[eCommerce] Do I need SSL for a website that takes payment thru PayPal?

I am in process building a eCommerce website and will be accepting payment thru Paypal.
From my understanding, the 'payment' process on Paypal is already highly secured (https

However, since my site contains a 'my account' area for registered customer etc.
Should I get SSL for it? Or is that not needed?

Thanks in advance.

I'd get a SSL cert just to add legitimacy to your site. You can get a certificate from comodo for free for 90 days I believe.

i would suggest you to get SSL , that will keep you safe .

Stizerg said:

You need SSL if you collect personal data e.g. name/address

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Not so important if you just collect name and email address though.
Soon as you add a real address or a phone number to that list, I'd get SSL. It's cheap.
Bluehost and many other hosts provide a free shared SSL (not ideal) but it's good enough for list creation purposes.

Scritty

Scritty said:

Not so important if you just collect name and email address though.
Soon as you add a real address or a phone number to that list, I'd get SSL. It's cheap.
Bluehost and many other hosts provide a free shared SSL (not ideal) but it's good enough for list creation purposes.

Scritty

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Thanks. Now you brought it up.
Whats the difference between 'shared' and 'exclusive' SSL in theory.
Like how it works in general? Thanks again

no paypal has its own SSL but it is a good idea if you store any customer info in a database

SuperNoobInc said:

Thanks. Now you brought it up.
Whats the difference between 'shared' and 'exclusive' SSL in theory.
Like how it works in general? Thanks again

Click to expand...

Shared often have restrictions. Everyone on your IP will have access to it (so anyone could foul it up with bad practice theoretically as well) Your host probably uses the same IP for quite a few accounts - not just yours.
The restrictions are stupid stuff like maximim fiule sizes (typically 100k or so) so elements on your site that are over this might not be covered by SSL (images, videos etc) this is becasue theres a finite bandwidth that the certificate monitors, and it's being shared, so they limit each users file size to prevent one or two of the users hogging the resources. (ok - that's a crap way of putting it - but it just about gets the point across...blame Netscape for this)

If you have a site that takes off, getting your own certificate and even your own IP is probably worth it in the long run. Most hosts sell them as an addon to your hosting account. Might be worth seeing if there are any effects on SERP's with these elements.

Scritty

What is black hat seo?
Please explain it briefly.........

Always get an SSL for your store! If not anything else, it will give your visitor a more secure feeling and it will make you look more legit. This will all contribute to better conversions in the long run.

Technically you don't - because payment is done on the PP website and not yours (unless you're using a solution like PP Pro).

As has been suggested though, it's worth it for the price. They whole https / green bar thing is drilled into every web used nowadays, they know what to look for. A small price to pay for a big trust factor.