Ssl
 

I manage a children's site. consisting from a large number of pdf files with children stories, illustrated and written in Hebrew, and of a home page with a series of links, connecting to the story pd files
The site is free for use to everyone, without any entrance fee, name,
registration or password and the traffic, with an average daily rate of 300 to 400 visits with an average four pages opening per visit seems satisfactory in my country.
Last year my hosting provider installed a SSL Certificate on my site amd charged me US$20. Some days ago he proposed to renew the SSL for another year at three times the former price.
My question is – is the SSL certificate necessary at all for a site ot the above type and if so, what will be his function, if installed?

Unless you're concerned about 'man-in-the-middle' attacks, I can't think of a good reason for you to need SSL on your site.

And that includes 99% of all sites now that force SSL,its ridiculous and just makes it harder for older browsers to get there...... (Not good to cut off your traffic)

I agree with ZIP,you dont need SSL idr... If you do get a SSL cert,no need to block HTTP (You can allow both (Alot of sites I am on do and are fine))

Good luck :)