CNN Money posted an article today about a study recently published by VeriSign, which revealed that merchants on theFind.com that display the VeriSign seal (proof of using the VeriSign  SSL Certificate) have, on average, a 18.5% higher click-through rate. TheFind.com, is a shopping comparison site that receives 17 million unique visitors every month.

“Our goal is to make it easy for people to be smarter shoppers by distilling relevant information about every product and every store into a single search,” said Dave Cook, the senior market director at theFind.com. “VeriSign’s well recognized seal has given merchants — particularly smaller stores — a substantial and measurable lift in the traffic theFind.com sends them.”

The study surveyed traffic to 65,535 online stores between January 21 and 27, 2010. The Find.com sends traffic to 150,000 stores each month. The stores examined as part of this study, are a sampling of the most popular stores across a wide range of popular e-commerce categories. The VeriSign seal is viewed over 150 million times every day on more than 90,000 sites across the globe.

Regarding the study, Tim Callan, VP of product marketing at VeriSign, said that, “consumers need to trust the merchants they buy from, and TheFind is making it easy for shoppers to quickly and confidently recognize those retailers who protect their online transactions with VeriSign SSL.” Callan continued, “…theFind’s research shows that the VeriSign seal delivers a true advantage for all merchants, but the benefits are greatest for smaller stores that are always in search of ways to elevate their brand to compete with eCommerce leaders.”

Via MarketWire @  Money.cnn.com