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In response to the EU Cookie Directive the UK has updated the law. The UK Cookie Legislation became law on the 25th May 2011 and it is believed will begin to be enforced from the 25th May 2012. It’s intended to protect people’s personal data, but, I am not convinced.

Please could everyone watch this short video that explains what it’s all about (2 ½ mins):

What the law says:

In short on the 26^th May 2012 it will become law that in order to use cookies you must:

1.  tell people that the cookies are there,
2. explain what the cookies are doing, and
3. obtain their consent to store a cookie on their device.

What Google says:

“We’re working on it. Once we have more information we will share it with you guys!”

What the UK Government says:

“The UK Government has made it clear that enforcement action will not be taken until appropriate technical solutions are available.”

What Jepson @bandertron says:

“It’s the most retarded law I’ve ever heard of. It really winds me up. It’s created by stupid idiots that have no idea what they’re suggesting. If anything I think it will make people complacent as it will just become second nature to click on links. It will actually make you more vulnerable. They should invest the money that was put into that into a website that helps people learn about privacy on the net.”

Ben Milleare @bmilleare

“Anyone that is concerned about cookies should just turn them off in their browser and see how they get on”

What happened in Sweden:

The directive is law in Sweden since May, but has not had any practical implications yet. Pretty much the only one that has tried to comply with the law is the government offices of Sweden. There has not been a single court ruling yet. So far it’s business as usual.

What about Google Analytics:

It seems like there is unlikely to be an issue with google analytics. Google Analytics uses 3^rd party cookies meaning that they do not hold uniquely identifiable information about an individual user and therefore are unlikely to be chased.

eConsultancy Article:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8515-cookies-compliance-my-take-on-latest-guidance-from-ico

The “Google Analytics Exemption”? The final page of the report contains guidance on the use of analytical cookies. Whilst it is clear that analytical cookies (for many this means Google Analytics) are covered by the directives, the wording here suggests that if you are using such cookies in a “non-intrusive” way (and Google have always been *very careful* not to associate Google Analytics with any personally identifiable information – indeed you are not allowed to under GA’s terms of use) then “.. it is highly unlikely that priority for any formal action would be given…”.  I read that as “we’ve got better things to do than go after people using web analytics”’.

What should we do?

 We probably should add something like the following to our sites:

But, to be honest, it seems like it’s going to be nearly impossible to enforce so like everyone else we might do just as well to do the following:

Ignore the EU Cookie Directive - Hopefully it will go away

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Your customers ARE unique and beautiful snowflakes!

Don’t treat them like this:

Treat them like this:

“Much of the world’s sorrow comes from people that are this but allow themselves to be treated as that” Maude (Harold and Maude 1971)

I couldn’t agree more Maude! We spend too much of our lives trying to mask our differences and when running a website too often we look at huge segments of traffic to a site: Organic Traffic; Paid Traffic, Social Media Traffic; Traffic from USA; Traffic from Mobile. We rarely consider how different every visitor to your site is and how different there needs are.

It’s time to recognise the unique beauty of your customers. Here are:

15 Favourite Uses of Advanced Segments

NB no website project is the same. Take this as inspiration and create your own!

1)    Brand/non brand

Facebook Brand

Okay, I’m easing you in here. This is simple but absolutely essential. At very least you should be separating the keyword searches that could be attributed to brand keywords and non-brand keywords. You must look at these groups of people differently! How much business do your brand phrases generate?

2)    Important Keyword groups

Again, this is the bread and butter of advanced segments. If you’re an SEO this is a must! You are likely to be focussing on a specific list of keywords. Create an advanced segment just for these. Then another for those that you aren’t directly working on but believe that your work will influence. Then another for those that you don’t think you’ll impact. Get closer to working out a proper ROI from your efforts. Your clients will appreciate greater accuracy rather than questioning the broad sweeping questionable figures you present at the moment.

3)    Market segments

Can you find a list of keywords that make a market segment identifiable?

For example if you ran the iconic British store Marks and Spencer’s (a clothing shop that sells to Men and Women of all ages) then you may want to investigate how women over 45 use your site…

I would pick a range that is typically bought by this demographic such as the ‘Per Una’ range. I would find phrases include this. I would create a segment then see how this segment uses the site.

Perhaps they’ll respond well to larger font? Calls to action that remind them they will look young and sexy but classy. Images with models of a similar/ slightly younger age. Etc etc etc.

4)    Long tail search visits. 2-3word search queries. 4+ word search queries

This one is shamelessly poached from the brilliant Avinash Kaushik. The future is long-tail! Generic terms with thousands upon thousands of visits are of course extremely important but often you will be able to generate far greater returns from increasing long-tail visits to your site. Set up segments for long-tail search visits and you will be able to justify your work in this area.

Read Avinash Kaushik Blog for more here: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/advanced-analytics-visitor-segments-engagement-social-media-search-long-tail/

5)    Groups of Referring Sites

Are your affiliates doing the business? I recently used this to analyse the impact of having clients link back to us from their site. It was very insightful!

6)    Mobile visits

How to visitors on mobile devices use your site?

This one is already set up for you. Use it! Look at how people on mobile devices use your site differently to those that are on desktop. Chances are it’ll make a good case for a mobile friendly site.

7)    Social Media visits. Twitter, Facebook

Again… this is obvious right!?! Has your Social Campaign worked? I still observe that there is too much blind faith invested in in Social Media. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can track the impact of your efforts. Start with using advanced segments.

8)      To learn what questions people ask to get to your site

I like this one a lot. Learn the common questions that people use to find your site. Check out this great blog for more info:

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/keyword-research-questions.html

9)    Revenue over 50% of average order value.

Let’s hunt for some big fish. Who are your biggest spenders and what do they do on your site? Get your average order value, say, £100. Add 50%. Create a segment for those that spend $150. Then look at how

10)    Goals completed v goals not completed

mmm... interesting

See how visitors that completed a goal compare to visitors that did not complete a goal compare.

11) Remove Blog Traffic

Blog traffic can dramatically distort your stats. Be sure to look at blog and non-blog traffic differently. Expect a high bounce rate on your blog. It’s not necessarily a bad thing!

12) Bounced v Non-Bounced Visits

Take out non-bounce visitors. How does your site perform? Look at traffic sources that generated bounces… are there any killers in there?

13) Visits from a specific country

How successful is your site at dealing with visitors from venezuela?

14) Combining Advanced Segments

Anna at Koozai has written a great blog with ideas for combining Advanced Segments: http://www.koozai.com/blog/search-marketing/how-to-use-advanced-segments-to-analyse-your-website-traffic/

15) First time buy visits

Ooh, what a gem. Which keywords get you sales first time? Find out!

It’s really a never ending list… so please send any recommendations for great advanced segments to me @tombowdenCRO

Here’s a list of further reading:

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/advanced-analytics-visitor-segments-engagement-social-media-search-long-tail/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/charting-unique-keyphrases-using-advanced-segments

http://www.koozai.com/blog/search-marketing/how-to-use-advanced-segments-to-analyse-your-website-traffic/

http://themuseumofthefuture.com/2011/01/09/6-useful-google-analytics-custom-reports-and-advanced-segments-for-museum-websites/

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/keyword-research-questions.html

http://www.spiced2.com/fun-ways-advanced-segments-google-analytics/

http://cse-sea.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-favourite-google-analytics-advanced.html

http://www.markcregan.com/advanced-segments-in-google-analytics-examples/

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