Who does this effect?

If you have a website and are based in the EU then YOU. In the UK there are an average of 14 cookies on a website. They form certain functionalities some of which are essential to the running of your website. For example, when passing information between pages whilst using a shopping basket on a website. This law will not affect these essential cookies. You will however need to make people aware of any non-essential cookies being used on your site and allow them to give explicit and informed consent.

What does it all mean?

In reality this law has been put into place like many other recent laws to protect the sharing of personal data. Although cookies do not hold any information that can be directly linked to an individual, they still do hold information about a user and their activities and do so by placing files on an individual’s computer for a period of time.

A large proportion of web users have been using the web completely unaware of this factor and it is this lack of knowledge that the EU want to change with this law. However, whilst lifting a cloud of confusion and unawareness for the user, the law has placed a cloud of doubt and confusion upon businesses and website owners about what the new law is and what they have to do to comply.

Some will go by being unaware of the law until it’s too late, whilst others will ‘wing it’ in the hope that they won’t get caught. Both are highly risky and can lead to an expensive conclusion. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are responsible for enforcing this law and any business that is seen not to comply may receive a warning as to the use of the Information Commissioner’s future powers, which could potentially be a fine of up to £500,000.

Although it is highly unlikely that you be fined this much, it is the law and being fully compliant should be seen like an insurance policy relieving any doubt in your mind about whether your going to be contacted by the ICO. By being compliant you will have that peace of mind and it will mean there will be one less thing for you to worry about. Who needs the hassle?

How we can help

WebHappens can supply a solution that will ensure your website is fully compliant with the new cookie law that will come into force on the 26th May. We are offering a FREE audit of your website to determine if your website needs a solution and what is required for your website to comply. If from this your website is deemed to be non compliant we can offer a quick and low-cost solution specifically for your website from a one off cost of just £129+vat.

Get in touch

If you would like to find out more about this service and how we can help then please leave a comment below, call James on 07809 609134 or email james@webhappens.co.uk

With almost a quarter of web users in the UK being mobile-only (Source: mobithinking.com) it’s clear to see that mobile web browsing is well on its way to becoming the primary, and for many, the only route onto the Internet.

OK, so that’s the trend, but what about your business in particular? Well, why not take a look. Assuming you have website analytics installed (Google Analytics or similar) you should be able to see information about mobile visitors to your website. (Here’s how in Google Analytics)

So now you have clear information about how many people are accessing your website via a mobile device. Now, load up your website on your Smartphone and take a look at what they are seeing. You might be thinking it’s not too bad or you might be thinking it’s awful and in some cases not even working. The truth is if this is a primary access route to your business online, should it really be a second-rate experience?

So what should I put on my mobile website?

Well this really depends on what you want users to do when they visit your website on a mobile. This would usually be linked to a business objective and might differ from the objective of your main desktop website.

Are your mobile users converting the same number of goals as your desktop website users? Do you even want them to be converting the same goals?

Again you can get some help with these questions by looking at your website analytics data, for example:

If you are getting a lot of traffic to a particular page for mobile users then maybe that information needs to be easier to access for them.

If the bounce-rate is high for mobile users then maybe you need to look at why:

• Is it because the site is unusable? You could check this by visiting your website on a variety of Smartphones.
• Is it because the information they are looking for is on the homepage? This might be obvious if you’re getting a lot of repeat visitors but they aren’t going much further than the home page.
• Is it because the experience is not good enough and it’s too much hassle to navigate your site? This might be the case if you have a high number of unique visitors bouncing off your website.

The key is to find out the answers to these question before you move forward with implementing your mobile website so that your business benefits from having one.

Case study: National Rail

In the case of National Rail, they identified the key reasons people would be visiting their website on a mobile as Journey planning, Live departures and Changes to train times. They then created a very simple menu to help guide users through to the correct section depending on their needs. An obvious concept, but are you doing it?

Get in touch

If you’d like more information about getting a Mobile Website for your business or about how you can better market your business on the Internet please call Ben on 07834 825618 or email hello@webhappens.co.uk

Website platforms such as WordPress are fantastic tools for helping you run your website. The easy to use editors, extensive plugin libraries, and SEO capabilities are all crucial to keep your website relevant, up-to-date and ranking high in Google.

Unfortunately these platforms also come with a critical downside. Because they are open-source and rely upon third party plugins they are at a high risk of hacking and malware attacks.

Now, being optimistic I used to be slightly sceptical about this… until the day that one of my own websites was compromised! The utter terror that swept through my body in the first 3 seconds after realising, the days and hours of time and effort that had gone into building the site and populating the pages and posts and the impact it would have on enquires whilst the site was down were some of the first thoughts that swarmed my head.

Fortunately, after a series of panic attacks, I discovered the hack had not been malicious and was carried out to prove a point more than anything. However, it did encourage me to go away and come up with a solution to ensure it didn’t happen again. That solution is something I’d like to share with you and hopefully something you will be encouraged to share with your colleagues and friends.

StopTheHacker

Our new secure hosting package, StopTheHacker, is now available for just £5.75 +vat per month (billed annually).

If your website is not currently hosted by us our website hosting prices start from as little as £49 +vat per year for 150GB webspace, Unlimited bandwidth and 500 email accounts. We’ll even move your site over for free! (So no hassle for you).

StopTheHacker is a fully hosted software solution to provide your website with advanced website security and monitoring tools. There are no changes required on your website or any software for you to install. StopTheHacker is complementary to, but entirely different from anti-spam, anti-virus, or network firewalls.

As well as providing security software, StopTheHacker also monitors Google, Yahoo, Bing, DNS blacklists, Spam blacklists and others so you can take action and improve your reputation.

StopTheHacker provides an advanced feature-set to provide comprehensive protection for your website.

Key features:

• Daily scans of your entire website
• Alerts if your website has been injected with known malware as well as a detailed report to help you clean your website
• Scans to determine if your website is blacklisted by Google, Yahoo and Bing as well as Spam, Malware, and DNS Blacklists

Get in touch

If you’d like more information about StopTheHacker or any of our Hosting packages please leave a comment below, call Ben on 07834 825618 or email hello@webhappens.co.uk