Website Cookies and Banner Notifications: Why Are These Important to Have?

Cookies, cookies everywhere! Thank goodness website cookies have have no calories! 🍪⁠

Edible cookies are a weakness of mine, I love ’em. Not so much the digital sort, but those, while not tasty, can be helpful for online businesses and visitors alike.
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So, what’s up with all of the cookie banners on websites now?

Yep, they can be annoying, but they are there for a reason. Cookie banner notifications are required must-haves on websites in order to obtain user consent and provide awareness.

What? No one told you? I’ll give you the short version of why they are on all the sites you visit (or should be) and how you can get your own site up to speed.

Cookie consent notices and Privacy/Cookie Policies are must-haves for anyone with a website and are a requirement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy regulations, acts, or laws. The U.S. has joined the party as well. It’s all about privacy and transparency and Google is paying attention.⁠

What are these cookies up to?

Ever notice when you put those cool yoga pants in your shopping cart, leave, then come back and they are conveniently saved in your cart for you? Cookies made that happen. ⁠
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More than saving items in your shopping cart, cookies can do a variety of things like remember your preferences, customize your browsing experience, some cookies are meant to deliver targeted ads (thanks Facebook), some make sure you don’t see that pop up after you’ve closed it or clicked the button for X amount of time, cookies can also help business owners know how you interact with their site (to make improvements so things are easier for you), and a lot more.

The cookie consent banners you see are there to get your approval and are more or less telling you something like; “Hey, some of the services on this site may have cookies or would like you to share your cookies with them. Approving cookies may enhance your experience on the website, but if you deny, it could mess with the functionality. Some of these cookies are necessary and some are for marketing.” ⁠

HERE ARE SOME BASIC COOKIE TIPS: ⁠

1. You shouldn’t accept cookies when:⁠
   • There is no “lock” icon in the URL (the site uses http not https)⁠/there’s no SSL certificate (soon to be the “tune” icon)
   • Your antivirus flags suspicious cookies⁠
2. One way to manage your cookies is by clearing your browser cache and history. The Brave browser can give you even more control over third-party cookies. ⁠(You can also disable cookies in your browser if you like.)
3. You should be able to edit or re-look at your cookie settings even after you’ve provided consent. See that little circle at the bottom left of your screen that looks like this? This is where you’ll find your privacy cookie settings for this website.

⁠Learn more
For cookie reading fun, you can get more cookie “ingredients” (information) here:

• https://www.ftc.gov/policy-notices/privacy-policy/internet-cookies
• ⁠https://www.termsfeed.com/blog/cookies/
• https://termageddon.com/laws-require-cookie-consent-banner/

How to make sure your site is covered in the cookie department*

Every well-dressed website needs not only required policies, but a cookie notification for visitors.

Most websites have a lot happening behind the scenes that may use cookies. Things like shops, analytics, marketing services, popups, social media, and more. Privacy regulations (mentioned above) require that your website should have a cookie banner notification to let visitors know what cookies the site uses and to provide users the option to accept or not.

Here are my recommendations for services to help you with cookie consent:

#1: Termageddon: When you purchase a policies license (which is one annual fee for multiple policies), the premium cookie consent/banner is also included. This feature scans your site to find what cookies it uses in order to properly list and provide the correct information to users. Termageddon also keeps up to date on regulations. This is huge. There are other solutions where YOU have to keep up with that stuff. An impossible task if you ask me. It’s what I use on my website and recommend to all of my clients. (Use the link above or this code GROWDESIGN at checkout for 10% off the first year.)

There are other reliable premium and free options/WordPress plugins (that may not include all of the same features as Termageddon) such as: GDPR Cookie Consent/CookieYes, Complianz, and Cookiebot.

*Please note that I am not a legal services provider nor a GDPR, privacy, or cookie expert and thus cannot provide you with expert advice as to which tool or service is right for your business. It’s up to you to find the best solutions for your business, get assistance from a qualified professional, and ensure that compliance is met correctly for your business and website.

If you need help integrating cookie consent or policies for your WordPress website, reach out. If you’re just not sure what’s happening behind the scenes and wondering if there are things you need to take care of, a website audit can help bring you up to speed and provide you with recommendations to get you working smarter.

Here’s to good cookies!