What Should You Know About Wildcard Certificates?

Wildcard SSL certificates protect your website’s URL and as many sub domains as you want. For example, blog.coolexample.com can all be secured with a single Wildcard certificate.

To the extent you request, wildcard certificates protect the primary domain and all subdomains. Just put an asterisk (*) to the left of the common name in the subdomain box.

How do certificates with a “wildcard” work?

A wildcard SSL certificate eliminates the need for additional certificates to secure your company’s web traffic, as it is effective against attacks from any subdomain. There are two main types of wildcard certificates:

• Domain-validated (DV) certificates can be sent to you quickly after you buy them, but you have to prove that you own the domain.
• Registered businesses can only use organization-validated (OV) certificates, and the certificate will include information about your business. But you must go through a review process before getting approval.

Wildcard SSL certificates have a private key that all subdomains share. If you use more than one server, you will need to copy the private key to each server when you install the certificate.

Why Wildcard SSL is a Good Idea

Unlimited Subdomain Security

 Wildcard SSL may protect as many subdomains as your company needs. There is no need to renew the Wildcard if more subdomains are added throughout the period.

SSL certificate that saves money

A business with N subdomains adds to a lot of money spent on website security. But a company doesn’t have to worry about the high cost if it has a wildcard certificate for subdomains. With a single Wildcard SSL certificate, an association can protect an unlimited number of sub-domains for the same price as a single certificate.

That helps small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) the most because they have fewer resources. Wildcard SSL certificates protect sensitive information across all of their website’s sub-domains.

Search Engine Optimization

Google gives a search ranking boost to websites that use SSL. The signal’s strength has grown as the browser community has worked to make encryption more common. Google gives higher rankings to websites that use SSL. Google may also mark a website as insecure if it doesn’t offer SSL encryption.

Users’ Trust:

 Compared to a website that isn’t secure, a secure website will have more traffic, and users will trust it more. Customers will trust your website because it has the highest level of encryption. Wildcard SSL can validate either a domain or a business, depending on which certificate you choose. 

Easy Certificate Management:

 Instead of going through a long and challenging process to manage multiple SSL, you can install a single Wildcard certificate for multiple sub-domains with just one click. Multiple certificates do not need to have their expiration dates, renewals, reissues, etc., tracked separately. So, managing certificates is much easier now that companies don’t have to work quickly to keep track of a lot of them.

Instant Issuance:

 You can get the Wildcard SSL certificate in two days after the CA checks your company’s paperwork, domain, and business ownership. Also, the certificate is immediately added to the environment and protects any sub-domains that are part of it. So, a minimum amount of time must pass before WC SSL Certificates can be used to protect websites.