Popups and cookie consent

Popups show a message over the site’s pages: a newsletter sign-up, a sale, an announcement. One of them can be the cookie consent banner. Admins set them up under Settings > Popups.

Making a popup

1. Go to Settings > Popups and press Add a popup.
2. Press Edit content. The popup’s content opens in the visual editor in a new tab, like any other template part. Add a heading, text, a button, a form or anything else, then Save & apply.
3. Back in Settings, choose:
   • Shown as: a dialog in the middle of the screen, a bar along the bottom or top, or a box in the corner.
   • Shows: when the page opens, after some seconds, after scrolling part of the page, or when the visitor moves to leave (on computers).
   • How often: on every page, once a visit, or once and then again after some days.
   • On: every page, only some pages, or every page but some. Write one address a line, such as /about/. End an address with * to cover everything under it, such as /events/*.
4. Tick the box at the top to turn it on, then press Save settings.

Visitors close a popup with its ×, the Escape key, or by clicking outside a dialog. A link to #close-popup inside its content closes it too (for a “No thanks” link).

The cookie consent banner

Press Add a cookie consent banner. It starts with a heading, a line of text with a link to your privacy policy, and Accept and Reject buttons. Press Edit content to change any of them: the buttons are ordinary buttons, so you can change their words, size, colours and corners like any other. Accept links to #accept-cookies and Reject to #reject-cookies; keep those links so the buttons work. Point the policy link at your own privacy page. Turn the banner on and press Save settings.

The banner shows on every page until the visitor chooses, and their choice is remembered for six months. Add a link to #cookie-settings somewhere on the site, such as the footer, so visitors can open it again and change their mind.

Until a visitor accepts:

• The Stats cookie isn’t set (see The Stats cookie below).
• Code snippets marked Only after visitors accept cookies (Settings > Code snippets) don’t run. Tick that box for analytics, advertising and other tracking tags.

The Stats cookie

Turn on Recognise returning visitors with a cookie under Settings > Stats. The site then keeps a random number in a cookie in each visitor’s browser for 13 months, so Stats can tell a returning visitor from a new one.

In the EU and UK the law asks visitors’ consent before such a cookie is set. With a cookie consent banner on, only visitors who accept get the cookie; everyone else is still counted, once a day. Without a banner every visitor gets it, and Settings warns about that.