Site Seals: a sign of trust

Websites secured with an SSL certificate show visual pointers to the visitors: a padlock icon in the address bar, an https:// address instead of the default http:// URL. Another way to increase your visitor's confidence is to add a Secure Seal, also known as a Trustmark, which is simply an image provided by your Certificate Authority to indicate that your site is secured by them.

A Site Seal informs your visitors that your site isn't used for phishing purposes, that they're effectively doing business with your organisation, and that any and all information they transmit to you will be encrypted en will remain confidential.

Web studies have shown a significant increase of sales conversions on e-commerce websites that display their Site Seal in a prominent manner.

How does a Site Seal work?

Your certificate authority will provide you with a snippet of HTML code that you can add to your website's pages. The Site Seal shows a graphic of the Certificate Authority, in some cases together with your company name and the current time.

Dynamic and static Site Seals

A Static Site Seal is a plain image that you can add to your website to indicate that's it's been secured by SSL, and is usually the type of seal you get at the budget end of the certificate market, with the notable exception of AlphaSSL, who provide dynamic seals. Since the image is not clickable to verify your certificate data, it's less of a trust beacon than a dynamic seal.

A Dynamic Site Seal is clickable, and refers to the Certificate Authority's website, where visitors can view your full certificate details. Since the Dynamic Seal only displays correctly on a correctly secured site, it increases confidence of visitors and prospective online customers.

How do I install a Secure Site Seal?

You'll find the installation guides for the different certificate providers below:

GlobalSign

Follow the instructions on this page: https://www.globalsign.com/ssl/secure-site-seal/

Symantec

You can generate the Norton Secured Seal that comes with your Symantec certificate on the next page: http://www.symantec.com/ssl/seal-agreement/

Thawte

Your Thawte Trusted Site Seal can be downloaded at https://www.thawte.com/ssl/secured-seal/

GeoTrust

The GeoTrust manuals for their site seals are found here: https://www.geotrust.com/ssl/ssl-site-seals/

Comodo

Comodo PositiveSSL offers you a static site seal. You can find different image formats at https://www.positivessl.com/site_seals.php

Instructies for installing Comodo's Dynamic TrustLogo are available at https://trustlogo.com/ssl-certificate-support/index4.html

If you prefer to show Comodo's Corner of Trust, follow the instructions at https://trustlogo.com/ssl-certificate-support/index2.html

AlphaSSL

For your AlphaSSL Site Seal, visit http://www.alphassl.com/support/ssl-site-seal.html

RapidSSL

De RapidSSL Site Seal is a static site seal. You can download the image below and use it on your own website.