5 Reasons to Run a Website Tracker Audit

Do you know what's on your website? Code that tracks and customizes each user's experience makes the web more personal and interactive. But trackers (like cookies) might be gathering and sharing information beyond your website. Here's why you need to know what trackers your website uses:

1.	It’s required, because you do business in the EU 

The EU Cookie Directive requires prior consent from EU citizens before you track them. That means, you must have an opt-in mechanism that pops up for EU citizens before they view a page with tracking technology on it, even if the tracker belongs to an advertising network or other third party. Regular website tracking audits helps you identify technology on your website that requires prior consent to ensure that you comply with the EU Cookie Directive.

'''2.	You may be losing revenue to ad competitors '''

With a little bit of code, your website is linked to an ad network and you can generate advertising revenue. When an ad network uses cookies to track behavior and serve the most relevant ads to your visitors you generate even more advertising revenue. When advertisers drop their own cookie they may use your visitor's online behavior to advertise on other websites instead of yours. In that case, you can potentially lose money.

'''3.	Visitors get tired of waiting and go somewhere else '''

You have about a second to catch someone's attention on the web. When web pages are littered with tags from old programs or collect information no one is using, your website load time increases. Every tag requires a bit of communication and lots of extraneous tags can negatively impact page loading time. And website visitors hate to wait. A tracker/cookie audit helps you find out what’s slowing your site down.

'''4.	Your privacy policy could be inaccurate '''

How often do you update your privacy policy? How often do you update your website? A privacy policy is a legal document that binds you to your customers. Changes to a website that include new partners or 3rd party code may add trackers that are not disclosed in your current privacy policy. If you don't update both at the same time, you may need a tracker audit to make sure you are compliant with your own privacy policy and to maintain transparency with your customers.

'''5.	You are responsible for third-party code on your site '''

You added code to your site for a legitimate purpose, but is the cute animation really a 3rd party data aggregator collecting and using your customers’ information? Your website’s privacy is only as strong as its weakest link and you are responsible for understanding if third-parties on your site constitute weak links. At the end of the day, if the trackers on your site, you are responsible for what data is collected and how it is used. A quality website tracking audit identifies the tracker, its source, its purposes, and the privacy risk level so you can make informed privacy management decisions.