Add a cookie banner that holds back trackers

Cookie consent is an optional feature that does what a cookie plugin such as CookieYes or Complianz does, inside Native AI. Visitors see a banner with Accept all, Reject all and Customize; until they allow a category, the scripts and embeds of known services in that category don’t run at all.

1. Switch it onGo to Native AI → Settings → Features and switch on Cookie consent. The banner appears on your site straight away, and a Cookie consent screen appears in the Native AI menu.
2. Scan the siteCookie consent → Cookies & scripts → Scan the site finds the services, scripts and cookies your pages use. Give anything it doesn’t recognise a category. See Scan for cookies.
3. Make the banner yoursCookie consent → Banner: a box in a corner, a bar or a pop-up; your design system’s colors (or light or dark); your own words. The preview shows the banner and the preferences window as you change them.
4. Add your cookie policyCookie consent → Settings → Create a draft policy makes a Cookie Policy page that lists every cookie by category. Review it, publish it, and the banner links to it.

northline-plumbing.example

The four categories#

You can move any service to another category on the Cookies & scripts screen, and rename or reword the categories on the Banner screen.

Ask first, or let visitors opt out#

• Ask first (EU, UK) — the default. Nothing optional runs until the visitor allows it. This is what the GDPR and the UK’s rules ask of sites with visitors there.
• Opt-out (US) — everything runs until the visitor opts out; the reject button reads “Do not sell or share my personal information” and turns marketing off. A browser’s Global Privacy Control signal counts as opting out of marketing.

Videos, maps and other embeds#

An embed that’s held back — a YouTube video, say — shows a placeholder in its place: “This content is from YouTube, which uses marketing cookies”, with a button that allows that category and shows it.

Google, the WP Consent API and Native AI Analytics#

• Google Consent Mode v2 (on by default): Google’s tags are told “denied” before anything loads and updated with the visitor’s choice, so Google Analytics and Google Ads can measure without cookies when they’re refused.
• The WP Consent API: if it’s installed, plugins that support it (WooCommerce, Site Kit and others) follow the visitor’s choice.
• Native AI Analytics waits until the visitor allows analytics.

Changing the choice later#

A small cookie button in a corner of every page reopens the preferences (switch it off on the Banner screen). Any link to #cookie-settings, and the [nativeai_cookie_settings] shortcode, do the same. When a visitor turns a category off, that category’s cookies the scan found on your site are deleted and the page reloads without its scripts.

The Cookie Notice element#

The builder’s Cookie Notice element is a simple notice that remembers Accept or Decline. While Cookie consent is on it stays hidden, and the site-wide banner asks instead.

Switching it off#

Switching Cookie consent off removes the banner and stops holding scripts back. Nothing is deleted — the settings, the scan and the consent log are there when you switch it back on.