A recent report from Netcraft found that Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates continue to gain ground and are being used on more websites. This is from data collected over a four-year period.

Some reports point out that EV certs account for only a percent or two of total SSL certificates in use. This is a misleading stat. This statistic includes free websites and very low traffic sites, which are not a good representation of ecommerce websites.

Netcraft found that almost one-third of the top 1,000 busiest websites that have an SSL certificate are using an EV certificate. That’s a number worth noting…

Green is good

EV SSL certs are the ones that turn the URL address bar green (or to the left of the address bar in some browsers) and display the full company name as well. They are designed to show consumers that the company is who they say they are when shopping with them.

It’s an effective weapon to combat fraudulent websites that pretend to be legitimate companies.

Obtaining an EV certificate is much more involved for a merchant. It requires proof that your company is legit. It’s not easy for a fraudster to get past these checks.

We go into more details about EV certificates in a recent blog post.

It pays to stand out in a crowd

As the online landscape becomes more crowded, and companies try so hard to be different and stand out from the pack, a EV cert. is one way to do just that.

If your competitors do not use an EV certificate, then that makes your secure checkout pages stand out.

Some will argue that the average online shopper doesn’t know the difference.

I say, if it causes even a handful of orders to be tipped in your favor, isn’t it worth it? Why wouldn’t you do all that you can to prove to your customers that your store is a safe and secure place to shop?

More people are recognizing that green means “safe and secure”. With Firefox 4, they even abandoned the padlock and went with only colors to denote the safety of a page.

And if your competitors already have EV certificates? All the more reason to get one, so your store doesn’t look like the insecure one.

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