Doing some research today, I ran into two websites with SSL certificate errors and both were because of two different reasons. Since I ran into two of them, I thought it may be a good idea to write it about it because the errors often are similar to what happens with domain names.

SSL Certificates are used on websites often on login pages, shopping carts etc. I personally have never set one up but I have run into many sites over the years with errors and I’m sure it pushes people away from using the site or making a purchase when the SSL error pops up.

Two of the most common SSL Certificate errors I see are:

• Expired
• Improper installation, not resolving without www.

Improper Installation

This morning while doing some research for the story I did about AmericaRebuilds.com by Principal Financial Group® I ran into my first SSL error of the day:

Since the indexed page for Principal on Google.com was https://principal.com/about/news/2010/crp-america-rebuilds031510.htm  and the domain name didn’t include the www. with it, the error happened because the certificate was only valid for www.principal.com . As with domain names that the webmaster may have overlooked the fact that many people leave off www. when entering a domain name it can also simply not resolve. If the hosting account (cName record) doesn’t forward non-www. domains to the www., a domain name without www. included often doesn’t resolve and a dead page is loaded. This same thing happens with SSL Certificates!

So when setting up an SSL, be sure to include the domain name BOTH ways. Without www. and with www.domainname.com . If you use sub-domains, make sure to test each and verify that they work without getting an SSL error.

Expired SSL Certificate

I have never purchased an SSL before but again, they are similar to domain names. The registration is a yearly process and the SSL expire after 365 days unless renewed. This was the case when trying to visit an affiliate I use that I have not visited in sometime:

You can see the certificate expired back in June, so the page hasn’t been resolving to users of at least FireFox for over two months now. This can equal lost business for the site owner and prevent new customers! I emailed them and they simply were not even aware of the expired cert.

Since I have never owned an SSL, I’m not sure how they inform you that your certificate is coming up for renewal but I would assume it is very similar to domain expiring notices. So if you use an SSL on your site and it expires, expect your users to get an error or security notice.

SSL Verification Tool

I dug around a little bit and found this SSL Verification Tool that seems to work pretty well. It’s free as well. The one downfall to the tool is that it only checks the specific URL you enter. So if you have several sub-domains, you will need to check each one. Here is screen shot of some of the data that it provides:

Make sure to keep up with your SSL Certificates and it never hurts to be a "user" of your own website from time to time to make sure things are working. Be sure to try your site in different web browsers as well because it can work in one and not the other.