What happens if the SSL certificate expires?

What happens if you do not renew the SSL certificate on time? We often get this question from customers. The consequences could be serious. If you are a LeaderSSL customer, it is possible to minimise the risk. How exactly? Read on!

The certificate has expired: what does that mean in practice?

As you know, the validity of SSL certificates is time-limited. This is the requirement of the CA / B Forum, the regulatory body of the SSL certification industry. Several years ago it was quite legal to order SSL certificates that lasted three, four or even five years. Today, SSL certificates can only have a validity period of up to 27 months (2 years and 3 months, which are given to renew the validity of the previous certificate). The industry limits the maximum validity of SSL certificates for security reasons.

This means the SSL certificate must be updated or replaced - either every year, or every 2 years.

When you visit a site, the user's browser verifies the authenticity of the SSL certificate. If the certificate has expired, the browser will display the following warning:

This could have negative consequences, including:

• A drop in site traffic. As surveys show, users who encounter notifications such as this immediately close the site. Only a small number of visitors will accept an expired certificate.
  
• A drop in sales. Because the site displays a warning, users may find that the resource is unsecure, and therefore will not make purchases, even if they have previously made them on the same site.
  
• A drop in site ranking. In the short term, your site will gradually fall down in the search results, because the search bots take into account many factors, including visitor behaviour.
  

An expired certificate could mean catastrophic consequences for any business. If you are a LeaderSSL client, then you can protect yourself against similar situations.

How LeaderSSL helps maintain the validity of all SSL certificates

Certificate management is a headache for many enterprises. Corporate clients often have extensive isolated networks, with multiple devices connected to them, and all this needs to be monitored.

To simplify this process, we offer the following tools and mechanisms:

• Email notifications. You will receive email notifications that your SSL certificate will soon be expiring. The first email we send is 90 days before the expiration of the SSL certificate. The rest of the emails are sent out with a certain frequency.
  
• A platform for centralised management of certificates. MPKI service helps to track the full life cycle of all available SSL-certificates, renewing, re-issuing or annulling them in a convenient mode. You can order MPKI from LeaderTelecom at the following link.
  
• Newsletters and publications in our social networks’ groups. Due to our membership in the CA / B Forum, we regularly monitor the situation related to SSL certificates. For this reason, any changes regarding the validity of certificates will not be missed by you. Just subscribe to our newsletter or our group in the preferred social network to keep up to date with events.
  

Expired SSL certificates are the cause of numerous problems and troubles for business. To offer your customers the best user experience, renew your certificates on time with LeaderSSL.

Even if you previously ordered an SSL certificate in another store, you can renew your certificate on our site. Take a step towards a stable future together with LeaderSSL!