How to Add Cookie Notification in Weebly?

Cookies are piece of code on a webpage used in different form to track the user’s activity for different purposes. Some example of cookies includes advertisement codes like Google AdSense and analytics tracking code like Google Analytics. Whenever a page is opened these cookies are stored on the browser for certain period of time and track the activities – for example to serve interest-based ads. Europe union (EU) implemented a new e-privacy directive during 2011 that requires websites in Europe should comply with regulation regarding the usage of cookies on the site. Basically site owners need to get the consent from users that they are fine with the cookies used on the site. General guidelines are to inform the users about the types of cookies used, purpose of the tracking and get acceptance before proceeding to read the content.

Why Should You Enable Cookie Notification?

Based on the directive, individual countries implemented their own laws to instruct site owners to comply with the cookie law. In UK, the independent authority ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) can fine up to £500,000 for those companies operate illegally. So if you have site operating in Europe it is recommended to enable cookie notification on your Weebly site.

How to Add Cookie Notification in Weebly?

Weebly offers a simple way to enable cookie notification on your site. Login to your Weebly account and edit the site you want to add the cookie notification. Navigate to “Settings > General > Cookie Notification” section and add the content to be displayed on the notification bar. You can choose the location of the notification either at top or at bottom of the site.

Publish your site and the notification will look something like below (this may change depending on your Weebly theme).

The cookie notification will be displayed when the user visits the site for the first time and can be closed.

Using Cookie Consent Plugin

Default Weebly cookie notification bar has no option for the users to accept or reject the notification other than merely closing it. Also you can’t add the links or any HTML content inside the notification bar. If you want to display more customized cookie notification like providing link to your privacy page and offering button to accept it, then the free cookie consent plugin from silktide is the good option.

Go to silktide.com, customize the cookie consent plugin and copy the JavaScript code. You do not need to register and the code is free to use.

Now paste the code under “Settings > SEO > Footer Code” section of your Weebly site and publish the site. The cookie notification for the popup box will look like below:

Note: The notification can be displayed only on certain Weebly pages by placing the JavaScript code under “Footer Code” section of the pages.

Is it Mandatory?

Basically the law applies for the websites that operate in Europe regardless of the hosting is from Europe or outside. For those websites operating outside Europe and targets European users, it is recommended to provide option to user to accept the cookie and continue. Besides making a law it is practically difficult to implement or measure it. Hence in case of issues the authorities from the country will be issuing a notice before formally taking action against the website.

If you are from Europe, it is highly recommended to enable the cookie notification on your Weebly site. For others, we would say it is optional.