What is a Domain Validation Certificate?

Domain Validation (DV) certificates are used to establish a baseline level of trust with a website and prove that you are visiting the website you think you are visiting. These certificates are issued after the SSL issuer confirms that the domain is valid and is owned by the person who is requesting the certificate.

There is no need to submit any company paperwork to obtain a Domain Validation certificate, and these types of SSL certificates can be issued extremely quickly.

The disadvantage to these types of certificates is that anyone can get them, and they hold no real weight except to secure communication between your web browser and the web server.