Best SSL Testing Tools for your Website

If you are a website owner, you know the importance of testing your site. There are some different things you should test for. User-friendliness, mobile compatibility, and UX are a few of the components you should check.

In addition to this, you should test for more technical aspects that involve the backend functions of your site. Using the proper testing tools such as these SSL testing tools should help to check for errors and glitches that may occur in the ordinary course of building and operating a website.

Why test your site for SSL errors?

The main reason you should test your site for errors is that customers are not too understanding when your site doesn’t work right. They will put up with some things such as trouble with a product or having to wait a bit on a package. But, if you have obvious errors in the basic functions of your website or if it experiences trouble loading, you may never know that you lost them before they even came to your site.

Worse of all, if your site has SSL errors, this means that your site certificate is either expired or it cannot be authenticated. When this message comes up to the visitor, they will likely leave immediately as security is the number one worry of online site visitors today. It has to do with how much your visitors trust your site. Having an expired or unauthenticated SSL certificate can lose a lot of customers and lower your online credibility.

9 SSL Checking Tools Anyone Can Use

If you are looking for some great easy-to-use tools that help you with your SSL validity, we have provided 10 of the best tools below.

1. Cyber Scanner

Cyber Scanner doesn’t just check your site certificate validity. It also checks all of the latest potential vulnerabilities from various known issues such as Heartbleed, Beast and more. It also is a great website security checker and provides an audit trail for GDPR compliance.

2. SSL Checker

SSL Checker is another great tool for checking your site security. It also reminds you when your site certificate is due to expire when you run the tests. It will check to make sure your SSL certificate is installed properly and run diagnostic tests to see if browsers trust it. To use this tool, just visit the link above and try it for yourself by entering your domain hostname.

3. DigiCert SSL Installation Diagnostics Tool

DigiCert SSL Installation Diagnostics Tool allows you to test your server and hostname on their test site. You can use their basic certificate installation checker for free. They also have some premium tools that you can check out, as well.

4. SSL Security Server Test

The SSL Security Server Test was developed by the tech engineers at High-Tech Bridge, and it is an in-depth look at your website URLs and domains. It gives you up-to-the-minute details on the status and general health of your website as well as the backend programming and certificate information.

5. Wormly

Wormly is an SSL tester that allows users to check for more than 65 metrics and reports immediate statuses of several key website programming issues that can slow down your site. You have access to the following:

• Expiration of certificate status
• Trust chain information
• Encryption details
• Error messages

Go to the site using the link we’ve provided above and merely insert your web server domain to watch it in action!

6. How’s My SSL?

How’s your SSL? You can find out with this handy tool called “How’s My SSL.” This SSL tool digs deeper into the inner mechanisms of your website and takes an ‘x-ray’ of your server data so that you will know what you need to do to improve on your backdoor code, if necessary. This is a valuable tool to have when you are trying to improve your site’s security status in the minds of your visitors. In fact, it is critical to the success of your site. Check it out above.

7. SSL Checker by SSL Shopper

SSL Checker by SSL Shopper is a unique tool for your website. There are many tools called “SSL Checker,” but this one is distinguished from the others in the way it gives you an in-depth analysis of all aspects of your website including site certificate validity, authenticity, and functionality.

8. SSL Scanner

SSL Scanner scans your site certificate for errors, reports back within seconds about how your certificate stands in Google and offers a decoder that allows you to delve further into the issues that might be holding back your site traffic. Remember that knowing the status of your site certificate is one of the most important things you need to do to keep your traffic coming in without turning people away.

9. SSL Labs

SSL Labs has one of the best tools for checking your site certificate validity. It checks all of the latest potential vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that you might have on your site. It is an automatic checker, and all you have to do is insert your full domain name in the text box, and it will render results in seconds.

How SSL Tools Can Lower Your Bounce Rate

We hope that these SSL tools will give you a jumping off point for your site certificate issues. This is one aspect of web design that many site owners forget to address, but it is one of the most critical. If your site certificate has expired or is about to expire, it is going to display a message regarding this to your visitors.

