So, your site is finally working like a clockwork. You’ve started creating awesome content, your backlink portfolio is spotless and you’re finally satisfied with your rankings. Now that everything is running according to your perfectly formulated plan, there is another curveball sent to you. This time, it’s GDPR.
If you think: OK, this is something I’ll just ignore, well, I’ll have to disappoint you. This regulation is obligatory and, if you don’t execute it correctly, your digital marketing and SEO efforts may suffer.
Precisely because of this, I decided to explain what GDPR is and why it is important for your site.
What is the GDPR?
The GDPR is short for the General Data Protection Regulation that was launched two years ago and came into full force on May 25th this year. The GDPR applies to every website that collects and stores EU citizens’ personally identifiable information, be it their IP addresses or credit card data. The GDPR also regulates the way users give their sensitive data to third parties (email marketing providers, web hosts, virtual assistants, etc.).
This is the largest and the most comprehensive regulatory measure ever addressing the rightful use of personally identifiable information. But, why was it created?
To provide their users with highly targeted content, online businesses collected and analyzed the data we leave online without asking us for permission. The GDPR is specifically designed to prevent this from happening in the future.
Its aim is to protect users’ privacy and make sure that the data identifying them is collected and managed ethically, through the processes of anonymization, encryption, and pseudonymization. This leads us to the next important fact and that’s every user’s right to monitor, control, and analyze the use of their sensitive information. Most importantly, they have the right to be forgotten and have their information erased.
This means that, to comply with the GDPR, businesses can gather such information for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes, as well as not process it further in any way that doesn’t comply with their initial aims.
The Link between GDPR and SEO
The GDPR compliance may impact the digital marketing industry and SEO on multiple levels. Here is how.
Delivering personalized user experience becomes difficult
When interacting with brands, today’s customers are not satisfied with the uniform content and proposals. They want to be respected as individuals. And, this is a win-win scenario for both parties. Consumers receive highly personalized and relevant experiences, while brands earn their trust and boost their loyalty.
However, when they’re shown opt-in consent boxes and pop-ups, many will hit the close button, refusing to share their personal information. Reading numerous news about the rise of data breaches or after the recent Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, people are not willing to give their personal information that easily.
Of course, this leads to the problems in creating personalized content and offers in the future, which again, leads to higher bounce rates and poorer conversions. This is why you need to educate your customers, reassuring them that their data will be safe and used to provide them with the exceptional experiences.
SEO and content marketing gain more relevance
Under the GDPR, those digital marketing techniques that heavily rely on data collection, such as email targeting or paid ads, will suffer the most. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should stop investing in them. You just need to back them up with SEO and content marketing.
Namely, SEO doesn’t necessarily depend on collecting user data. Tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs rely on anonymized data and they don’t violate the principles of GDPR. Your visibility in the SERPs and optimized content will now be your most powerful way to rise above the noise and attract new customers to your site.
The impact on rankings
Even though there were some speculations that GDPR-compliant sites will rank higher, Google hasn’t confirmed that officially. However, there are some obvious implications of how the GDPR may impact your rankings in the future, either directly or indirectly. One of them is definitely the rising importance of SSL certificates.
Google is all about making the World Wide Web a secure place. They want to increase the number of sites switching from HTTP to HTTPS. First, they made HTTPS a minor ranking signal. Most importantly, they’ve announced that as of July this year, all HTTP sites will be labeled as not secure.
This way, we can conclude that HTTPS will soon become a norm and not just an optional security choice. For your business, it will serve as a great reassurance that user data will remain safe and be out of hackers’ touch. Most importantly, chances are Google’s algorithms will change with the rise of the GDPR, which is a great opportunity for sites to improve their rankings by investing in full data transparency and security.
Mobile users’ experience gets hurt
Geotargeting is one of the most prominent SEO techniques which are going to be hurt by the GDPR. To make sure your sire is GDPR-compliant, you need to test your existing data for any personally identifiable information, create transparent opt-ins, implement IP address anonymization, and update your Privacy Policy to comply with the GDPR.
Google Maps, for example, already lets users know that when they turn device location on, their location data is going to be used anonymously. However, from the GDPR viewpoint, this announcement is not fully GDPR-complaint, as it doesn’t explicitly ask for consent and say how this data is going to be used.
Still, Google announced the launch of new tools as a part of its AMP Project that let marketers respect the rules of the GDPR.
Some of the Most Common Misconceptions Regarding GDPR
These misconceptions are usually a result of marketers’ poor understanding of what the GDPR is and how it works. This leads to numerous incorrect interpretations of this regulation and here are some of them:
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The interpretation of the legitimate interest . Many businesses believe that they fall under this category and that they don’t need user consent. However, if you’re a marketing specialist or a salesperson using this data to increase sales or create personalized user experiences, you’re still bound by the law to ask your users for permission to use their data.
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The businesses outside of the EU believe that the GDPR has nothing to do with them. This regulation applies not only to the Member States, but also other countries worldwide that handle the data of EU citizens.
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Many companies that don’t sell to Europe-based countries decide to block their users and get rid of the GDPR-related problems. However, this is not a smart move for several reasons. Apart from showing the lack of understanding and respect of your users, it may also affect your revenue and traffic, since a notable number of your visitors come from the EU.
Over to You
So, from these examples, we can freely conclude that the GDPR doesn’t significantly impact your SEO efforts. It just changes the way digital marketing is done, emphasizing the importance of treating user information as a personal asset. Not complying with this regulation, however, may hurt your online presence and customer relationships for good.
How does GDPR influence your SEO efforts?
