Domain Validation SSL Certificates

A Domain Validation (DV) SSL Certificate is the most common and affordable encryption solution for a website. It ensures the industry-standard protection against sensitive data thieves and a basic level of customer trust.

Domain Validation SSL Certificates verify and confirm domain ownership only. They don’t require any paperwork whatsoever on your part. All you have to do is prove to the CA that the domain you want to secure belongs to you. The whole process is quick and easy. You can get your DV SSL Cert in less than 5 minutes, providing your domain name and email address are valid.

DV SSL certificates don’t display the legal entity, as the CA doesn’t check the identity of the website owner while issuing them. If you have an e-commerce website or a site that collects users’ personal data, you should consider buying a BV or EV SSL cert.

Even though DV SSL Certificates lack the premium features of BV and EV certs, they offer the same level of encryption as other validation types. For most of the websites, that’s more than enough when it comes to sensitive data protection.

DV SSL Certificates are available as Single-Domain, Wildcard and Multi-Domain SSL Certificates. Before buying the one you need, and generating the CSR (Certificate Signing Request) code, pay close attention to the specifications.

The majority of DV certificates can secure both the naked version (without “www”) of your site and the “www” version of your domain. For example, Sectigo DV SSL can protect both yourstie.com and www.yoursite.com.

However, some SSL certificates will encrypt only the exact version you enter in your CSR. For instance, if you submit yoursite.com, the “www’ version will remain on HTTP, and you’ll need to redirect the traffic from www.yoursite.com to yoursite.com using HTTPS redirects.

A DV certificate will activate the padlock next to your URL across all your pages if you have a single-domain cert; all your subdomains if you own a Wildcard product; or multiple websites if you run a Multi-Domain certificate.

When applying for a DV SSL Certificate, you must provide your Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), also called common name or primary domain, as well as a valid email address. Here’s how your CSR should look:

• Your primary domain name (e.g., ssldragon.com)
• Organization name (e.g., NA)
• Organizational Unit Name (e.g., NA)
• Country Name (e.g., US)
• City or Locality (e.g., San Jose)
• State or province (e.g., California)
• A valid Email address

After the CA verifies and approves your request, it will deliver the SSL Certificate files to your inbox, and then you’ll be able to install your cert.

Wildcard DV SSL Certificates secure unlimited subdomains along with their main domain. If you use subdomains to deliver content, you need to encrypt them with a Wildcard Certificate. The regular, single domain SSL certs can secure only the main domain and its pages, while the Wildcard certificates protect the main domain and an unlimited number of subdomains.

With a DV Wildcard SSL Certificate, you don’t have to spend lots of money and time on separate certificates for each subdomain you create. One Wildcard cert is more than enough to encrypt multiple subdomains, anytime you need, be it during the configuration or later as your site expands. Best of all, when the certificate expires, you need to renew it just once, for all your subdomains.

To obtain a DV SSL Wildcard certificate all you have to do is include an asterisk in front of your domain name during the CSR creation. For instance, *.yoursite.com. With such a configuration you can secure multiple subdomains (e.g., blog.youriste.com, store.yoursite.com).

Multi-Domain DV SSL Certificates secure multiple domains under a single SSL installation. If you own or manage a network of sites, with just one Multi-Domain DV cert, you can enable the SSL padlock on all your websites.

One DV multi-domain cert can protect up to 250 websites, saving you precious time and money in the process. You need to install and renew it just once. Depending on what multi-domain cert you select, you can secure up to 4 domains by default. If you have more websites, you can order additional SANs at the checkout page.

To apply for your DV Multi-Domain cert, you must include your first domain in the common name (your main domain) field of your CSR. For example, yoursite.com. Right under the CSR text area, in the next domains’ fields (SANs), you need to include the rest of the domains you want to secure. For example, yoursecondsite.com, yourthirdsite.com, etc.