Do You Need a Cookie Banner on Your Website?

Do You Need a Cookie Consent Banner?

Cookie consent banners can be important and often overlooked, same with privacy policies. My website design clients always ask me if it’s needed for their website. In my opinion, yes you usually do. With so many privacy laws (especially GDPR), it’s best to save yourself the stress of breaking any federal laws – and to place the banner on your website & be on the safe side.

For example, if someone were to visit your website from the EU where the law applies, then the law (and penalties for not complying) would apply to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re located in that country or not. It’s required by many privacy laws across the world and helps your visitors understand what cookies you use & how you use them. Even if it’s not required in your country, it’s still good to have in order to remain transparent with your visitors as more privacy regulations are enacted.

First Off, What are Cookie Banners For?

A cookie banner is a pop-up notice when first visiting a website, to inform your visitors of your use of cookies, and to ask for their consent. Cookies can provide information about you. This includes your name, email address, recent purchases, items you viewed, etc. It’s good for visitors who return to your website to have their information saved, and for you to gather more data/analytics about them.

Does Any of These Apply to You?

• Does your website use cookies? You can check it on this free cookie scanner by Cookieyes
• Will people from the EU or countries with stricter privacy laws, potentially visit your website? Even just 1 visitor from these countries.
• Do you collect ANY user data? This can be collected through a contact form, newsletter form, payment processor, analytics software, etc. If you ask your visitors for their name or email address anywhere – this is collecting user data.

If any of these apply to you, you should probably add one to be safe!

Save Yourself the Headache

Ensuring that your site is GDPR-compliant is a great next step to establishing trust with your visitors & legalizing your business. It’s free to generate & easy to add to your website!

Need advice on other business tools you may need? Check out my business tools page for more recommendations on what I use for my privacy policies and more!