Efficient website - Processing of personal data with cookies

How can cookies help you design an effective website?

Since the entry into force of the GDPR (General data protection regulation) on May 25, the corporate world, and more particularly the BtoC, seems to be experiencing a real data psychosis. This new European regulation worries many companies, who do not know what process to put in place to protect the personal data of their customers on the Web. Suddenly, for fear of possible retaliation, some might have a false good idea to remove the use of cookies and other systems for recording personal data on their website (such as Pixel Facebook and contact forms).

However, the GDPR does not mean the end of the personal data. On the contrary, the aim of this new regulation is not to prohibit their registration but rather to protect them, in particular by allowing the person concerned to manage them more easily. In fact, the motto for companies that collect personal data is that they must be able to justify the source of the data they hold and confirm that they have received the consent of the data subject to process the data. Attention, also, that it is always necessary to let this person the possibility of asking that his data be erased.

But for the rest, the data and their recording techniques remain essential for companies, who should not be afraid to use them. Their benefits are numerous, both from the point of view of the customer’s browsing experience and digital marketing. Why? Because the resulting statistics allow you to optimize your web presence. But an effective website can bring more customers and therefore more money. That’s why, at Mestar Digital Marketing Agency, we think as a little reminder of the many benefits of cookies, Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, and contact forms is much needed.

What are cookies and other data recording techniques?

Cookies, Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics … All these techniques for recording personal data may have different reasons for being. Now let’s look at each one.

Cookies:

Cookies are mainly used to improve the browsing experience of the user (and god knows how important it is!). These files are deposited by your website on the computer of the user who consults. Cookies consist only of text and contain all the personal information that the user has encoded on your website: his name, surname, username, address, age, identifier, etc. They are therefore completely harmless and can in no way access the contents of the computer to obtain information that the user has not provided.

Allow you to memorize certain information such as username, password, and user preferences, in order to avoid the person returning to your website from having to encode them again.
They also memorize for a certain period of time a product that you have placed in your virtual basket but that you do not buy. That way, if you finally decide to crack, you can find it easily without having to do a new search.

Facebook Pixel:

The Pixel Facebook is a small piece of code placed on your website. It is triggered when an action that you have previously marked as important is performed (for example, a purchase).

The goal is to develop highly qualified audiences for your Facebook ads, by analyzing the behavior of your customers on your website. Let’s take an example: if you indicate that your important action is a purchase on your site and that you then launch an advertising campaign on Facebook, the Facebook Pixel will let you know which people your advertising must touch (for example, those who came on your site but have not made a purchase) and those that should not be (such as those that have just made a purchase, and therefore have less chance to start again).
It allows for satisfying both the user who is not automatically retargeted after a purchase and your business, which can target much more easily the right people.

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a tool that allows you to collect a set of anonymous statistics on the traffic of your website (audience, origin, pages viewed …). The goal is to help you better understand your traffic and behavior and then improve the performance of your website. Thus, Google Analytics allows you, for example:

Measure the effectiveness of an AdWords campaign or the effectiveness of your SEO, to optimize them.
Determine the most effective channels, social networks, AdWords ads, Google searches …, to further target them and thus increase your chances of achieving your goals.
Monitor the conversion rate you get, that is to say, to verify that the goals you have set for yourself are being achieved and to improve what should be if they are not.
Check that the bounce rate (ie the number of sessions where the user has viewed a single page, without interacting with its content) is not too high.
Determine if your content strategy is effective. For example, if you want to check the success of an article you can see how many people viewed it, how long they spent on the page, and so on. This way, you can better understand the topics that most interest your audience and write more about them, to their delight.

You see it with this non-exhaustive list, the benefits of Google Analytics are really numerous. This tool is very valuable for companies that want to make sure that their website is efficient and that it earns them money. It also allows them to offer a much better web-based customer experience and therefore to get the satisfaction of their customers.

The case of contact forms:

You do not need to delete contact forms from your website. When you think about it, even if you only indicate an email address to which the customer can reach you, you would still be a database because you would have to answer it and use your personal email address. As a result, the GDPR would apply anyway.

It is, therefore, more interesting to keep contact forms, the benefits of which are numerous. Thanks to them :

You limit the risk of being relegated to unwanted email (spam)
You increase your chances of being contacted in an ‘impulsive’ way: Internet users who have direct access to a means of contact are more likely to fill out your form. If they had to go to their personal mailbox, transcribe your email address, think about the information they have to provide … They have a much better chance to get discouraged and give up.
You automate your email processing: all your emails have the same structure and allow you to obtain qualified and targeted information.

Conclusion:

Of course, being compliant with the GDPR is important. Companies that process personal data (which is the case for almost all companies since a simple email address is a personal data) must imperatively learn about the new rules established by Europe. But do not panic, though! GDPR does not mean the death of data, either. You can always register them, as long as you can justify their provenance, you have the consent of the person concerned and you respect his right to be forgotten.

So rather than delete all the ways to save data via your website (cookies, Facebook Pixel, contact form, Google Analytics …), just make sure they comply with the new rules. Thanks to them, you will be able to improve your performances on the Web, those of your site, your social networks, your contacts, but also improve the browsing experience of your customers.

Cookies and analytics are the foundation of an effective website and help you deliver quality content and customer experience. Because this is the challenge of the Web: to combine a website that brings you money, which fulfills the objectives that you have set, but also offers a good browsing experience and is interesting for your customers and your prospects. Without these tools, the Web would lose its interest, while, thanks to them, it gains in efficiency.