SektorCepte · 2026-10-26
A Short Cookie Line Is Enough
If the site keeps a cookie only so the page works and the language is remembered, say that in one sentence. Do not build a banner that covers the screen.
A person comes to your site to see a price. A banner opens in the middle of the screen, and the buttons to accept and refuse cover the page. The banner lists dozens of tools you do not use. In a small shop that banner shows fear, not care. If what you use is keeping the page open and remembering the language that was chosen, write it in one sentence. Let the sentence sit at the bottom. It should not stand in front of the work.
1. Say what you use in one sentence
The sentence can stand like this: this site keeps a cookie so the page works and so the language you chose is remembered. If it keeps nothing else, do not write anything else. If there is no advertising cookie, do not write advertising. If there is no tool that counts visitors, do not write counting. The list should be the list of what is actually there. An invented list argues with your privacy notice. Three sentences in the notice and twenty lines in a cookie banner show that the two came from different hands. Let the same hand write them. The sentence can also stand as one line beside the privacy notice. Do not open a separate letter.
2. Do not build a banner that covers the screen
The first glance should go to the price, the hours, and the phone. The banner should not sit on top of those three. A thin line at the bottom does the job. If a person wants to read it, they read it. If they are forced to read it, they leave before they see the price. An accept button should not make them accept something you do not use. Asking about something you do not use makes the thing you do ask about look doubtful as well. If the language choice sits in a cookie, saying so is enough. Do not ask the choice again on every visit. Asking again is the opposite of remembering. If you remember, say it once and leave the page open.
3. Write the tool on the day you add it
If later you add a counter or a chat box, lengthen the sentence that day. If the tool is added and the sentence stays old, the line becomes false. If you remove the tool, take it out of the sentence too. If the name of a removed tool stays on the page, the person still thinks they are being watched. If you are going to write the tool's name, write it short and say what it is for. If you do not know what it is for, do not put the tool in. An unknown tool counts as having come from the mouth of the shop. If an apprentice switches an add-on on, they should tell you. An add-on switched on without a word leaves a cookie you have not seen.
4. Remembering a language and tracking a person are different
A language cookie remembers which page you opened. It does not hold your name, your phone, or your neighbourhood. Separate that in the sentence. The information in the form is not a cookie. The form sits in the privacy notice. Putting the two in the same bag makes the cookie look larger than it is. A person takes every small remembering for tracking. If you separate them, they ease. If you do not, even the price page looks doubtful. If the cookie is deleted when the browser closes, say that too. If it stays, say it stays. If you do not know the length, find out. Do not invent it.
5. Read the line once a year
Once a year, look at what the site actually keeps and compare the sentence with it. If the sentence has grown long, shorten it. If a tool has gone, delete the name. If a new language was added, see whether the sentence is still right. If it is right, do not touch it. Rewriting a correct sentence every month shifts the site and breaks it somewhere. The place of the line should stay fixed as well. If it is at the bottom one day and in the middle the next, a person takes it for an advertisement. Fixed, thin, one sentence. That is the cookie writing of a small shop.
This evening, open your site on the phone. If a banner covers the screen, take it down. At the bottom, put one sentence for the page working and the language being remembered. If you use something else, add it to the same sentence. If you do not, do not add it.