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User Engagement: How To Track With Google Analytics
Recently, one of our clients came to the office for a short meeting. We had built a custom site for his company, but during the course of the meeting, he complained bitterly about the lack of conversion from his website. We decided to get to work, and discovered that his user engagement was virtually zero. We explained to him how to understand the metrics of user engagement with Google Analytics. Now, he’s making enough money from sales and conversions through the knowledge we shared with him.

Do you want to track user engagement on your website? You may be asking yourself what is user engagement? It is a measurement of the value your users find on your website, be it in a product or service. By knowing what your users think of your site, it can help you plan for growth.

This article will help you know the most important Google Analytics metrics and how you can track them.

Why you need to track user engagement

Tracking and optimizing user engagement is very important for your website. This is because it helps you understand what users do when they arrive on your website. Ideal for more conversions and sales, it allows you identify patterns of highly engaged user behavior. Page views and traffic are very important indicators of a website’s performance, but understanding how your audience think will help you get better results.

To track user engagement on WordPress, we advise that you use Google Analytics in combination with a plugin called MonsterInsights. You can download the plugin from the plugin repository of WordPress or by downloading from the Plugin link on the WordPress dashboard. In the last, most people just pasted the Google Analytics script on the website. While this is not bad, there is something better you can do to save time and reduce stress.

MonsterInsights will let you know the outbound links users are clicking, which forms that have the highest conversions, and which online store has the best conversions. You don’t have to deal with the hassle of writing code and configuration when using this plugin. It has automated the process of pasting different codes of analytics in the footer.

Let’s see how we can track different metrics on Google Analytics when it comes to user engagement for your website.
- Time spent on your website
One of the most important things you must find out is to know the time users spend on your website. It is called the session duration and according to HubSpot, 55% of visitors spend 15 seconds or less on your site. If people don’t spend enough time on your website, you won’t be able to convince them up to the point of a Call-To-Action. Analytics can give you information on the session duration.

Simply go to Audience >> Overview. The session duration will show among other stats.

You can also see this important metric by using Behavior >> Site content >> All Pages.

You can fix this by tidying up on your design, improving readability, adding high-quality images and optimizing them, and by using a lot of internal links.
- How users engage with forms
Most contact form plugins don’t give you accurate tracking and conversions data when it comes to collecting user leads and feedback. By using MonsterInsights, you get information on how many times your forms are viewed and submitted. It helps you know which forms on your websites are doing well and vice-versa.

To track your forms, you need to make use of Google Insights. Simply go to Google Insights >> Addons page. You need to install and activate the forms add on.

Do note that you will need a MonsterInisghts Pro plan for this. After doing all this, MonsterInsights will automatically start tracking all forms (website comments, user registration forms).

To track this metric on your Analytics dashboard, go to Behavior >> events >> Overview page.

Under ‘Event Category’, click on ‘form’. Click on the ‘Event Label’ to see stats for different forms on your website. You can then click on any form to see your impressions and conversions.
- Your most popular content
You can plan a content strategy or improve on existing strategy if you know the type and kind of content users like on your site. You need to figure out which blog posts and pages are the most popular among your users. Why is this important? To know the pages and content driving the most traffic on your website and the ones that are not doing so well.

To track this metric, visit Insights >> Reports page in your WordPress admin area. Under the ‘Top Posts and Page’ section, you will see your most popular content.

You can also see the top traffic sources to know where your traffic is coming from.

This understanding will help you channel your marketing and content strategies towards that particular channel.
- Frequency of visits
With this metric, you can see how many sessions were generated from a certain percentage of your audience. It is also defined as the frequency of visits for the average user. In simpler terms, it means the number of times the average user comes back to the website after the first time.

Check this by going to Audience >> Behavior >> Frequency & Recency.
- Bounce Rate
According to Wpbeginner, bounce rate is “the percentage of users who land on your website and decide to leave without going to a second page”. While having bounce rates are normal, a very high bound rates point to a bigger problem. It would seem that your users are not attracted to what your website is all about or the design is off-key. It indicates that you were unable to convince them to check out the other pages of your website after they arrived on the landing page (the page their browser directs them after submitting your URL).

A site with a bounce rate of around 30% and 50% is said to have excellent bounce rate. Any bounce rate between 50% and 70% is seen as an acceptable average while any above 70% is believed to be poor. Do note that since there are different kinds of content on websites, average bounce rate vary from niche to niche.

Login to your Google Analytics dashboard. To check your website’s bounce rate, Go to Audience >> Overview page.

