If your business sells in Europe or targets people in the EU, you need to follow the General Data Protection Regulation, the GDPR. If your site uses non-functional cookies, you need a cookie banner and a cookie policy.
One of the most important requirements of the GDPR is that if your site uses non-functional cookies, you should show your visitors a Cookie consent banner on the website notifying them about your website’s cookie usage, and you should add a Cookie Policy in which all of the used cookies are explained. But what requirements are there for a cookie consent banner?
The cookie consent banner should at least contain:
- Short info about the cookie usage
- Link to the cookie policy
- Option to either decline or accept cookie usage
Additionally, the Cookie banner should only allow (non-functional) cookies to be placed after the visitor has given consent. Until then, the placing of cookies should be blocked.
All these elements are taken care of when using Complianz | GDPR Cookie Consent, either the Free or Premium version, although you can customize to your needs. If you do this manually, or by using another tool, you can follow the guidelines below to get a good cookie banner.
What your GDPR cookie banner must include
Your cookie banner should include these items.
1. Short info about Cookie usage
In your cookie consent banner, you should add information regarding cookie usage. Is the website using cookies, if so, why? A brief explanation is enough, as long as it’s obvious to website visitors that you would like to place cookies.
Example: “We would like to use cookies to give you the best experience while visiting our website.” Or “For performance purposes we would like to place cookies. Click Accept when you are okay with our request, or Deny when you do not agree”.
2. A link to the Cookie Policy
In your cookie consent banner, you should show a link to your Cookie Policy. In this cookie policy, you should state which cookies are used, why they are used and for how long they will be stored. You can refer to the cookie policy with “Read More” or “Read Our Cookie Policy” or anything similar.
3. A real option to Accept or Reject
An option that many website admins forget to implement: The option to decline. In your cookie consent banner you have to give the visitor the option to decline cookie placement. It is not even allowed to place (non-functional) cookies without consent! By default, no cookies should be placed, only after explicit consent is given.
Buttons can be named “Accept” and “Deny” for example, or “Yes” / “No”. As long as it’s obvious that cookies can be rejected and accepted.
4. Block cookies until consent is given
This is something that is conveniently forgotten in most cookie banner tools. In WordPress, this can be a bit complex as there are many plugins, which all place cookies. You’ll have to integrate your cookie placing scripts with your cookie banner to make sure this works in a GDPR compliant way. If you use Complianz GDPR we have made this very easy by integrating this completely in the plugin, and shipping a list of third-party services which should get blocked, like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etcetera.
What you should add to make the banner stronger
A preferences option
Add a Preferences button so visitors can choose per category like Statistics or Marketing. Complianz supports consent per category as a standard approach. Read more on consent per category in Complianz in our guide 👉 All About Consent per Service, Category or Cookie
A way to change consent later
Let visitors reopen the banner and update choices. A small Manage consent link or widget in your footer works well. Your cookie policy can also point to the settings option. Read more on adding a Manage consent link in our guide 👉 Add a link to show the Cookie Banner (“Manage Consent” button)
Proof of consent if you need it
Many site owners want records to show what a user consented to, plus when it happened. Complianz can generate consent records for proof. 💡 Read more on Records of Consent
Accessibility and mobile friendly layout
Keep text readable, buttons large enough to tap, and contrast strong. Complianz aims to follow WCAG 2.1 AA in banner design. Read more on web accessibility basics in our dedicated guide 👉 WCAG contrast checker in Complianz cookie banner settings