So, I purchased an EV SSL, because they're only $46 at GoGetSSL for the first year. What are your opinions on EV SSLs? Do you think they're a waste of money or not? I see it as a confidence booster. I mean, it's seriously $10 a month. Not a big deal in terms of money.
EV SSL
- Thread starter Steven F
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We paid a couple of hundred bucks for ours, and it definitely boosted sales by a few percent.
We have one, and it boosts sales a bit. People feel more confident working with businesses that they know are legit and not "Fly by Night".
If there is an unexpected increase in sales after installation, you can assume they came from the EV. It's not concrete, but it's not like it's so hard to tell.Hm, if it's only a few %, how do you know it was because of the SSL
They said a few %, not large-ish unexpected increase. It's not as though immediately after adding EV you'll get a bunch of sales.
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Well, that depends on how you look at it. If you're making 100 x $7 sales a month and getting an EV SSL will boost you by 3%, so you'll make an extra $21 every month. However, it's cumulative. If you have a 33% turnover rate, you'll have 24 new clients and have made over $1,250 more. Small boost, decent revenue.
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Sure, but if you only have 100 clients with 33% turnover rate then how can you be sure that the boost is because of EV SSL?Well, that depends on how you look at it. If you're making 100 x $7 sales a month and getting an EV SSL will boost you by 3%, so you'll make an extra $21 every month. However, it's cumulative. If you have a 33% turnover rate, you'll have 24 new clients and have made over $1,250 more. Small boost, decent revenue.
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DomainBop
Dormant VPSB Pathogen
That was my experience with TRUSTe several years ago: negligible if any sales increase and definitely not the 15% plus they advertised. We eventually dropped TRUSTe because the cost was more than the benefits (their annual fees were much higher then).
If the sales increase after adding a "trust" solution like TRUSTe, or an EV SSL is more than the cost then it is worth it, but the sales increase you're likely to see after adding a trust solution is far less than their marketing people advertise.
They trust the color green in their browser bar more thanks to marketing campaigns by large SSL companies but the surveys I've seen indicate the majority of people don't know the difference between the documentation/verification requirements to obtain an EV and a regular SSL. The vast majority of Internet users are completely clueless about the requirements for SSL certificates (and don't even know what an SSL certificate is used for). They just know the browser lock symbol and the color green mean safe.
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EV seems a little more serious from my perspective, as did SGC back in the day. "Site seals" by comparison have always seemed like a complete crock. By transcluding code or content from a 3rd party server, they are more likely to introduce insecurity than supply any credible assurances. I'd be interested in seeing A/B testing from a site that serves both kinds of certificates, to see if EV a. gives higher signups, and b. whether it is correlated with higher spend from customers who do sign up.
I'd like to have seen a version of EV that indicated that the SSL endpoint was in a FIPS or comparable certified hardware crypto module instead of in some software library.
I'd like to have seen a version of EV that indicated that the SSL endpoint was in a FIPS or comparable certified hardware crypto module instead of in some software library.
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Considering we are asking our customers to trust us with their data, it's hard to argue with something like an EV SSL Certificate or at the very least an Organization SSL certificate. Why should they trust us with their information if we are unable to give them something to trust about us? Sure a SSL Certificate isn't much, but it's better than nothing.
It's also worth noting that the type of certificate isn't the only thing we should be considering, but also the performance of the vender (http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/reports/performance/OCSP), after all SSL does add more overhead to our websites load time...
@JFSG It's part of the vetting process to verify your information using authorized third parties. They may require you have a listing on Yellow Pages for example, if they can't find your business on one of their other sites.
It's also worth noting that the type of certificate isn't the only thing we should be considering, but also the performance of the vender (http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/reports/performance/OCSP), after all SSL does add more overhead to our websites load time...
@JFSG It's part of the vetting process to verify your information using authorized third parties. They may require you have a listing on Yellow Pages for example, if they can't find your business on one of their other sites.
It's ridiculous in my opinion. Not everybody is interested in getting listed on a paid directory nobody visits. In my opinion, checking the government's company registry website is the fool-proof way of verifying.
I'd say EV gives me more assurance when purchasing from a new company I haven't purchased from before, but if a company I already do business with upgrades to EV, I'm not suddenly going to do more business with them.
I am curious how an EV SSL is being sold for $46. I thought the high cost was because it took real people real time to check out all a company's documentation. And the high price provides a barrier to entry that fly-by-nighters wouldn't want to surmount. I've actually lost a bit (not much) of confidence in them when I know they're going for that cheap.
Tangent, but I do wonder why DV wildcard certs cost so much - there's very little value added by the CA in a wildcard, so I wonder why it costs so much more.
I am curious how an EV SSL is being sold for $46. I thought the high cost was because it took real people real time to check out all a company's documentation. And the high price provides a barrier to entry that fly-by-nighters wouldn't want to surmount. I've actually lost a bit (not much) of confidence in them when I know they're going for that cheap.
Tangent, but I do wonder why DV wildcard certs cost so much - there's very little value added by the CA in a wildcard, so I wonder why it costs so much more.
I just went through the process. I would guess that the total amount of human time spent on my order was <15 minutes and realistically <5. This is a "trial" EV SSL, so it's to get people into the door. They're not losing money, but they're not making as much on this one.
The EV SSL's honestly aren't *that* expensive. I think it was like $140 for a single domain (with/without www) and $200 for a Multi-Domain EV SSL. Only gripe about EV SSL is you have to use up one of the "domains" to secure both with and without www (we just force redirect www to non).
Process is pretty easy too. They use a DUNS number to validate information, can take up to a month to get the number so the only *true* barrier of entry behind an EV is a little bit of time, and filling out like 3 forms (1 for Yellow Pages which is easy and free, 1 for duns which is easy and free, and then the documentation signatures etc for Comodo itself)
Process is pretty easy too. They use a DUNS number to validate information, can take up to a month to get the number so the only *true* barrier of entry behind an EV is a little bit of time, and filling out like 3 forms (1 for Yellow Pages which is easy and free, 1 for duns which is easy and free, and then the documentation signatures etc for Comodo itself)