When is the last time you went onto a site that displayed an “authentication error” or announced that the site certificate has expired? How fast did you exit out of this site? One sign that you need to upgrade your site certificate and run some of these tools are having a higher than average bounce rate.

The average bounce rate, according to experts, is around 50%. In other words, about half of your traffic may come onto your site inadvertently. They may not have meant to come on your site, but their search took them there due to similar keywords and other factors during their search. This is normal.

But if you have more than a 50% bounce rate, you need to run SSL tools to determine what is happening.

Other Tools to Help with Site Maintenance

In addition to the above tools to test your site certificate, you should run other tools from time to time such as Google Analytics that can show you finite details of your website traffic, as well as bounce rate data and the last page your visitors were on before leaving your site.

Kissmetrics.com offers other tools that help analyze the metrics of your site that go further than Google Analytics regarding checking your page for problems and helping you optimize your SEO and other aspects of your site.

Remember that Google indexes every page of your site, not just your main page, so when you use any of these SSL tools or other types of devices mentioned on this page, make sure you test any page that you are concerned about regarding your SSL certificate status.

Site Maintenance Matters

For those who still don’t think site maintenance is necessary, think again.

The maintenance of your website is critical to keeping your targeted traffic coming in unimpeded. Some website owners think that “if you build it, they will come,” and they put up websites and walk away. They believe that, if their design is good enough and their content exciting enough, they need not do anything else.

Would you apply this to your fields of corn is you were a farmer or your children if you are a parent? Would you leave a seedling you planted alone to fend for itself? Point well-taken! You see adequate site maintenance to make sure you can continue producing on the level you need it to.

Do your own research

If you are a site owner and you want to continue to grow your website, you should also do your research on the types of tools you can use to improve your status online. Online credibility, certificate authenticity, and UX/UI are all important regarding getting and keeping your customers happy and coming back to your site.

Put Site Maintenance on Your Calendar

If you want to remember to do something important, you may need to put it on your calendar. Whether you use Trello, Google Calendars, or a standard desk calendar, write it down, so you don’t forget it. It’s a good idea to put “site maintenance” on your monthly calendar and run some of these tools on a monthly basis so that you will always know your status.

Stay Ahead of the Changes

Do you know when the next Google algorithm rollout is coming?

It is also advisable to keep ahead of the technology and find out what the latest Google algorithm updates so that you will not be caught surprised when they roll out the latest changes. Algorithm updates do sometimes result in site certificate errors and this can happen overnight.

Check your ranking in the search engines by using your best keywords in a search you perform yourself and look at the results you get. Then run a mobile-friendly test to see if you have any issues for mobile users. One of the most common reasons for losing your rank in Google is by failing to have your site ready for mobile users.

A Mobile Friendly Testing Tool

Use this mobile-friendly test by Google to get started. This will show you how well your site is showing up and performing for mobile users and whether it is displaying correctly for various types of devices. It is important not only to be mobile-friendly in general but to allow for the use of an increasing variety of devices that range from small smartphones to 12″ tablets.

A Few Extras

We are sharing these extra tools to our readers in addition to the SSL tools so that you can test all of the aspects of your site and troubleshoot potential problems, no matter where the problems originate.

Keep in mind that SSL testing is the most important when it comes to site security. People are weary of security issues online today. They are more informed than ever before about the potential of spying and tracking of third parties as they browse. The fact that more people are using VPNs than ever before is proof of this.

So keeping your site certificate current is the first thing you should do to increase your site’s security status in Google, as well as in the minds of visitors.

The Virtual Handshake

In the real world, you can walk into a business and shake the hand of the proprietor, look them in the eyes, and know whether you can trust them. Online, you don’t have this personal connection. The CEO is rarely seen. So people have to find a way to decide if they are going to trust you. Your site certificate is the tool they use to determine this. If yours is outdated, trust goes out the window.

Try these tools and let us know what you think. They are just tools. But they help you provide the virtual handshake to customers you may never see if you don’t have your site certificate in good status.

It’s relevant to your ranking. But, more importantly, it’s important to Google. It’s important to your customers…customers you may never see if you do not have your site security in place.

Good luck with your online website and we hope these valuable tips and tools will help you in your journey as an online entrepreneur.