Increase Website Credibility with McAfee SECURE for WordPress

Website credibility is an important factor readers consider when visiting your WordPress blog, website or e-commerce store. Readers won’t feel comfortable downloading free resources, subscribing to your newsletter or providing personal information to make a purchase if your website doesn’t seem trustworthy. One of the easiest ways to put your visitors’ minds at ease is with the McAfee SECURE trustmark.

What Is McAfee SECURE?

McAfee is well known for their web security products that consumers around the world use to keep their web browsing safe. This includes software for antivirus, firewall, encryption, email security and more. With users’ web security in mind, McAfee broadened their each and developed the McAfee SECURE brand. This encompasses a variety of web security tools available to everyone browsing the web.

This set of tools includes three main segments. The McAfee SECURE trustmark which websites can use to certify that their pages are free of viruses, malware and other unsafe code. The McAfee SECURE Chrome Browser Extension which adds a McAfee shield to your browser to let you know you’re surfing the web safely and will alert you to any websites you visit that might be at risk. And lastly the McAfee SECURE Identity Protection coverage, which provides buyers with up to $100,000 in identity theft protection when making a purchase on a McAfee SECURE certified website (users simply need to follow the steps in an activation email received after completing their purchase).

While all of these are huge assets for web users, the McAfee SECURE trustmark provides extra value to website owners especially since it is a tool that can be used to increase website trustworthiness and credibility.

Should You Add McAfee SECURE to Your WordPress Website?

Now that you know what McAfee SECURE is, do you need it for your website? Simply put most websites could benefit from adding a trustmark to display to readers that the website is in fact secure.

If you’re running a blog or a business type website where you’re not collecting any user data you might want to weigh the pros and cons before adding anything extra to your website. But if you run an e-commerce site or if you collect user data then adding McAfee SECURE is probably a good idea. Adding a trustmark to your website will ease any hesitation a user might have before providing personal information to register. And is you run an online store the added McAfee SECURE Identity Protection is a bonus feature you can use to advertise to customers so they can feel confident about providing you with financial data.

How To Setup McAfee SECURE for WordPress

If McAfee SECURE sounds right for you setup should be relatively easy since it all starts with installing the free McAfee SECURE WordPress plugin. To install the plugin log into your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New and then search for “McAfee.”

McAfee SECURE should be the first result. Click the button to “Install Now” and then to “Activate” the plugin.

Now to setup the plugin. McAfee has made this very easy by adding a notification in your dashboard to activate the plugin. If for some reason you don’t see the notice simply navigate to the plugin activation page by clicking on the new McAfee SECURE menu item in your main WordPress dashboard. Click on the button to “Activate Now.”

Keeping with the easy setup trends a popup window should open for you to create your free McAfee SECURE account. The form autofills with your website url and the email used to create your WordPress user account. Just verify your information then click to “Activate Now.”

This will open a confirmation that your site has been added as well as refresh your WordPress dashboard to display your McAfee SECURE settings. If you want to edit your McAfee SECURE profile then click the red button, otherwise just close the popup window to go back to your WordPress dashboard.

Assuming your website is secure you should see a green confirmation for Security that you’ve passed all tests (hooray!) and that your Certification trustmark is all good. Now when you visit the front end of your website you should bee the McAfee SECURE trustmark in the lower right corner of your browser. That was easy right?

With a McAfee SECURE free plan the trustmark is displayed to your first 500 visitors every month, you can collect up to 100 TrustedSite reviews (which users can checkout via the trustedsite.com directory or the Chrome SafeBrowsing verification window) and your website will be regularly monitored for malware. This is plenty for smaller or brand new websites, but if you’re running an establish website with significant traffic or a large e-commerce website upgrading to a Pro plan is a must.

McAfee SECURE Pro

McAfee SECURE Pro provides unlimited trustmark use and unlimited TrustedSite reviews for your website as well as additional features like search engine submission, website diagnostics and more. Big brands like PartyCity, Tory Burch, FootLocker, Jelly Belly, Armani Exchange, LegalZoom, National Geographic, GameStop and many more all trust McAfee SECURE. Why? Because it simply offers some of the best tools on the web to keep their websites safe and their customers feeling secure.

A notable feature brands love is that when you upgrade to Pro the McAfee SECURE shield is not only displayed on your website but also in highlighted search results for SiteAdvisor users. This means that when a person using SiteAdvisor (and there are over 50+ million of them) sees your website in a search result on Google, Yahoo or Bing they will also see the McAfee SECURE trustmark next to it.

Pro members also have the option to add a McAfee SECURE Engagement Trustmark anywhere, not just at the bottom of the browser. This is helpful for e-commerce stores that want to display the trustmark next to the “Add To Cart” button on product pages, or for websites that want to anchor the mark in their footer instead of having it align with the browser window.

As we mentioned earlier, McAfee SECURE also offers Identity Protection up to $100,000. This is a Pro plan feature every e-commerce or premium membership based website should get excited about. With this you and your customers receive complete identity theft protection, all you need to do is add a bit of code to your purchase confirmation page so your customers will receive a coverage email after their payment is processed. If your store uses WooCommerce this is even easier – the code is automatically added for you. Just enable the option from your McAfee account dashboard.

I’m sure after seeing all it has to offer you must be wondering, how much does McAfee SECURE Pro cost? Currently the Pro certification plan starts at $19 per month (and scales up based on your traffic), but if you choose to pay annually you will receive 2 months free, and if you’re a 501(c)3 charitable organization you can contact sales for a special discount too. The Identity Protection features alone is worth the price so it’s definitely a worthwhile investment for your website.

Our Final Rating

Overall we really like McAfee SECURE for WordPress. We were impressed with the ease of installation (it’s literally ready to go right out of the box), as well as the comprehensive features list available to Pro members. We give this plugin a 5 out of 5 stars. The plugin and McAfee SECURE tools themselves are perfect and just so dang easy to use. It scans for malware. It tells your readers your site is secure. And it even comes with identity protection. Now that’s a useful plugin!

Simple Website Credibility Tips

In addition to displaying the McAfee SECURE trustmark on your website to verify site security there are other simple steps you can take to help increase your credibility with your readers and increase their trust in your website.

First off provide real and useful content for your readers and post it regularly. Not only is having your own unique content good for search engines, but having a schedule for when you post is great for establishing a reader base that will return to your site since they trust that you will be publishing new content.

Make sure you have a terms & conditions page. This is important for legal reasons such as trademark ownership, privacy conditions, content updates, description of services provided and more. Plus it shows readers that you are a real company (or sole proprietor) that follows the rules (+1 for trustworthiness).

Also, if your website or your product has been featured anywhere share your achievements. Being able to say you were “featured on Forbes top this” or a part of “BusinessWeek’s top that” goes a long way for establishing the credibility of your brand. The same goes for any awards you may have won. Create a page or add a note to your footer sharing your accomplishments with your readers.

Over to You

Hopefully you’ve found this review and guide helpful! To recap, McAfee SECURE is a great way to increase your website credibility by adding a trustmark to your posts, pages and products. The free version is great for smaller sites, while the Pro version is robust enough for established brands. Overall we really love the plugin and hope that you give it a try. If you have any questions about the McAfee SECURE free WordPress plugin, or anything to add to our guide, just leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!