To check for the bounce rate of an individual page, click on Behavior >> Site content >> All pages to see the bounce rate for each page.
- Page views per visit
Another important metric for user engagement with Google Analytics is page views. It tells you how many times a page is viewed for a given period. The more the page views per session, the more time users spend on your website which invariably means fewer bounce rates.

You can track page views per visit by going to Audience >> Overview. You can also get more information on the traffic channels that are converting the best for your site.

Click on Acquisition >> All Traffic >> Channels page.
- Average pages per visit
This metric is important for media websites as the more pages people visit on your site, the more ad impressions are generated, which in turn leads to higher revenue. It works on the premise that when people browse more pages on your site, they are more likely to see the ads placed on your website. It is also an important metric for ad or service-based websites like SaaS (software as a service) and e-commerce sites.

You can track this metric by going to Audience >> Overview. On the dashboard, you will see Pages/Session.

You can also take a look at the pages per session for each channel to understand this user engagement metric as well. You can do that by going to Acquisition >> All Traffic >> Channels.
- Percentage of returning visitors
This is one metric that is as important as any other. It is the understanding that these users are engaged with your brand; they have visited the site once, liked what they saw and have come back for more of the same or something better. This metric also shows the disparity between new and returning users/visitors. By understanding this percentage, it helps you to unearth more techniques on keeping them on your platform.

You can track this metric by going to Audience >> Overview. On the dashboard, you will see the percentage of returning visitors.
- Days since last session
Google Analytics helps you understand how often people visit your website and knowing the last time they came. When the difference is big, it might mean you are not being consistent with internal links from social media or you are not posting regular content.

Go to Audience >> Behavior >> Frequency & Recency and click on ‘Days since last session’
- Affiliate links
An affiliate link is a specific URL that contains an affiliate’s ID or username. An affiliate is someone or a website that pays you a commission when people buy their products on your website. To make affiliate links look more user-friendly, most affiliate marketers use plugins to manage these links. MonsterInsights helps you gather more information or track the links that are doing well, which posts are generating more affiliates and more.

To get started with affiliate link tracking with Google Analytics, you need to visit Insights >> Settings page. On this page, click on ‘Affiliate links’ after switching to the tracking tab.
1. The first thing you need to do is enter the slug you use for your affiliate links. After doing this, you need to provide a label you would like to use for these links on your Analytics reports.
2. Click on ‘Save Changes’
Your affiliate links CA now n be tracked by Monster Insights. To view this metric, go to Behavior >> Events >> Overview Page.

The links you chose earlier will be available alongside their affiliate link clicks.
- AdSense clicks and impressions
Google AdSense is a reliable way of making money online while creating useful content. By using Google Analytics, you can see how users interact with ads on your site. You will be able to identify the most effective ad placements, track how many clicks each ad is receiving and know which ads your audience is ignoring.

The first thing you need to do is visit Insights >> Addons page on your WordPress site. Install and activate the ‘Ads Tracking’ addon. For you to be able to get this information, you need to integrate Google Analytics with your AdSense account. To do this, head over to your Google Analytics dashboard. On the bottom left corner of the screen, click on the ‘Admin’ button.

Now that you are in the admin section, click on ‘AdSense Linking’ under the property column. Next, click the +New AdSense link button and then select AdSense property that you want to link with your Analytics property. Click on continue to go ahead. Select the Analytics view in which you want your AdSense data to be available. Once you select that, click Enable Link and then click done.

You are not done yet. After everything is configured on Google Analytics, you need to head over to the WordPress dashboard. Go to Insights >> Settings page. Click on the Ads section after switching to the ‘Tracking tab’.

NB: Google AdSense tracking checkbox must be clicked.

To view your key AdSense metrics in Analytics, go to Behavior >> Publisher page.
- Audience Engagement Rate
This metric is quite similar to the average time spent on your audience. However, there is more information here. You can see the specific time duration a certain percentage of your audience stayed on your site (from 0-20 seconds up to 1800 seconds)

To do this, go to Audience >> Behavior >> Engagement

Final Thoughts

With all these user engagement metrics, you will understand your audience better. You will learn how people interact with your website, and identify problems. With this in mind, you can learn what you need to improve to engage your audience further and better Google Analytics is absolutely free and offers you the best data when it comes to user engagement. We hope this article helped you understand the metrics you can get information on with Google Analytics.

Do you track the following metrics for your site using Google Analytics? Let us know in the comments below. You can also add others that you have tracked before.

