Chris Harrison

Is your website compliant with the legal requirements of GDPR due to come in effect in May 2018? Here are 10 changes you should make to your website and it’s website design now to stay on the right side of the law, and to keep your customers happy.

First things first: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on the 25 May 2018.GDPR will have a huge impact on website design, which will have a ripple effect on how your website integrates with your other digital activity like email marketing, social media, and e-commerce activities.

The golden thread that ties together all of these recommendations is that under the GDPR, the concept of consent being given freely, specific and informed is being strengthened, with new rules, which means businesses like ours need to provide more transparency.

Here are 10 steps you will want to review for your website and discuss necessary changes with your web development team. Any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.

Let’s start with the straightforward changes that you will need to be making, and then move on to the more complex areas.

1. Forms: Active Opt-In

Forms that invite users to subscribe to newsletters or indicate contact preferences must default to “no” or be blank. You will need to check your forms to ensure this is the case.

As an example, the current Boots registration form pre-ticks the opt-in box, forcing the user to actively opt-out. Very naughty, bad user experience, and must be changed by May.

2. Unbundled Opt-In

The consent you are asking for should be set out separately for accepting terms and conditions, and acceptance of consent for other ways of using data.

In this example, Sainsbury’s clearly set out the acceptance of their terms and conditions, and separately set out the active opt-in for their contact permissions.

It’s a shame Sainsbury’s didn’t get the option to be more granular in terms of communication opt-in preferences (email, SMS, post).

3. Granular Opt-In

Users should be able to provide separate consent for different types of processing.

In this example, ABC Awards are asking for specific permission for each type of processing (post, email, telephone) and also asking permission to past details onto a third party.

4. Easy to Withdraw Permission or Opt-Out

It must be just as easy to remove consent as it was to grant it, and individuals always need to know they have the right to withdraw their consent.

In terms of your web user experience, this means unsubscribing could consist of selectively withdrawing consent to specific streams of communication:

5. Named Parties

Your web forms must clearly identify each party for which the consent is being granted. It isn’t enough to say specifically defined categories of third-party organisations. They need to be named.

In this example, you can see John Lewis understands the gist that we need to give named permissions for updates each from Waitrose, John Lewis, and John Lewis Financial Services.

But it’s a shame that it is opt-out rather than opt-in.

6. Privacy Notice and Terms and Conditions

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has very kindly provided a sample privacy notice that you can use on your website. It is concise, transparent, and easily accessible.

You will also need to update your terms and conditions on your website to reference GDPR terminology. In particular, you will need to make it transparent what you will do with the information once you’ve received it, and how long you will retain this information both on your website and also by your office systems.

You will also need to communicate how and why you are collecting data. Your privacy policy will need to detail applications that you are using to track user interaction.

7. Online Payments

If you are an e-commerce business, then you are likely to be using a payment gateway for financial transactions. Your own website may be collecting personal data before passing the details onto the payment gateway.

If this is the case, and your website is storing these personal details after the information has been passed along, then you will need to modify your web processes to remove any personal information after a reasonable period, for example, 60 days. The GDPR legislation is not explicit about the number of days, it is your own judgement as to what can be defended as reasonable and necessary.

8. Third Party Tracking Software

Things now start to get tricky when it comes to third-party tracking software.

Many websites are using third-party marketing automation software solutions on their website. These might be lead tracking applications like Lead Forensics, Leadfeeder or CANDDI. Or they could be call tracking applications like Infinity Call Tracking or Ruler Analytics.

The use of these tracking applications raise some very interesting questions in terms of GDPR compliance, and in my opinion, this remains a grey area.  At first glance, these applications track users in ways they would not expect and for which they have not granted consent.  For example, it is tracking my behaviour each time I return to your website, or view a specific page on your site.

However, the suppliers of these applications assure us they are GDPR compliant.

And, the software suppliers argue that the use of cookie tracking technology is in the legitimate interest of your business as a data controller, and specifically Recital 47 allowing for “processing for direct marketing purposes or preventing fraud.”

