Today, when we get into a web page, we see a message that very few people read and we always end up accepting, to continue browsing quietly. Well, those messages that we all accept, are much more important than you think. So let’s explain in a simple way what they are and why they have started to be used by almost all the Internet pages and how you can include it in yours.
To understand this new trend, we must first explain the strategy that Google follows in terms of the information we offer on the pages.
Google since its inception has always had as its main objective to offer quality content and in the fastest possible way. All the updates of its algorithm have been focused on making the search results more precise and more reliable (it has pursued practices of link farms, pages that duplicated content and has always favored those pages that offered original and well-structured information).
Now the time has come to review the quality of the author, the veracity of his identity and, the respect of the website to the current policies of treatment of personal data of users.
For those who currently want to create a website or already created, they are advised (and almost required) to correctly configure the pages of “Legal Notice”, “Privacy Policy” and “Cookies Policy”.
How to correctly configure the Legal Notice, Privacy Policy and the Cookies Policy
Here we explain briefly what each one consists of:
- The Legal Notice exposes all the legal information of the company and the conditions of use of the website.
- The Privacy Policy informs the user about the treatment that the website makes of the personal data that the client may provide during their use of the website.
- The Cookies Policy explains the operation of the cookies that the website uses during the user’s navigation through its page and the reason for each of them.
With this, you have to have three different sections on the website, each one explaining its function exclusively. With this, the configuration of the texts and their use on the website of these three pages are as follows:
1. All forms, whether contact, request for quotes, work with us, etc. must have a checkbox with a text similar to: “I have read and accept the Privacy Policy” (This text must link to the privacy policy page). Also, if you are interested in sending communications and promotions to all your new contacts, you have to add a second checkbox that indicates that “I accept receiving promotions from your company”.
2. Cookies Policy, at the top or bottom of the website, a message should be displayed that reports the use of cookies on the website, with a text such as: “We use our own and third-party cookies to analyze browsing statistics and improve our cookies. User Content and experience. If you continue browsing, accept its use. For more information or change of configuration consult our cookies policy. I AGREE”. This message must link to the “Cookies Policy”.
3. Both “Legal Notice”, “Privacy Policy” and “Cookies Policy” page must be accessible from any URL of the website, so the recommendation is to include the links in the footer, so that it does not aesthetically affect the structure of the website. The website even not gets too much attention from the user away from the content of value of the website.
How does the privacy and cookies policy affect my SEO positioning?
Google has always placed great importance on all websites being adapted to the new regulations. But in addition, Google has made a strong update in the way of presenting its results, where it has penalized all those pages, especially the health and financial sector, which do not comply with the authorship of the website and the privacy policy. So this is affecting SEO, and a lot!