What Small Businesses Need to Know About Cookies on WordPress

Although geofencing has been an important modern marketing tool that incorporates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, cookies can also aid in collecting user information that will assist you in pushing your business further. They are also responsible for saving passwords and usernames or other vital information. Cookies will also shape the content on websites depending on your personal preferences and interests by keeping track of your activities. Many WordPress websites utilize cookies when you leave a comment or even log in to websites. Despite cookies being useful in storing data, they can be invasive since hackers may use them to obtain sensitive information. Interested in knowing more about cookies? Read on.

Types of Word Press Cookies

Secure Cookies

Secure cookies halt any frauds via the application of cross-site code, and an HTTPS tunnel actualizes this. This means the transmission of cookies to a suspicious unencrypted channel will be impossible as long as the security indicator is on. With this cookie, you are assured your information is secured.

Session Cookies

Websites incorporate session cookies to ensure your website is stored and remembered while switching from one page to another. One way to establish if a website lacks session cookies is that your items will vanish from the cart before you finish shopping; hence, you cannot checkout. As a small business owner, you should ensure your website has session cookies to enable your clients to shop easily. You should contemplate using the financial grants offered by the government to build a quality website, and according to the U.S. Small business administration, the government awarded approximately $145 billion to small businesses in 2021.

First-Party Cookies

These cookies are permanent, unlike session cookies, which disappear immediately after you close your browser. First-party cookies enable websites to retrieve your username, language choice, internal bookmarks, menu settings, and password. On the other hand, first-party cookies will disappear if you aren’t using your browser, which means your computer will delete them automatically.

HTTP Cookies

These cookies are similar to secure cookies since they work intending to minimize susceptibility to a threat. The HTTP tag ensures the cookie is riskless and secure by mitigating the risk of any service provider scripts that may be trying to access a cookie.

Flash Cookies

Flash cookies are applicable when your browser requests any available content in your browser plugin. These cookies only differ from the regular cookies in terms of the data they can hold. They also contain unique information, such as when your advertisement stopped playing on different platforms. To spice this up, flash cookies can recreate any erased cookies.

Tips on Complying with Cookie Laws

As a website owner, the following tips can come in handy as you abide by cookie laws.

Incorporation of a Cookie Notification

Cookie notifications will notify your users that your website uses cookies, and it will seek consent from them. CookieBot and Cookie Notice are popular notification plugins.

Including a Policy Page

This document discloses the information that your website cookies will be collecting from visitors to your website. You need to be very transparent when developing privacy since research has it that 50% of the marriages in the United States end up in divorce, and some of those are caused by a spouse discovering their partner’s browsing habits via cookies. Some of the crucial content you should consider adding to a privacy policy include

• Information you will be collecting from visitors.
• Information collection methods include web beacons, registration forms, sign-up forms, comment forms, and cookies.
• Your contact information is where users can reach you easily in case of any questions
• How your website users can block cookies or even opt out of any advertisements
• Mention the third-party advertisers who will be allowed to collect information from your users

Using cookies is one of the ways you can enhance your users’ experience while using your website. You only need to choose the right cookie for your site and install it. Ensure you abide by the privacy policy guidelines to avoid your website facing legal issues.