Making your client sites GDPR compliant

How To Make Wordpress Sites GDPR Compliant with Beaver Builder

Are your WordPress clients concerned about GDPR regulations? Have you decided to see the new privacy laws as an opportunity for your Wordpress agency?

If yes, I’ll explain below how you can use Beaver Builder to help your clients become GDPR compliant.

But first, let’s talk GDPR strategy.

Most websites are panicking over GDPR because the regulations are so vague.

  • Who exactly is covered (and not covered)?
  • What constitutes proper disclosure?
  • When does data become personally identifiable?
  • How will penalties be assessed and enforced?

Panic about the law leads to two responses: willful ignorance or over-reaction.

I see companies changing nothing about their data collection, while others are proactively deleting me from their email lists unless I re-confirm that I want their newsletters. The first approach may put your client in legal danger, while the second approach may needlessly harm their business.

But there’s a third way, a better way.

If you educate your clients about this alternative path, they’ll be less likely to stick their head in the sand and ignore the GDPR, or shoot themselves in the foot by going beyond what the law requires.

Nine years ago when the FTC clarified its stance on affiliate marketing it caused an uproar in blogging circles, similar to what you’re seeing with the GDPR. Brian Clark of Copyblogger offered wise advice, and coined a new term – “Disclose with Confidence”.

Brian said you shouldn’t confess your affiliate relationships like it’s a crime. Instead, disclose with confidence – boost trust and sales by talking honestly about your compensation for promoting a product.

Your clients should adopt the same posture while complying with GDPR. They should explicitly ask for users data, and do it with confidence.

Here’s how Beaver Themer can help:

1. Create An Attractive Privacy Policy

In order for a privacy policy to be GDPR-compliant, not only does it need to address data collection and retention, but also be presented in a clear way. Gone are the days of long text files with small, unreadable gray fonts.

According to the ICO:

“There’s no need for your privacy notice to be long and complicated. In fact, it’s better if it’s short and simple, especially if you’re collecting and using children’s data.”

For inspiration, look at Google’s new Privacy micro-site. It sports an attractive design, a feature once reserved for Google’s largest apps and most important services.

If your clients have hard to find, ugly privacy policies you can offer to redesign it using Beaver Builder.

But, why stop there?

Google has a multipage microsite devoted to privacy. Would your clients benefit from something smaller? Not a full site, but perhaps a full section on their website devoted to a privacy policy, terms of service, refund policy, and other legalese?

This is a common need. I once built a website for a vocational school that needed a slightly different refund policy for every state it did business in.

This is the exact use case Beaver Themer was created for.

With Themer the legal section of a client’s website can have a different header/footer, layout, and a separate color scheme from the rest of the website. You can make a Custom Post Type called “legal”, then use Themer to create a custom theme template to apply all posts in that type.

Imagine presenting that to a client – an attractive, organized, dynamic legal section that calms their customers’ fears!

2. Create Well-Designed Cookie Notifications

The GDPR requires affirmative consent for cookie-based tracking in certain circumstances. Other laws in Europe also require some form of cookie notification.

That’s why we see cookie notifications literally popping up everywhere. And unfortunately, most of them are ugly and created as an afterthought.

With Beaver Themer you can build cookie alerts for clients that appear in a site’s header or footer. Use the free and wonderful Beaver Builder Alerts plugin from third-party developer, Ultimate Add-Ons. The plugin can make the cookie alert closable, linkable, and appear only for first-time users.

3. Display Additional Policies/Alerts for Logged-In Users

Some parts of the GDPR only apply if you are storing personally identifiable information on your site.

A brochure site that doesn’t collect leads may have a different regulatory burden than membership sites or online stores that require a login. (Though I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, and you or your clients should definitely consult a lawyer).

Beaver Themer has a feature for that.

Your Beaver Themer-powered theme template can appear differently for logged in and logged out users. A casual visitor can see a link to a relevant privacy policy in your footer, while a member of your online course can see additional “data deletion policy” that may be required by GDPR.

Creating conditional content is one of the most powerful features of Beaver Themer. Try demo-ing it to GDPR sensitive clients and see if they are impressed!

How Will You Help Your Clients?

I just gave you three quick ideas on using Beaver Builder and Beaver Themer to help your clients come into compliance with the GDPR.

Do you have any other ways Beaver Builder can be used with this new law?

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About Hashim Warren

Hashim Warren is a Marketing Strategist based in Greensboro, NC. He helps home builders land more jobs and bigger jobs at Hook & Target.

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