Get in touch with us and find us across social media platforms @MactavisDigital. We have built expertise in web design and development, mobile app development, content production and copywriting, SEO and other digital services. We would love you to do business with you.
September 25, 2018
Understanding Copywriting And Content Marketing For Your Website

Copywriting and content marketing have become very important in the digital space. The amount of potential customers online is mind-boggling, therefore having content that gravitates people towards your brand is important. Copywriting and content marketing are intertwined, but they don’t mean the same thing. That said, what is copywriting?

Copywriting involves making content attractive to the extent that customers move past the reading phase to the purchase phase. Informative blog posts, insightful case studies, how-to guides and entertaining social media snippets help provide value for your audience.

This article highlights essential tips and skills that are essential in copywriting. Let’s dive in.

Copywriting vs content marketing

Don’t be afraid. This headline is not an advert for an upcoming boxing match. We just want to highlight the difference between content marketing and copywriting. Imagine this. Books, pencils, and erasers are all grouped under the term, “Stationery”. All these items are part of a larger category. It’s the same for copywriting and content marketing.

Copywriting is a form of content and marketing. Content marketing, according to the Content Marketing Institute, is “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing value, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action”.

Content marketing is an umbrella term that covers any content you create and distribute. It includes blog posts, social media posts, emails, print copy, press releases and so on. Copywriting involves three ultimate aim of attracting sales. A blog post which may be written just to educate may not be termed as copy, but can be referred to an example of content marketing.

Why is Copywriting Important?

Every successful content marketing strategy must have copywriting at its core. Its idea is to inform rather than promote that puts you as an authority in your niche or industry. Most people don’t really appreciate when they are being “directly advertised” to.

You most create copy or content in a systematic way without overly promoting your products or services which converts a fair portion of readers into potential customers and followers. Think of copywriting as a Call-To-Action: but on a much larger scale.

Essential Copywriting Skills

Every good copywriter needs a skill set that puts them at an expertise level when it comes to creating sales-inducing content. Some are listed below:

Your headlines must attract

Headlines are very important when it comes to copywriting as they must make the reader want to keep reading until the article is completely read. The reader must be excited about reading the rest of the content. To do that, having a headline that hits people once they see it is advised. Famous copywriter, David Ogilvy put it aptly when he said, “Five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy”.

Simply put, if a headline isn’t compelling enough, there is a higher chance that the rest the content will not be read. Research and recent studies have proved that 80% of viewers read the headline but not the body copy. Headlines must be direct, short and unique. Simply put, no one is going to read content unless they feel drawn by the headline.

Your writing skills must be top-notch

Copywriting involves having excellent writing skills. Use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling must be mastered by a good copywriter. You must also be able to create easy-to-read content and make complex topics simple. Writing great transitions and crafting compelling conclusions is also a must. Since copywriting involves writing compelling content, you must use the correct style and select the best vocabulary words within a specific content.

Your audience must be able to relate with your content

One thing you must be able to do when writing good copy is to put yourself in the mind of the reader. Understand their pain points, so you strive to create content that can solve their problems. You must listen to the needs and desires of your audience, and research on the language they use.

Doing keyword research is very important, as it helps you understand what your customers are searching for online. By writing in a way that the reader can relate to, you can lead them to do what you want. You must highlight their problems, and also give solutions to the challenges. You must focus on benefits, not features. Good copywriting should speak to the reader in human terms.

Be direct in the way you write things instead of using exaggerated language to drive home a point.

A good copywriter must specialize

The task of content creation is only possible from someone who has deep experience and interest in a niche. While some writers can learn quickly about an industry and produce wonderful content, it is important to have experience and interest. Specific content needs writers that are well versed in that particular niche, otherwise, there is a high probability that a low-quality content will be churned out.

Don’t go yet, read this.

We do hope this article helped you understand what you need to do to become a better copywriter. Content marketing strategies keep changing, so self-development, a fresh set of understanding, and skills are needed to improve. Do you need a digital agency that can attend to all your copywriting needs? Look no further. Mactavis is a digital agency that has worked with different websites and brands on their copywriting needs.

For your comments, suggestions or inquiries, please contact us or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @MactavisDigital. You can also check out our portfolio to find out what we have done in the past. We would be happy to hear from you. Really.

September 19, 2018
How to create GDPR compliant forms in WordPress
In an earlier article, we talked about the new GDPR policy. On May 25, 2018, the European Union (EU) enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policy. Its aim is to give website users in the EU complete control over how their data is being used. It was also enacted to change how companies and businesses handle data privacy around the world.