CANNDI advises:

Legitimate​ ​Interest​ ​-​ ​If using the legitimate interest principle within your website tracking it is advisable to have on record during your GDPR preparation that this is the case. This should include the grounds on which you are using this.

9. What About Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager?

If you are interested in Google’s commitment to GDPR then a good place to start is this website:  How Google complies with data protection laws

Many websites are configured to use Google Analytics to track user behaviour. Google Analytics has always been an anonymous tracking system. There is no “personal data” being collected, so I believe GDPR does not impact on its usage.

With regards to Google Tag Manager; it’s a powerful tool that enables your website to send information to third-party applications by inserting small amounts of code. You can integrate in-house data repositories, as well as external remarketing and retargeting systems, and a host of other services. The issue for businesses with regards to Tag Manager is to ensure you have a contract in place with the individuals that have access to your Tag Manager (which may well be your web designer, or digital marketing agency) to ensure they understand their legal responsibilities as a data processor on your behalf as data controller.

So, the underlying issue with the new GDPR  is to identify and have in place contracts with your third-party data processors to protect both your own interests.

10. And Finally… It Isn’t Only Your Website That Needs to Be GDPR Compliant

The changes being introduced with GDPR will permeate your entire business, and in this series of articles, we are focusing purely on your digital marketing.

As you start planning the detail of your website, you will uncover an Aladdin’s cave of issues you will need to consider. The Information Commissioner has provided an excellent set of resources for your reference, but here are a few key questions to be considering now as we approach the May deadline:

• You probably have lots of personal data stored in various places around the business. Do you have a good understanding, and documented record of the data you hold?
• Do you need to either gain or refresh consent for the data you hold?
• Do you have a defined policy for how long you retain personal data, so you don’t retain it unnecessarily, and ensure it’s kept up to date?
• Is your data being held securely, keeping in mind both technology and the human factors in data security?
• Whether you are a data controller or data processor (or both), do you have the correct legal arrangements in place?

The post How to… Make Your Website GDPR Compliant appeared first on New IT.

What’s Guest Blogging?

Briefly, guest blogging means publishing articles on other sites.   It’s a frequent practice in online advertising and it can work really well as a tool for search engine optimisation because, sometimes you may have a link back to your site. Then, this can have a positive effect on your search engine positions.

What is wrong with Guest Blogging?

Within Google’s guidelines, there is nothing wrong with guest blogging. In accordance with HubSpot, fifty three percent of marketers say website creation is their best inbound marketing priority. Therefore it would take a fairly blunt statement from Google before we can safely say guest blogging is a no-go.

The issues stem from very poor practice and abuse. Due to the potential search engine optimisation benefit of guest sites, people have utilized the technique. This means that Google has voiced their concerns to the community on more than one event to make it clear on what they believe to be good practice.

In his statement back in 2014, Matt Cutts said that guest blogging had become “overused by a whole lot of low-quality, spammy sites”. He clearly criticised guest articles that are written only for quick links to manipulate Google’s algorithm to push positions, rather than for writing for individuals and adding value.

Meanwhile, Google’s warning in 2017 did not suggest stopping writing guest articles altogether. You may benefit significantly from publishing high quality articles which reaches out to readers, not just search engines. It’s critical to follow Google’s webmaster guidelines on link schemes rather than abuse the system.

How to Ethically Approach Guest Blogging

The main point to remember when creating content for different sites is that you’re doing it for at least a link. You’re planning to educate and add value to your target audience.   That ought to be the principal objective of guest blogging. A link and any clicks in the blog to your website ought to be secondary. Taking this approach will help keep you in the realms of ethical practice and within Google’s guidelines. I mean, why do you want to contribute an excellent guest site to some terrible site that does not get any traffic?

Here are some hints to help keep you on the straight and narrow with guest blogging.

1.) Write for Trustworthy and Relevant Sites

On the surface, start looking for sites that are user friendly, with a great deal of well-written content already on them. Additionally, it is important to check under the hood prior to submitting a guest article: think visitors, links, and visibility.

