The 'smart badge for website' menu item provides a short snippet of code that you can add to your website to display your certificate as a smart badge.
The 'smart badge for email' menu item provides a short snippet of code that you can add to your email footer or signature to display your certificate as a smart badge.
We offer these two variations because the functionality in an email is reduced compared to on a website. The website embed code is based on an iframe, but the email code is based on an image link.
The certification scheme owner will have set whether these features are available and moreover may have stipulated in the branding guidelines that these feature should be used rather than simply cutting and pasting an image file. They may even restrict the availability and use of an image file of the certification mark.
The smart badge used on a website and/or email has a number of benefits for both you and the certification scheme owner:
- It is only displayed if your certificate is active and public. If the certificate has expired, is made private, has been suspended or has been revoked, the badge will not show. This reduces misrepresentation and fraud.
- The certificate includes a link through to the digital certificate page where more details can be found about the certificate, the scheme, the issuer, as well as the profile of you or your organisation that is certified.
- If the certification mark is changed by the issuer to reflect a branding update or improvement to accessibility, the smart badge updates the next time it is displayed without any intervention from you, your colleagues, or your web developer.
- The website version of the smart badge shows more information when a cursor hovers over it. This can be informative to someone viewing your website.
- The website version shows a static or passing 'BM' that is becoming a recognised indicator of a smart badge with digital credentials that can then be inspected on our platform.
- If your certificate is renewed, or if you are issued with another certificate from the same scheme with a later expiry date, the badge will remain visible and the click-through will be routed to the newer certificate. This means you, your colleagues, or your web developer do not need to update anything. Note that if your original certificate is set as private, and your new certificate is public, the badge will be visible again as it will relate to the newer certificate. Similar logic applies to other states like expired, suspended and revoked.
On issued and received certificate tables and cards, icons now indicate if web smart badges and email smart badges are in use for each listed certificate.
The icons are coloured green if the badge was displayed within the last 7 days, orange if between 7 and 30 days, red if more than 30 days ago, and grey if never displayed. Hover-over notes also explain this.
The respective icons are only displayed if the certification scheme allows smart badges, the certificate is not self-uploaded, and the certificate is set to public (which are also the conditions for which smart badges are displayed).