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January 2008

Protect your customers' data

There have been plenty of news headlines recently about instances of the government losing our personal data; but you can be sure that the same pattern is repeated in the private sector. Take due care of any data you gather from your website; ensuring that it is securely stored, both on your web server and in any copies of that data that you have downloaded to your own machine/network.
 
Not only does this make good business sense it is also a legal requirement under the terms of the Data Protection Act. Full details of the act can be found at www.ico.gov.uk. In most cases you won't need to register with the Information Commissioner's Office, but you should familiarise yourself with the requirements it imposes on you.
 
Ensure that you have a terms & conditions page clearly accessible on your website that defines what you will do with all data gathered. Finally, never share any data unless you have customers' approval to use it in this manner.

New year's resolutions for your web site

Many people start the new year with resolutions to improve themselves - we feel the same should apply to web sites. Before jumping in and planning to make improvements, take some time out to do some analysis: review the goals of your web site and how it is performing against them. Then, and only then, plan how you are going to update your web site to better meet those goals.
 
Perhaps this will mean a whole new website (in which case you need to spend a lot more time analysing and planning before taking any further steps); just a bit of a makeover to round off the edges and bring it up to date; or - as in many cases - some much needed attention to marketing it online effectively (search engine marketing/optimisation), SEM/SEO.
 
Remember: Here at WebSanity we can help you with your analysis work, as well as planning and implementing any subsequent web site design updates.