A typical WordPress website collects what is known as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from users in a number of ways. A form is one of such ways, be it at the point of registration or confirmation of an action. With this knowledge of GDPR in mind, your forms should be compliant with this regulation.

This article highlights how you can easily create these GDPR compliant forms on your WordPress website.

What makes a form GDPR compliant?

Getting to make a form GDPR compliant is quite easy, though you must know what it means for a form to be compliant. Not all forms meet this requirement, so it is important to know the key features or requirements of a GDPR compliant form. A form is said to be GDPR compliant when:
- Users have the option of giving explicit consent for using and storing their PII.
- Users can request the deletion of their data from your website at any time.
- Users can request access to their own personal information shared on your website.
Let’s see the step-by-step process of creating a GDPR compliant form. Come with me.

How To Make A GDPR compliant form

For its easy-to-use interface, we recommend that you use WPForms. If you don’t have this plugin activated already, you will need to install and activate it. Go to the Plugin repository on WordPress to download or click on “Plugins” to search for it from your WordPress dashboard.

After activating, visit WPForms >> Settings.

Scroll down to the GDPR section. Check the box next to GDPR Enhancements. After clicking on it, two new optional settings will be revealed namely “Disable user cookies” and “Disable user details”.

The former stops WPForms from storing user sessions. A cookie is a small bit of text that is downloaded to a computer or other device when a user visits a website. When a user visits the site again, the browser sends these cookies back to the website. It recognizes the user and ensures that they pick off where they left off by simulating their preferred browsing experience.

Each cookie contains a unique identifier that helps the plugin add features such as form abandonment, geolocation & related entries. Disabling these option means you also disable these features.

The second option is “Disable User details”. It will stop WPForms from storing user IP addresses and browser information. You can check them if you feel you don’t need these features. Remember to “Save Settings” to store your changes.

To create a form, go to WPForms >> Add New. You will be required to enter a title for your form and select a template. You can use these templates (ready-made forms) as a starting point. We will be creating a simple contact form for the purpose of this tutorial. Click on ‘Simple contact form’.

This will launch the WPForms builder interface. On the right column, you will see your form overview while on the left, you get to see all the fields that you can add to your form.

On this left column, click on ‘GDPR Agreement’ to add it as a checkbox to your form. It will appear at the bottom. You can edit the form by changing the title, agreement text and use the description box to add details such as Privacy Policy or Terms and Conditions pages.

Please note that you can only add one GDPR agreement field to each form. The agreement field is always a required field and cannot be pre-checked in accordance with the GDPR law.

Click on the Save Button on top to store your settings.

How to add your GDPR compliant form to WordPress posts and pages

The ease of WPForms is that you can add forms anywhere on your website. You can create a new page/post or edit an existing one.

On the post edit screen, click on the ‘Add Form’ button, wherein a popup appears.

On this popup page, you can select the form you created earlier. On the bottom right section of the popup, click on the ‘Add Form’.

Click on Save to publish or save as draft. You can now check your post to see the form in action.

Using WPForms to manage data access and deletion

Like we highlighted earlier, a website that is GDPR compliant is one where users can request for access and also request for deletion of their data. To get WPForms to help you manage data access and deletion, you have to create a Data access/delete form.

This form will give users the medium to request for data access and deletion if they wish to do so. You can add it as a link to your Privacy Policy page. Users who wish to access or delete their stored data can use that form to send you a request.

To access all form entries, visit WPForms >> Entries page. Do note that you need to be a Pro user to be able to do this. On the top left corner of the screen, you can select the form you wish to view. WPForms will show you all entries submitted using that form. If you have a large number of entries, you can filter your search by entering a name, email address, IP address, or keyword. You can also export a single entry as a CSV file.

One Last Thing ……

GDPR is a very important regulation for all websites that collect information from EU residents. It is important to understand what it entails and how to make sure your website doesn’t fall foul of its laws. You can know what is there to know about GDPR by reading an article where it was discussed at length.

We hope this article helped you understand how you can easily create GDPR compliant forms in WordPress. Do you wish to make your website GDPR compliant and you don’t know to go about it? Get in touch with us and connect with us across social media platforms @MactavisDigital.

We have carved a niche for ourselves when it comes to web design and development, content production and copywriting, SEO and other digital services. We would love to hear from you.
September 18, 2018
Site Optimization: Improving Your Website Performance and SEO

Welcome. Let us run through some stats to get started. 60% of all internet users use Google and other search engines to find answers to the different questions they may have. 80% of online searches result in direct sales or in-store visits. Search Engine Optimization means having your website rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Simply put, this means having your website show up on the top of these searches made by customers.

