McAfee Blocking My Website: How to Dispute a WebAdvisor Rating

What a McAfee flag looks like

A red McAfee WebAdvisor warning page before the site loads, or a red rating icon next to the result in search listings, for visitors who run McAfee WebAdvisor or McAfee security software. Corporate visitors behind Trellix or Skyhigh web gateways see those products' block pages instead.

Why clean sites end up flagged here

• A past compromise or malicious download that McAfee rated and has not re-evaluated.
• Links to or from risky sites, or hosting shared with flagged domains, pulling the reputation down.
• A new or low-traffic domain with little history in McAfee's reputation data.
• A category that WebAdvisor treats as risky even though the site is not malicious.

Where to submit: McAfee Customer URL Ticketing System — Check URL → Submit URL for Review

https://sitelookup.mcafee.com/

Account: Free account recommended — McAfee says anonymous submissions take longer.

What it asks for:

1. Web address of the site to recheck
2. Optional: up to three categories that reflect the content and risk
3. Optional comment — why the rating is an error and, for owners, what changed on the site

McAfee's file false-positive article (000001921) covers files only and points website ratings to the WebAdvisor review process. The email address for follow-ups is documented in McAfee support article 000001559.

Step by step

1. Create an account. Register at sitelookup.mcafee.com and confirm the Account Validation email. McAfee says anonymous submissions take longer to review.
2. Fix or confirm the cause. Remove any malicious content, redirect or risky download and verify from an external network. Owners are asked to describe the changes they made, so note them with dates.
3. Check the URL and submit. Log in, enter the web address and click Check URL. Optionally select up to three categories, add your explanation in the Optional comment field, and click Submit URL for Review. Keep the ticket ID.
4. Recheck after 5–7 days. McAfee's support article says to wait 5–7 days and check the site again. If it is still rated risky, email the address given in that article with the ticket ID to ask for the status.
5. Separate Trellix and Skyhigh ratings. If the block comes from a corporate Trellix or Skyhigh gateway, submit through trustedsource.org, which serves those products.

What to write

Short, specific, impersonal. What was found, what was removed, when, and how it was verified. No marketing language, no attachments, no threats.

{URL} is rated {rating shown} by McAfee WebAdvisor. The site is a {one-line description of what the site is}. {Either: 'The content that caused the rating ({what}) was removed on {date}; the URL now returns {404 / the clean page}.' Or: 'The site has not hosted malware, phishing or risky downloads; it can be checked from any network.'}
Changes made: {e.g. plugin updated, credentials rotated, WAF added}.
Please re-evaluate the URL and update its rating.

Why requests get rejected, and the fix

• The site still serves the content McAfee rated, on another path or only to some visitors. Search the site for the same pattern, remove it, and submit again with the removal date.
• The comment gave no reason ('site is safe'). McAfee asks for as much information as possible about why the rating is wrong and what changed on the site.
• The block is from a Trellix or Skyhigh gateway, but the dispute went to McAfee's consumer system. Submit the same URL at trustedsource.org for those products.

Who copies this verdict

• Trellix and Skyhigh Security web gateways use their own ticketing system at trustedsource.org; a McAfee WebAdvisor change does not cover them.

Sources

• McAfee Support — Request a change to a WebAdvisor site rating (000001559)
• McAfee Customer URL Ticketing System
• McAfee Support — Submit a safe file incorrectly detected by McAfee (000001921)
• Trellix Customer URL Ticketing System (Trellix and Skyhigh products)

Longer read: why McAfee flags clean sites and how unflagdomain handles it.