL certificate with OCSP stapling enabled for a WooCommerce store?

Boosting Security and Trust for Your WooCommerce Store: The Benefits of EV SSL Certificates with OCSP Stapling.

An EV SSL certificate, or Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer certificate, is a type of digital certificate that is used to establish a secure connection between a website and a user's browser. The certificate is issued by a trusted third-party organization, known as a certificate authority (CA), and it is used to verify the identity of the website's owner.

When a user visits a website that has an EV SSL certificate installed, their browser will display a green address bar, along with the name of the organization that owns the website. This visual cue is designed to give users an added level of trust and confidence when interacting with the website.

In addition to the visual cues, EV SSL certificates also offer a number of other benefits for online businesses, including:

• Increased security: EV SSL certificates use advanced authentication methods to verify the identity of the website's owner, which helps to prevent phishing attacks and other types of fraud.

• Improved customer trust: By displaying the green address bar and the name of the organization that owns the website, EV SSL certificates can help to increase customer trust and confidence in your online business.

• Better search engine rankings: Google and other search engines have stated that they give a slight ranking boost to websites that use EV SSL certificates.

-Compliance: EV SSL certificates are also required for compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) for eCommerce websites that accept credit card payments.

But EV SSL certificate alone is not enough for a website to be fully secure. OCSP stapling is another feature that helps to improve the security of a website. OCSP stands for Online Certificate Status Protocol and it is used to check the revocation status of an SSL certificate.

OCSP stapling is a process where the web server, in this case, your WooCommerce store, is configured to periodically check the revocation status of its own SSL certificate with the certificate authority (CA) and then "staple" this information to the SSL handshake. This means that when a user's browser connects to your website, it can check the OCSP stapling information to see if the SSL certificate has been revoked.

One of the main benefits of OCSP stapling is that it reduces the reliance on external OCSP servers, which can improve the overall performance and security of your website. With OCSP stapling, the certificate status check is done by the server, which eliminates the need for the user’s browser to make an additional request to the CA's OCSP server. This can help to reduce the number of SSL/TLS handshakes that are required to establish a secure connection, which can lead to faster page load times.

In summary, having an EV SSL certificate with OCSP stapling enabled for your WooCommerce store can provide a number of benefits, including increased security, improved customer trust, better search engine rankings and compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. By displaying the green address bar and the name of the organization that owns the website, EV SSL certificates can help to increase customer trust and confidence in your online business. And with OCSP stapling, the certificate status check is done by the server, which eliminates the need for the user’s browser to make an additional request to the CA's OCSP server which can help to reduce the number of SSL/TLS handshakes that are required to establish a secure connection, which can lead to faster page load times.