Welcome to our Getting Started Guide - the extended and detailed version. Below we will show you how to create an account, add your domains and build cookie banners. Next, we will take you through the implementation process of adding the banner to your website, along with a few tips and best practices.
2.1. Domain groups and how to use them
2.2. Domains and domain aliases
3. Configure your cookie banner
3.4. Privacy Trigger and Cookie Declaration
4. Adding the cookie banner and declaration to your website
5. The scan report: Check for unclassified cookies
1. Create an account
Creating an account is easy: go to our signup page
- Add your email (1) address + password OR signup with (2) Google Single Sign-On* (SSO) OR with your (3) Microsoft account.
- Verify the email address
- Confirm with the registration key: you now have an active account and are ready to create your cookie banners.
*When you use Google SSO to sign in, it's not possible to have a separate password for your account on our platform.
You can try Cookiebot CMP free for 14 days – with a chance to test out Premium functionalities. Upgrading to Premium plan can be done by adding payment details (credit card or PayPal) to your account. If you only have 1 domain with fewer than 50 pages, you can choose to stay on our Free plan, after the Trial ended.
Don't know the size of your website?
2. Adding domains
After you signed up for the 14 day Trial, you can start by adding one domain and choosing a template for your configuration with a predefined legislation.
You can create as many domain groups as you like in your Premium account. Add your domains and subdomains in the appropriate domain groups (e.g. following your specified business areas or specified legislations/regions).
- If you have multiple domain groups, select the correct domain group from the dropdown menu on the left.
- Navigate to "Domains and Aliases"
- click "Add domain".
2.1. Domain groups and how to use them
If you would like the domains to 'behave' the same way, you should add them to the same 'domain group'. All the domains and subdomains in the same domain group share the same CookiebotIdentifier (CBID), which is the serial number that is included in the script. Each domain group has a unique CBID), uses the same cookie consent banner template, the same logo, the same styling of the banner etc.
Also, it is possible to share consent across different domains within one domain group, to ensure that a website visitor is asked for a joint consent covering all the domains.
If you would like the domains to have different banners or styling, you can set up additional domain groups.
2.2. Domains and domain aliases
Once you have created the domain groups, you can add your domains. As soon as the domains are saved in the domain group, a new scan will start. The results of this scan should be in within 24 hours and will be available from your "Cookies and Reports" tab. On a Premium account, all domains are fully scanned up to 10.000 pages.
If you have any test websites, you can add these as "domain aliases" in the Cookiebot CMP Admin. Alias domains will not get billed.
- Navigate to "Domains and Aliases"
- Click on the domain
- Scroll down to "Alias for testing" and click "Add domain alias"
- Add the domain name and click "Add domain alias" again
- Success message
3. Configure your Cookie banner
Create your perfect banner and make it fit effortlessly with your website design. Navigate to the "Configuration" tab on your account and check the pages "Design", "Content" and "Privacy" in order to do so.
3.1. Styling
Use our build-in styling option to adjust colors to match your websites' color scheme and add your own logo.
3.2. Compliance
The default banner is configured with the strictest settings possible (suitable for cookie consent under GDPR and ePR), however you can edit the default banner so it fits your website and legal requirements. You can also use our GDPR checklist as a starting point towards compliance.
Distribution:
In our Premium plan, you can easily select the territory for website visitors who will be shown the cookie consent banner and be asked for consent. Navigate to "Settings" > "Dialog" and scroll all the way down to "Distribution". From a dropdown menu you can choose to display the banner and ask consent from:- All visitors (default setting)
- Visitors from the EU only
- Visitors from specific countries and/or regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania). With the possibility to choose sub-regions as well as one or more individual countries under each region
3.3. Content and languages
The content and text of your banner is also highly customizable, although we do like to make it easy for you and provide a template text for 46 different languages. See more on adding different languages and editing the text templates for your banner.
Cookiebot CMP enables automatic language detection to show the banner in the individual website user's preferred language.
3.4. Privacy trigger and Cookie Declaration
The Cookiebot CMP Privacy Trigger functions as a shortcut to the users' consent state information on your website. Showing a mini version of the cookie banner, it enables users to easily check and update their consent.
You can enable/disable this trigger, change the colours and placement.
The Cookie Declaration is essentially a cookie policy you can use on your website. It is included in both Free and Premium accounts and can easily be implemented in your website, either as separate page or embedded into an existing Privacy Policy.
You can enable/disable the dialog text and change to a custom declaration.
3.5. User consent expiration
By default, Cookiebot will remember a users consent for 12 months. You can however choose any other value for this via your Cookiebot CMP Admin > manage > click on the domain group > scroll down to "user consent expiration" and choose any setting via the dropdown menu.
4. Adding the Cookie banner to your website
We offer several integrations such as a Wordpress plugin (follow this guide) and a Google Tag Manager template (follow this guide). See which other integrations we offer: installation guides.
No suitable integration available? No worries, we got you! Upon creating a domain group, the cookie banner and cookie declaration scripts are generated automatically and you can find these via your Admin > "Implementation" > "CMP banner".
CMP banner script: Copy the top script and insert it as the very first script within the HEAD-tag of your website. Inserting it as the very first script ensures that no cookies or trackers escape our automatic cookie blocking.
Cookie Declaration script: Copy the second script and insert it in the HTML on the specific page and at the exact position where you would like the Cookie Declaration to appear. This could be as a separate page on your website or embedded into an existing privacy policy. The standard Cookie Declaration lists all cookies and trackers discovered on your website and allows the user to withdraw (or change) a consent at any time – as required under e.g. GDPR.
5. The scan report: check for unclassified cookies
When the website scan is complete, check your scan report ("Cookies and reports" > "Reports"). If there are any unclassified cookies, make sure to classify them and add a short purpose description as described here: Check your unclassified cookies. This classification helps ensure that all cookies and trackers on your website (except for ‘strictly necessary’ cookies) will be blocked correctly. Only those categories of cookies the user has consented to will be activated upon consent – all other cookies will be held back automatically.
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