Utilize SEMrush to find a good estimate of how much traffic a guest blogging site receives. Good websites get a great deal of traffic. While you’re there, examine the backlink profile. Moz’s Domain Authority metric can be misleading, so don’t solely rely on it to ascertain whether the guest posting website website is quality. So, check out the backlink profile using Ahrefs or Moz’s Open Site Explorer. Finally, is your guest blogging site visible in Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages)? Use search operator site:domain.com in Google to find out for yourself. If Google has not indexed the site, there is a reason for this; so avoid them.

In addition to the above, be certain the websites you compose for focus on a similar subject or business to yours. This will ensure relevance and ensures that you are also reaching the right audience with your content.

So, where can you find superior guest blogging opportunities? The first point of call is the page one competitors. Use backlink auditor tools such as Ahrefs to identify hyperlinks from guest sites which have led to helping them grow to page one of Google. From there, use Google search operators such as key word “contribute” and utilize  Buzzstream’s prospecting tool to scan for opportunities.

Take the opportunity to check at this definitive guide to guest blogging from Backlinko!

2.) Do not Abuse Anchor Text

Avoid using exact match keywords as your anchor text for each link you receive from guest posts. While anchor text still has a direct influence on rankings, it is important to keep a diverse and natural anchor text profile from outside links.

For instance, if you have relied on guest blogging too much and this has led to a high percentage of exact match anchor text such as “paint providers”, you may be in trouble. Use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to get a handle on your anchor text and keep a balanced anchor text ratio of a mixture of commercial and branded.

3.) Only Write for Websites Where Content Is Curated

This may fall under the stage above, but it is significant enough to warrant its own. Much like adding listings to online directories, ensure humans moderate guest blog articles. If websites permit you to upload articles without any questions asked, that is a large red flag. Only write for sites where you understand content is carefully reviewed before publication, so it is quality. Keep an eye out for clearly exhibited contact details also, since this is a good sign that the company is legitimate.

4.) Do not Mass Produce, and Repurpose Content with Caution

Google’s warning in 2017 specifically targeted large-scale post campaigns. This ties in with a snowball strategy called article spinning. This procedure involves tweaking and editing parts of a post in an attempt to get it published on multiple websites. While repurposing content you’ve written previously for another audience is fine, it is not to take that piece of content and rewrite it over, and over again. It is safer and more likely to get you sustainable results if you write first guest blog content which adds value to your target audience.

5.) Do not Keyword Stuff and Maintain Your Audience in Mind

Compose for people, not search engine spiders! Set out to provide genuinely helpful information to readers. This also means Google will not see your articles as unnatural and composed especially to dodge their guidelines.

6.) Use Guest Blogging as one a small piece your link building strategy

Google looks at the quality of links you have pointing to your website as an indicator of confidence. Your link profile could wind up looking unnatural in the eyes of Google if all your links are from guest sites. So, be certain to bring a diverse approach to building links. There are innumerable link building techniques it is possible to take up, along with guest editorial and blogging, including:-

• • Make your links using rich content bits such as info graphics, interactive tools, guides, eBooks, whitepapers, quizzes, calendars
  • Provide discounts and offers
  • Run a contest/competition
  • Providers and partners
  • Contribute to charities
  • Link reclamation through indigenous and competitor broken connections, and manufacturer mentions
  • Research your opponents: where have they got quality links?
  • Sponsor local sports teams
  • Attend events
  • High-quality online directories: both national and industry-specific

Broaden your horizons and do not allow guest blogging become the start and the ending of your link building action.

So, Is Guest Blogging Still Great for SEO?

In summary, the answer is yes. Guest blogging within Google’s guidelines remains great for search engine optimisation. Publishing useful content on high quality, relevant sites can benefit your search engine rankings greatly, and finally bring more visitors to your website.

However like any other search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy; it may be abused, and it’ll go very wrong for you if your strategies fall out of Google’s webmaster guidelines. The best bit of advice you can take from this, is do not rely on guest blogging to construct links. Certainly do not link back a single poor excellent guest site to you on a big scale either. This is what ultimately triggered Google’s warning in 2017. We know it won’t be there last.

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