How to set up the cookie banner

The cookie banner asks visitors before the site uses cookies for analytics or advertising. It uses the site's own colors and fonts and carries no ContentForge branding. It's free.

How to turn on the cookie banner

1. Open the site in the editor, click Settings, then Privacy. (Or open the Site Dashboard's Cookies & Legal.)
2. Under Show a cookie banner, choose an option (below).
3. Optional: change the Banner text, the button labels and the Position.
4. Turn on Preview the banner to see it as visitors will.
5. Click Save. You see Saved. Publish the site to put it live.
6. Publish the site.

Sites built with Create with Zeus start with Region-aware on. Other new and imported sites start with the banner off. The Site Audit and the Site Dashboard's Cookies & Legal remind you to turn it on.

Show a cookie banner

• Off: no banner. Analytics, pixels and your custom code run for every visitor.
• Notice only: the banner tells visitors the site uses cookies. Tracking runs straight away; anyone who rejects (or whose browser sends a "do not sell or share" signal, Global Privacy Control) isn't tracked after that. Usually enough in most of the US.
• Opt-in required: nothing that sets cookies runs until the visitor clicks Accept or allows it in Preferences. Required in the EU and UK, and the strictest choice anywhere.
• Region-aware (recommended): visitors in the EU, UK and Switzerland get opt-in; everyone else gets the notice. The visitor's country comes from their connection, never from a cookie.

Banner settings

These show once a banner is on, in this order:

• Banner text: up to 600 characters. To add a link, put the words in square brackets and the address right after in round brackets, for example [Privacy Policy] then (/privacy) with no space between. Leave it empty for the standard text in the site's language ("We use cookies to analyze traffic and improve your experience."). Once the site has a privacy page, Add a link to the privacy page under the box adds the link for you.
• Accept button and Reject button: up to 40 characters each. Empty uses the standard words ("Accept" and "Reject" in English).
• Banner text in other languages: shows when the site has other languages. See "Sites in more than one language" below.
• Position: Bar at the bottom (the default), Bar at the top, Box, bottom left or Box, bottom right.
• Cookie settings link: visitors must be able to change their choice later. If the footer has no Cookie settings link yet, click Add a Cookie settings link to the footer. Once it has one, the panel says so.
• Preview the banner: shows the real banner in the site's colors, font and language, with your unsaved text and position. Click Preferences in it to see the choices screen, and Show it again to bring it back after you click a button. The preview never saves a choice.

Below the banner settings:

• Enable cookie tracking: on by default. Off removes Google Analytics, Google Ads, Tag Manager, the Meta and TikTok pixels, Zeus's Google Ads conversions and the site's visitor stats from the live site. Code you added in Custom code still runs.

Discard changes throws away what you haven't saved.

What waits for the visitor's choice

• Google tags: Google Analytics, Google Ads and Tag Manager. Google's own script doesn't load either. Google Consent Mode v2 is set to "denied" until the visitor accepts.
• The Meta and TikTok pixels.
• Your custom code: head code, body-end code and site JavaScript. Each waits as Marketing unless you mark it Analytics or Essential in Settings → Custom code.
• Content from other companies: YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion videos, SoundCloud and Mixcloud players, Google Maps, and HTML embeds that load another company's script or frame. Until the visitor allows marketing cookies, each shows a Load content button that loads just that one.

These keep running, because they set no tracking cookies:

• The site's visitor stats. They use no cookies and store nothing in the browser.
• Videos you uploaded.
• Spam protection on forms.

What visitors see

• A bar or box with a reject button, Preferences and Accept. Rejecting is as easy as accepting.
• Preferences opens Cookie preferences, with Necessary (always on), Analytics and Marketing switches, and Save choices, Accept all and Reject all. It works with a keyboard and a screen reader, and Esc closes it.
• The choice is saved for 6 months in a first-party cookie called cf_consent.
• Visitors can change their mind with a Cookie settings link. Until the footer has one, a small Cookie settings button stays in the bottom corner of every page.

How to add a Cookie settings link anywhere

Any button, text link or menu link can reopen the visitor's cookie choices:

1. Open the link settings (a button's link, a text link, or a link in the navigation or footer menu).
2. Choose Cookie settings (reopen preferences).

If the banner is off, the picker says The cookie banner is off, so this link won’t do anything yet. Click Turn it on in Settings → Privacy to go there. Any link to #cookie-settings works too. You can also ask Zeus in the editor to "add a cookie settings link to the footer".

Sites in more than one language

On pages in another language, the banner and the preferences screen use that language's built-in words. If you wrote your own banner text or button labels, translate them under Banner text in other languages; whatever you leave empty uses that language's built-in words.

Examples

• A US plumber: Notice only, standard text, Bar at the bottom.
• A UK café: Opt-in required, so Google Analytics and the Meta pixel only load after Accept.
• An agency with clients everywhere: Region-aware on every site; EU and UK visitors get opt-in automatically.
• A client who wants no tracking at all: banner Off and Enable cookie tracking off.

Limits and what it can't do

• The banner shows on the live site and on share links, never on the editor canvas. Share links and previews never run analytics, pixels, visit stats or custom code; only the live site does.
• Changes go live when you publish the site.
• Banner text: 600 characters; button labels: 40. The < and > characters are removed.
• One banner per site; you can't show different banners on different pages.
• The banner isn't legal advice. Check the rules where the business and its visitors are.

Who can use it

• Agency people with the Mount Olympus tool.
• Client people need the Editor permission. Without it, Privacy isn't in their Settings list.

Troubleshooting

• The banner doesn't show: publish the site, then open the live domain in a private window. It never shows on the editor canvas. If you already chose once, the saved choice hides it; click the Cookie settings link to see it again.
• Videos and maps show "Load content": that's the banner working. They load after the visitor allows marketing cookies, or when they click the button.
• My chat widget never appears: its custom code waits for marketing consent. Accept cookies to test it.
• Analytics shows fewer visits after turning the banner on: with opt-in, visitors who don't accept aren't tracked. The site's own visitor stats still count them.
• "Could not save": try again. If it keeps failing, reload the editor.
• "Cookie notice settings are missing": the save was sent empty. Reload the panel and save again.