Optimizing a site has to be a continuous task as it is somewhat like a race where you get overtaken by your rival if you slow down. The algorithms these search engines use keep changing and evolving as they aim to provide users with the best results for their queries. For every website owner or administrator, the essence of optimizing a site cannot be overemphasized.

This article highlights what you need to do to continually optimize your website, and stay ahead of your competitors. Let’s get this on the road.

Validate your web pages

What does page validation mean? WordPress.org defines it as “the process of ensuring that the pages of a website conform to the norms or standards defined by various organizations.” This is important because it helps ensure your web pages are interpreted in the same way by users, visitors, and even search engine crawlers.

The W3C has “strict” standards set for CSS and HTML. The codes and styles you use on the site shoudl be in tune with the standards of the W3C. A validated site is easier to access by search engines cos there are no errors in your code.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web.

You can validate your website here.

Page speed is very important

Search engines do not favor slow running websites. This is because they need to access different pages on the internet in record time. Your web pages should load fast. There are a lot of page speed tools out there, but Google Speed Insights is highly recommended. It displays your site load time (the average time it takes for the site to load on a browser) and it also gives you tips & suggestions on how to make the page faster.

This page speed test should be done regularly as posting new content on your web pages can slow them down. Reduce the number of scripts you use as they add to your page load time. Don’t set videos to play automatically and also optimize your images. Image optimization means reducing the memory size of high-resolution images without reducing the quality.

Large images reduce page speed, so for your website to be optimized, you need to compress your images. You can use Image Optimizer or Compress JPEG for image compression.

Have a mobile-friendly website

In 2016, mobile internet usage surpassed computer usage. It means more people are accessing the internet via their mobile devices. Mobile devices have become a part of everyday life. A mobile-friendly is also referred as a Responsive Site. A responsive site looks as good on mobile devices as it does on a computer as it automatically resizes a website based on different screen size it is being viewed on.

Since there are much more mobile internet users now, search engines have made responsiveness a major requirement in ranking websites. In our next article, you’d find out ways and techniques to make your site more responsive. Use tools such as Screenfly and Responsinator to test your site’s responsiveness.

Do a business analysis of your target market

To ensure that your website is well-optimized, a detailed research of the target market is required. A business model of the website is needed so that you can make money. Having interest and expertise in any niche is good, but making money from it is even better. A Website Analysis is what comes next. This is necessary so as to determine how well you are well positioned for search engines. You must continually check your text, codes, meta descriptions and other aspects of all your web pages to ensure that they are clearly defined.

The next thing to do is a Competitive Analysis. Pick a list of the top 5 websites in the niche you are trying to rank for. Use tools such as MOZ Explorer and Keyword Tool to do a complete examination of their keywords and present Search Engine rankings. The use of search engines such as Google will help you discover how your customers think. Develop a list of search terms & phrases that your customers use in searches.

More often than not, Google will give you a list of the most searched queries. This will help you channel your optimizing strategy into creating suitable content for these searches.

Optimization is really about keywords

After you must have done your market research and identified a list of keywords and phrases. Use tools such as MOZ Explorer and the Keyword Tool to review competitive lists and other industry sources. When doing keyword research, always leave room for plurals, singulars and even misspellings from users. While search engines correct these errors, you must also put them in mind.

Almost as important as finding keywords is keyword placement. Search engines can flag a website when they notice an unusual way of infusing keywords as they might feel you are trying to outsmart them. Use these researched keywords in a natural way in your titles, headings, content, image alt tags as well as domain names. Since keywords are what users type on search engines, having these keywords on your site will greatly help your search engine visibility.

Final Thoughts

Site optimization is very crucial for higher search engine rankings. It is also good for improving visitors’ user experience and also your online visibility. SEO is all about finding the right balance between search engines and the humans who need content from your site. It must be good for search engines as well as help your customers get the right information they need.

You must keep reading on new techniques and methods to improve your site optimization. Having great content is also important as that is what keeps your audience coming back. You can also read our earlier article on Search Engine Optimization techniques to help you rank higher.

Get in touch with us and find us on social media platforms @MactavisDigital. We are open for business for your web design and development, mobile app development, content production, Search Engine Optimization and other digital services.

