As we are advancing technologically, it is becoming more and more important to secure all cyber information and data aspects. Cybercriminals nowadays are coming up with new methods to damage businesses globally. They take away the sensitive information of the users and cause harm to them financially as well as psychologically. It is now essential to generate and develop data integrity as the most crucial aspect for businesses to consider. Therefore, an SSL Certificate is one of the most employed methods today to assure security in the digital sphere.

We are in this article going to discuss one of such essential SSL types naming Wildcard SSL Certificate. This piece deals with the in-depth knowledge of the same and its various uses and components.

What Is a Wildcard SSL Certificate?

The importance of security for your website is undeniably high in this fast pace world. A Wildcard SSL Certificate is a modern security protocol and is a security alternative to efficiently secure the main domain and your website’s subdomains. These certificates are considered budget friendly as they guard your multiple servers at the cost of one. The advantages are not just restricted to the cost but make the management easier for the website owners.

The certificate should be obtained from reliable providers as it guarantees a lot of security to you in different forms. The scalability and authenticity are high as well. These are benefits, along with the ease of implementation that the wildcard certificate has to offer and have gained the users’ confidence. It is considered a one-stop solution today for your multiple varieties of queries related to security.

How Do Wildcard SSL Certificates Work?

A Wildcard SSL Certificate works on asterisk, which comes before the domain name. For instance, if you own a wildcard certificate for your (name of domain).com, it can also be utilized for www. (name of domain).com, mail. (name of domain).com, blog. (name of domain).com too. This type of SSL certificate successfully secures numerous subdomains on the same level.

If you are looking to secure subdomains then, owning a Cheap Wildcard SSL can be a beneficial deal. One such advantage it offers is a fast and budget-friendly validation process through which all sub-domains can be secured at all stages.

Importance of Wildcard SSL certificate

A wide range of benefits are covered if you prefer Wildcard SSL certificate over others. The primary benefits involve providing security to multiple sub-domain websites. In case you have the users owning several sub-domain websites, then one should suggest these certificates for their sites. Another advantage of the wildcard certificate over others is its time saving and economical price. The time required to install one wildcard certificate is less than installing different SSL certificates for each of them separately. It reduces the load of work in terms of installation, and management becomes easy.

Mistakes committed by humans can cost you dollars and may be harmful to your business and pose a threat to your security. Such mistakes can even arise while trying to manage the SSL certificate and operating different aspects of security. But it is often seen that such mistakes can be avoided successfully in the presence of wildcard SSL certificates. These certificates are essential to secure your website from different kinds of threats prevailing in the online sphere today throughout the world.

Key benefits of a wildcard SSL certificate

There are several key benefits of having SSL wildcard certificates. As easy as it may seem, these certificates provide security to your website and attract consumers to your business. Even the popular SSL providers for wildcard certificate like GlobalSign, DigiCert, Comodo Wildcard SSL Certificate today are available for the convenience of the users. It reduces the overall costs of securing the website and thus results in saving money that you can utilize in maintaining other aspects of the website. These certificates are majorly supported by all the main web browsers dealing in the digital space today and hold compatibility with mobile devices. The flexibility is also high, covering up to 250 subdomains.

Types of wildcard SSL certificate

Wildcard SSL certificates are available in two categories, like domain validation and organization validation. Based on a count of the domain and the servers, these kinds of certificates are usually categorized into Multi-domain wildcard certificates.

 What about Multi-Level Subdomains?

Among the top benefits of having a wildcard SSL certificate, it fulfils the need to secure the multiple domains of your website. It is essential to employ only the wildcard SSL certificates at such places rather than other certificates. However, if there are different level of subdomains (2nd level), you need a multi-domain wildcard SSL certificate to secure multiple wildcard main domains and their subdomains in a single certificate.

For example *.abcdomain.com can secure,

• www.abcdomain.com
• blog.abcdomain.com
• domain1.abcdomain.com

It will be too inconvenient to manage multiple domains at the same time and ensure their security. In this case, you will have to buy a separate SSL certificate, which will undoubtedly create a lot of hassle. But with the multi-domain wildcard SSL certificate, it will be extremely easy to safeguard all the above under one certificate that too in a very convenient manner. All the above sub-domains will be secured at a budget-friendly cost and will not even consume your time much.

Similarities and differences between wildcard SSL and standard SSL certificates

It must be a question in your mind as to why you have to pick a wildcard certificate or standards SSL certificate. There are some important differences and similarities between a wildcard SSL certificate and a standard SSL certificate.

The key similarities between the two include the equal industry-standard capability of encryption. Both provide 256-bit encryption, 2048- bit RSA signature keys. The certificate that you pick has less effect on the strength of encryption, but the server’s impact and the browser used by the client is far more.

As mentioned earlier, a single domain certificate will secure one subdomain, whereas the wildcard SSL certificate provides security to multiple sub-domains of your choice. It is done by marking through an asterisk (*) at the level of a domain you want to encrypt.

When should I request an SSL Wildcard Certificate?

One should check if they are finding ways to secure a number of subdomains like ‘secure. (nameofdomain).com’, ‘www. (nameofdomain).com’ and ‘mail. (nameofdomain).com’ – all this can be facilitated with the use of a wildcard SSL certificate effectively.

If your priority is to have a certificate with reduced costs, easy implementation, less time to install, the wildcard SSL certificate will be the one for you. It should only be purchased from a reputed seller or provider. The process is easy even after making the purchase. A certificate signing request will be generated through which an asterisk will appear in front of your domain name. The certificate will be sent via mail by the issuing authority. The process is relatively easy and less time consuming. It does not require any form of expertise and can be done in very less time too.

Do SSL Wildcard Certificates work with all servers and browsers?

Compatibility with the browser plays a significant role in securing the website using an SSL certificate. It is observed that when the browser has no information about your base certificate (also called root certificate), it will display a warning related to security. It is essential to have legit verified communication between the client and the browser. This non-establishment of communication can have consequences in the form of consumer bouncing off from your website, which may cost reduction in sales figures.

The fact states that it is vital for most browsers that they identify with your root certificate and have a verified communication with it. It will bring constructive results in increasing the visibility of your site.

The majority of the popular certificate providers have successfully established this communication with the browsers and the servers. Hence, most Wildcard SSL Certificates identify with most browsers and servers in the digital sphere today.

Conclusion

In this era of utmost competition and advancement, it is vital to choose the right options, especially when securing your website. Among varied options present in the market, wildcard SSL certificates have established themselves as one of the most reputed alternatives. It is advisable to reflect on all the parameters mentioned above and then carefully secure the website suitably.