Help Guides > How to Install and Setup GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin

How to Install and Setup GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin

Last updated on June 2, 2025

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Overview

The GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin helps website owners comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data privacy laws. It provides a customizable cookie consent banner that ensures transparency by informing visitors about cookie usage and granting them the ability to accept or reject non-essential cookies. This empowers visitors to make informed choices regarding their privacy preferences on your website.

This setup guide offers a thorough overview of installing and configuring the GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin effectively, maintaining compliance with GDPR guidelines and ensuring a positive user experience.

Compatibility

The plugin requires a minimum of WordPress version 5 or above.

Get Started

To begin, install and activate the GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin on your website.

After successfully activating the plugin, your website will display a basic consent banner immediately. This banner comes preconfigured with a set of default settings suitable for most websites.

Setup And Customisation

The default settings provided upon activation offer a solid foundation for cookie consent management. The default settings provided upon activation offer a solid foundation for cookie consent management. Customising the plugin allows you to tailor the consent banner and cookie settings to your website's unique requirements. Adjust the appearance of the banner to match your site's branding. Fine-tune the cookie preferences to align with your data collection practices. This section will guide you through the process step by step.

To customise the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and tailor it to your website's specific requirements, follow the below steps:

Settings

To customize the main elements of the Cookie banner, go to WordPress admin > GDPR Cookie Consent > Settings.

 There are different tabs to customize the cookie banner.

In the Cookie List section, you can customize the cookie settings by adding and editing cookies under different cookie categories.

How to add and edit cookies manually in the cookie list?

To add a cookie manually, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to GDPR Cookie Consent > Cookie List.
  2. Click the Add New button.add-new-cookie.jpg
  3. Enter these fields:
    • Cookie Title: Enter the title of the cookie. This field is designated for audit purposes, allowing you to input the cookie name in a user-friendly format.
    • Cookie description: Enter the description of the cookie to explain its purpose, functionality, data collection and other relevant details.
    • Cookie Category: Enter the cookie category to which the cookie belongs.
    • Cookie ID: Add the name of the cookie.
    • Cookie Type: Enter the type of the cookie. There are three types of cookies: persistent, session, and third-party. Persistent cookies remain even after the browser is closed. Session cookies expire at the end of the browsing session. Third-party cookies are installed by third-party services used on the website.
    • Cookie Duration: The time duration the cookies will be active on the browser.
    • Cookie Sensitivity: Enter the sensitivity of the cookie: necessary and non-necessary. Necessary cookies are essential for the website to function properly, and users cannot disable them. Non-necessary cookies require scripts to be added to the plugin and users have the option to enable or disable them.
  4. Click the Publish button.
    • Cookie Title: Enter the title of the cookie. This field is designated for audit purposes, allowing you to input the cookie name in a user-friendly format.
    • Cookie description: Enter the description of the cookie to explain its purpose, functionality, data collection and other relevant details.
    • Cookie Category: Enter the cookie category to which the cookie belongs.
    • Cookie ID: Add the name of the cookie.
    • Cookie Type: Enter the type of the cookie. There are three types of cookies: persistent, session, and third-party. Persistent cookies remain even after the browser is closed. Session cookies expire at the end of the browsing session. Third-party cookies are installed by third-party services used on the website.
    • Cookie Duration: The time duration the cookies will be active on the browser.
    • Cookie Sensitivity: Enter the sensitivity of the cookie: necessary and non-necessary. Necessary cookies are essential for the website to function properly, and users cannot disable them. Non-necessary cookies require scripts to be added to the plugin and users have the option to enable or disable them.

To edit the existing cookie:

  1. Click the Edit button. 
  2. Make your desired modifications.
  3. Click the Publish button. 

In the cookie category section, you can customize the cookie settings by adding and editing cookies under different cookie categories. You can turn the cookies on or off in the user’s browser based on the category.

How to add and edit the cookies category in the cookie list?

To add a new cookie category manually, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to GDPR Cookie Consent > Cookie Category.
  2. Enter these fields under the Add cookie category:
    • Name: Enter the name of the cookie category, which will appear on the cookie bar.
    cookie-category.jpg
    • Slug: Enter a URL-friendly version of the category name. It typically consists of all lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
    • Description: Enter the description of the cookie category. Explain its purpose, functionality and other relevant details.
    • Category default state: (Enable/Disable) If you enable this option, the category toggle button will be set to active for cookie consent.
    • Head scripts/Body Script: Enter the scripts related to the cookies that have been added to this category. If you add scripts in the Head Scripts field, they will be rendered in the head of the website upon user consent. Alternatively, if you add scripts in the Body Scripts field, they will be rendered in the body of the website.
  3. Click the Add cookie category button. 

To edit the existing cookie category:

  1. Click the Edit button. 
  2. Make your desired modifications.
  3. Click the Update button. 

The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin enables you to connect with a free CookieYes account and initiate scanning of your website for cookies.  To scan your website, follow the below steps:

  1. Navigate to the GDPR Cookie Consent > Cookie Scanner.
  2. Click on the Connect & Scan button.connect-scan-1.jpg
  3. Existing users of CookieYes can enter their username and password.Login-to-CookieYes-for-existing-users.pngNew users will automatically connect with CookieYes. After a successful connection, you can start the scanning process.
  4. Click on the Scan website for cookies button to begin the scanning.Scan-website-for-Cookies.pngThe scanning commences. It may take a few minutes to a few hours. Depends on number of pages to scan and website speed.Cookie-Scanner-initiated.jpgYou can navigate to other screens while scanning is ongoing. If needed, you can abort the scan at any time by clicking the Abort scan button.
  5. After completing the scan, you can view all the scanned cookies and URLs in the Scan results. The results will be displayed as follows:Scan-result.jpgFrom here, you can add the scanned cookies to the cookie list and perform the scan again.

Policy Generator

The Policy Generator feature streamlines the process of creating content for your privacy and cookie policy pages. To generate your customized cookie policy, navigate to the GDPR Cookie Consent > Policy Generator. The Policy Generator helps create a dedicated page for your cookie policy, outlining these details:

  1. Overview of the Cookie Policy
  2. Explanation of cookies
  3. Usage of cookies
  4. Types of cookies utilized
  5. Options for managing cookie preferences

You will receive a live preview of the cookie policy. Choose to create a new cookie policy page or update the existing one.

Once a new policy page is created, you can publish it to make it available on your store.

Script Blocker 

With the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, you can automatically block scripts associated with cookies on your website. The script blocker provides a list of supported services and plugins for automatic blocking.  The services/plugins are enabled by default to be blocked on the front end of your website until user consent is obtained and they are rendered accordingly based on consent.

Four plugins are currently supported for auto-blocking:

  • Official Facebook Pixel
  • Smash Balloon Instagram Feed
  • Smash Balloon Twitter Feed
  • Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights

Inactive plugins are those that are not installed or activated on your website. Enabled plugins are automatically blocked on the front end of your website until user consent is obtained and are rendered accordingly based on consent.

To disable automatic script blocking for any of these plugins, simply toggle the button next to the respective plugin.

Privacy Overview

The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin allows you to customize the Privacy Overview displayed on the second layer of the cookie bar.

To customize the Privacy Overview, navigate to the GDPR Cookie Consent > Privacy Overview.

You can customize the text displayed on the cookie settings popup window from this section. Begin by setting a suitable title for the Privacy Overview Title field, which will serve as the header. Then, in the body section, you can input the content that will appear below the title. While default content is provided, you have the flexibility to edit and modify it to your requirements.

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