Buy a wildcard SSL certificate

Thanks to the certificate, website visitors can be sure that the website they’re visiting isn't fraudulent. The SSL certificate also enables communication to be encrypted using SSL/TLS, which website visitors can recognise from the lock symbol in their browsers.

Website operators usually opt for single-domain certificates, but this means they can only be issued for one [[https://www.ionos.co.uk/digitalguide/domains/domain-administration/website-expansion-subdomains-co/|subdomain]]. Larger companies, however, often manage a large number of subdomains. If, for example, both www.example.com and shop.example.com belong to your website, you would have to order two certificates - or one wildcard SSL certificate. This certificate is then issued for *.example.com. The wildcard character explains how these certificates got their name. No matter how many subdomains you run on your server, the certificate remains valid.

Because certificates with wildcard SSL secure multiple subdomains, they are popular in a variety of scenarios:

• Company websites that maintain other subdomains in addition to the website e.g. their own blog
• E-commerce websites that use two different subdomains for their online shop and website
• Multilingual websites that use several subdomains for internationalisation purposes

Wildcard SSL certificates usually cost more than single domain certificates. However, if you manage multiple subdomains, the investment will be worth it, and also means you don’t have to order multiple single certificates. If you buy a wildcard SSL certificate, you secure all the subpages of your website.