Pros and Cons of SSL on a Forum

[Cosmic]

I'm probably going to write a blog article on this at some point, but I am interested in hearing y'alls opinions on this.

What do you think the pros and cons of SSL on a forum are?

As I see it, they are:

Pros:
- Strong security
- Some members will feel more comfortable.
- Improved SEO

Cons:
- It costs money ($15 per year if you get AlphaSSL via HawkHost).
- It takes time to setup.
- Advertisers on your site do not see how many hits they got from your site in Google Analytics
- Connection speed is slower.

What are your thoughts?

 

[R44]

SEO in Google as well...

 

[Cosmic]

SEO in Google as well...

Good point! I forgot about that! (added to the OP)

Does anyone know how it effects google SEO if the SSL has a non-optimal configuration, maybe if there are images linked to on the site without SSL? Unfortunately, many forum systems do not do a good job of making all links SSL links when you switch to SSL.