July 20, 2018
How To Make Your Website GDPR Compliant
The European Union (EU) on May 25, 2018, enacted a new regulation (GDPR) whose aim is to protect the data and information of different website users. The European continent had been looking for the solution to threats on cybersecurity and felt that a radical approach as to how information is managed is the panacea for the increasing wave of such threats.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation that allows users to have complete control over their data. WordPress is taking a whole new dimension in 2018, and as a site administrator, you have to make sure that your site doesn’t flout these rules.

This article highlights the changes you can effect on your site to make it GDPR compliant. Let’s go.

What is GDPR?

As a site administrator, you have to tell users why you need their information. The GDPR is designed to provide better protection of personal data – or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) – to people living in the European Union. The GDPR imposes specific obligations on “controllers” or “processors” of personal data. Failure to meet these obligations can lead to major fines of up to €20m.

The European Union passed this regulation to affect everyone on the continent. However, this regulation has ripple effects on the rest of the world. Regardless of your location, as long as you collect information from someone in the borders of the EU, you are subject to this law. This is because you have information owned by the EU resident.

Here’s what you’ll be responsible for to ensure you are GDPR compliant:
- Tell the user: who you are, why you need their data, how long you are keeping the data and who has access to it.
- Get clear consent, before collecting the data.
- You must give users the ability to see their own data, download and delete permanently from your archives.
- In the event of a security breach, you let your users know about it.
GDPR and the WordPress Community

As plugin developers and site administrators, we are responsible for managing our sites well so users can manage their data. 30% of the internet runs on WordPress, therefore we need to do a lot. WordPress is a Content Management System that enables a massive flow of information between our sites and users. For WordPress admins, there is a website called GDPRWP that has been set up to provide plugin developers with a simple solution to ‘GDPR-validate’ their plugins.

For administrators, they also provide tools and overview to handle administrative duties as regards GDPR. You also get the chance to get into a Slack community that provides help and support to plugin developers and website administrators. Check out their website here.

What You Need To Do

Contact forms must explain a lot

Almost all websites have contact forms. This is the simplest way for visitors to contact you directly. For your forms to be GDPR compliant, you must state why you are asking for any information. Let’s say for example when the user is adding an email address or phone number, a pop-up that says, “This is how you will be contacted.” should come up. It helps to clarify your use of their information.

Another thing you need to add to your form is having a checkbox for users to confirm that they accept the terms of service for using your website and how they agree to be contacted. This is called UNBUNDLED OPT-IN. If you wish to send further marketing communications to the customer you must have different checkbox options for each type of marketing, whether it be by email, text or post.

This boxes must be UNTICKED by default, so they have the option of choosing what they want. This is what is called a Granular Opt-In and is a key requirement of being GDPR compliant. For excellent user experience, the user of a website must know that they have the right to withdraw their consent as easily as they give it.

Ask for the bare minimum of information

A good rule of thumb is to ask for as little information as possible from your users. A lot of websites, forms, and plugins ask for a lot of information that is not really needed. Ask for the basics as GDPR states that you must be able to explain why you need a particular piece of information. If you are asking for their full names, tell them why.

GDPR has made asking information for “future use” or “just in case” not advisable, therefore the information you ask must be as explicit as possible.

Email marketing should be monitored

One of the major aims of GDPR is to ensure users or customers do not receive unsolicited emails, whether from companies they know or do not know. If customers decide to ignore these emails, they will be automatically unsubscribed. This has been welcomed by many who receive unsolicited emails from websites and their partners.

The regulation also ensures that website owners must only send out marketing material and information to users that have officially opted-in and make it easy to unsubscribe.

Be careful of the information you store on your website

For e-commerce websites that use payment gateways for financial transactions, being GDPR compliant is a must. This is because you may be collecting personal data before passing the details to the payment gateway. You need to modify your web processes to remove any personal information after a reasonable number of days, say 60 or 90 days. This is to ensure you can defend the storage of users’ PII if you are found culpable of violating GDPR regulations.

Conclusion

The WordPress community is hard at work helping website owners with GDPR opt-in and compliance. While the regulation is still relatively novel and still laced with some uncertainties, be rest assured that in the coming months, there will be many more options in your favourite plugins or extensions made by third parties.

To make your site compliant with GDPR regulations, make sure you’re transparent with people and follow the aforementioned guides.

Follow @MactavisDigital on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to connect with us. We are experts at Web Design and Development, Search Engine Optimization, Mobile App development, and other digital services. Contact us for your inquiries and check out our portfolio to see samples of our previous projects.
July 19, 2018