Hacker Safe, TRUSTe, BBB and Trust Guard Seals

Third party seals

[sjtalk9]

I am starting a online sotre. Someone told me to keep third party seals for good response.

Please recommend me which seals to be used
Hacker Safe, TRUSTe, BBB, and Trust Guard

I think Trust Guard seal give a multi package for all security,privacy and business verification. Shall people know it? Is it worth money?

What are other third party seals known very much?

[piatkow]

Do the public know what any of them mean? I know that I never look for them when I am buying on line.

[sjtalk9]

Do you seen any of the above third party seals while buying jewelry online?

[mangotude]

This tends to become a religious question; what i've found is sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

it depends not only on the product sold, but also the country of customer, and even more variables within that - one test i did increased conversion rates significantly in one country, but decreased by slightly more in another.

see if you can get a trial and test it. but proper split test at the minimum.

[ByronM]

I don't look at it as just a "Seal". Most of them provide a service and a seal is a signature of that service. PCI compliance is VERY critical an seals like HackerSafe go hand in hand with that compliance. Its a step in the right directly and honestly, if it scares off people you probably wouldn't want them as a customer anyway now would you?

[jake66]

Wasn't there a major ecommerce site that got hacked recently, while having the hackersafe logo proudly posted to their website?

BBB has always been a joke to me, online & off. It's very easy to manipulate their system and give off phony reviews to make someone look bad.

I know I do not look for any of these seals when I buy online. I just look for a shop that has what I want.
If I am unfamiliar with the site I use PayPal, so I do not have to worry about my credit card being stolen.

[trinorthlighting]

If your going to sell high dollar items over $1000USD, then a bbb seal is not a bad idea. It does cater to an older generation of people in the US, but that older class has the most purchasing power currently.

[rocknbil]

Recent in-depth discussion of trust seals [webmasterworld.com]

[reuben]

Hi sjtalk9,

I spend a ton of time and money getting visitors to my websites and it really was frustrating seeing so many of them leave without buying. So, I figured that adding trust seals was worth testing.

I looked at all the trust seals before I decided to go with Trust Guard. Their multi seal package you referred to was affordable, their seals look great, and I've found their service to be very professional.

I have 2 websites and have done ab testing (three separate times) on both. The first time the results were so good I didn't believe them. So I ran the tests again. Then my partner didn't believe that I set everything up right so I ran them a third time. Now, I know with out a doubt that they work and I can't afford not to have them on my sites.

[Ledfish]

Reuben

You have zero cred here. Your other 16 posts were in another tread that you started and where you toot your horn about Trust Guard. If your product is so good, then why is it that you have to spam here. The product should speak for itself.

[sun818]

Yeah, geeks.com got hacked while carrying the HackerSafe logo. That just tells me seals can be purchased by any company and not indicative of quality nor privacy compliance. It just means the company has a budget to purchase it. You, in turn, have to pay for that expense via higher retail prices. It also means your shopping experience is slowed down because these excess graphics have to load.

[jecasc]

In my opinion someone must be nuts to put a seal that says "hacker safe" on his site.

Here comes you customer - willing to purchase. But what is this: The site has a seal that says "hacker safe". Hackers? Until this moment the customer never thought about hackers... Right - someone could steal his personal information or his credit card number. So he reconsiders purchasing online and goes to the next B&M store.

Never put any ideas in your customers head. Most customers don't even think about security issues until you start putting those seals in front of their noses.

[8foldpath]

I agree with you jecasc - however - why do so many big sites use it? All my competitors use it which has lead me to use it as well. I think it looks OK. I've learned that customers often ask their knowledgeable friends if a site is safe to buy on - regardless of how it looks. So X customer who knows nothing about HS shows your site to Y person who recognizes HS and tells X customer that they can trust it.

The cost of HS, at this point, seems like a small barrier of entry to prove you're legitimate and that you care. I don't think it shows you have something to hide since so many companies who don't really have anything to hide use it.

[bwnbwn]

One of the best seals you can use is truste and a trusted shopping seal. I won't use HS as it invites trouble but I use ratepoint for comments and user trust, truste for my privacy policy again user trust, and buy safe so a customer can insure the product if they so chose.
All the above show the site is active, tested, and trusted. All 3 are cheaper than HS one month cost.
ratepoint is 200 or so a year, buy safe is free as they make money off the insured sales and give you back some as well, and the truste is 200 a year bought through buysafe.
400 a year you have 3 seals that show trust or 35 a month. I think the HS is 250 a month best I can remember as it has been 3 years since I used them.

[reuben]

Ledfish, I saw there were a bunch of negative comments about trust seals and since my experience was different I posted my results. It was not meant as spam.

Also, sjtalk9, asked a question about specific companies, so I thought it would be appropriate and helpful to commented on my success with Trust Guards seals. Come on, aren't we here to learn, to help others avoid the same mistakes we've made?

By the way, I agree about Truste they their privacy seal is a great choice. FYI, Hacker Safe is currently being changed to McAfee Secure so website owners wont have to worry about having the word hacker on their site any more. That was a good move for McAfee.

[ssgumby]

geeks.com was hacked, but the site had been repeatedly violating the rules for certification. They had their seal removed several times so I suspect when it was hacked it was in a violation period.

At any rate, we recently added it to our site and using AB testing we have discovered a 23% increase in conversions. For us, it was worth the money. Your mileage may vary.

[sjtalk9]

Thanks bwnbwn

By you I can see some good seals option to boost my customers.

Now my website is up and I am using my payment gateway as Paypal. I know there is no need of SSL now as paypal will take care of it. But to create trust in custoers mind I have to sign up for a SSL.

I have now some options:
Comodo: Instant SSL, comes with Trustlogo
Trust Guard: Multi package seals
Rate point
Truste
Safe Buy

My budget is also less then $500.
Uptil now I was deciding InstantSSL from Comodo so that customers can see SSL from a good company and then Trust Guard Seals. But now I am confused by bwnbwn. As he has told me good options too.

So please guide me what seals to finalize and why? So that customers can trust my website and purchase items from it.

Or if you have any good option then tell me please. I will be thankful to you.

[TowerOfPower]

@jecasc

That's a good point.

I think of it this way...

A product with a price of $9.99 will sell at twice the rate compared to the same exact product at $10.00 on the same website. There is so much going on in the subconscious of the buyer that I cannot imagine a seal with the word 'hacker' in it doing anything positive for your conversions.

Your reason for this seems right on point to me. It *must* get the consumer thinking and worried. I'm sure this can also apply more so to certain types of sites and buyers out there.

If you do want seals, maybe think about putting them at the very bottom of the page, in the footer. I've seen plenty of sites doing this. Prominent seals, regardless of the type and words used, tend to draw the focus away from the buy and into the website layout.

I would love to see some real a/b testing results on this.

Something to consider also is to use other seals that use non-threatning words such as 'secure' or maybe 'authentic'.