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Table of Contents

What is a cookie banner?
Which websites need a cookie banner?
Is the cookie banner only mandatory in Germany?
Does a cookie banner affect SEO?

What is the cookie banner?

A cookie banner is anotificationorpop-up windowona website thatinforms visitors that the websiteusescookiesand/orsimilar technologies. Cookies aresmall files that are stored on a user's computer when they visit a website. They canstorevarious types of information, fromsimple settingsandpreferences totracking information that tracks the user's behavior on the website and beyond.

The main purpose of the cookie banner is to provide visitors to a website withtransparencyaboutthe use of cookies and to obtain theirconsentforthe use of certain types of cookies, especially if these can track users' online behavior.

Which websites require a cookie banner?

In theory,allwebsites that use cookies can benefit from a cookie banner, as it createstransparencyandtrustamongusers. From a legal perspective, however, setting a cookie banner is often necessary if the website collects or processespersonaldatafromusers in the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA).

This is primarily regulated by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which sets out strict rules for handling the personal data of EU citizens. So if a website has users from the EU and uses cookies that collect or process personal data, a cookie banner must be used in most cases.

Is the cookie banner only mandatory in Germany?

The obligation to use a cookie bannerthroughout theEU is regulatedbythe GDPR. This means that allEU member states, including Germany, must comply with this regulation. In addition,many other countries around the world have introducedsimilardata protection laws that require or recommend the use of a cookie banner.

Does a cookie banner affect SEO?

A cookie banner itself hasno direct influenceona website'ssearch engine optimization (SEO). Itdoes notaffect crawlability of a page or how search engines interpret its content. However, it can have an indirect impact on the user experience. Anintrusiveordistractingcookie bannercandeter visitorsorimpair the usability of a page, which can indirectly affect bounce rates. Since search engines, especially Google,focusonuser experience, this could potentially influence SEO efforts. It is therefore important that cookie banners are designed tobeinformativebut not disruptive.