Secure Sockets Layer or SSL is the primary protocol for securing online connections. It encrypts sensitive information such as login credentials, credit card information, emails, and passwords. SSL has evolved into an even stronger encryption standard, Transport Layer Security or TLS, more commonly known as “SSL/TLS” or simply referred to as “SSL.”
SSL/TLS today is an essential requirement for ecommerce stores, business websites, and social media networks that deal in sensitive information. As a webmaster or blogger, ensuring the security of your visitors when they use your site increases confidence and can help with conversions.
However, not all services are able to balance the security of SSL/TLS security and speedy performance. You will need to optimize your TLS-secured website to achieve the best connection speeds, and here are four things you should consider for such optimization.
Choose Certificates from Proven Sources
Today, even domain registrars can supply your business site with an SSL certificate. Keep in mind that certificates from less than ideal sources may cause issues that prevent users from accessing your site. The first thing you should do is acquire certificates from reputable services that specialize in online security. Once you have this taken care of, proceed with the following points.
Optimise the TLS Handshake
The usual TCP connection uses a “three-way” handshake to establish a secure connection – assuming everything goes well. The client sends a connection request, receives an acknowledgement, and then forwards another acknowledgement. Sometimes, the handshake requires additional trips when identifying a compatible method of encryption and verification. This may increase latency and could affect the experience of users with slow connections.
There are several ways to optimize the TLS handshake – from “domain sharding” to caching resources. However, enabling “persistent connections” is one of the best ways of significantly improving the latency in TLS-secured connections.
Enable Persistent Connections
A persistent connection allows multiple requests in a single connection. Normally, visiting a secure site multiple times in a few minutes may require new SSL connections to be initiated. With a persistent connection, the SSL connection will only be initiated once, eliminating the need for additional handshakes.
A persistent connection or “keep-alive” method can be activated by adding “Connection: Keep-Alive” to your HTTP header, which can be found in your web server configuration file. Look for the “Connection: Close” setting and replace it with “Connection: Keep-Alive”. There are several other methods of enabling keep-alive – depending on the situation.
Use a CDN
A significant proportion of websites leverage CDNs to improve page load speeds. One added benefit is that deploying a CDN will also improve SSL/TLS performance. This takes care of the steps mentioned above, such as optimizing the TLS handshake by connecting users to the nearest physical server, and enabling persistent connections with the main host.
Conclusion
Optimizing your site’s SSL/TLS performance is a crucial step for improving the performance without sacrificing security. Keep in mind that these optimizations focus on maximizing user experience – the key to a website’s success.
The most straightforward way to do this is by finding a service that can simplify these optimizations for you, such as a CDN provider, a web development team, or a well-known Internet security solution. Decide smartly and choose the best option that suit your needs.
Immad Uddin Khan
Immad is a Digital Content Producer for Cloudways - A Managed Cloud Hosting Platform. He is mostly busy in creating all sorts of informative and innovative content types. As a hobby, he loves to travel with his camera to picturesque destinations.
