CookieYes banner for USA countrys + Google Site Kit Consent Mode
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I hope you’re doing well.
I have a dilemma that I need to clarify.
I’m using the CookieYes Plugin with banner version for visitors from the U.S + with Google Site Kit’s Consent Mode:
[ redundant link deleted ]
As you can see on my website, visitors are not required to click any button like “Accept” or similar. This is because my website is targeted at the U.S., and CookieYes recommends using this type of banner for U.S. visitors.
My question is: Do I still need to activate Consent Mode in this case?
Since this banner seems to grant automatic consent, I’m unsure if Consent Mode is necessary. If you can check this for me and provide guidance, I would really appreciate it.
What do you recommend in a situation like this?
By the way, you can chack my website? see if consent mode working without clicking on any banner?
Best regards,
Nadav LeviThe page I need help with: [log in to see the link]
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Hi again @123nadav, hope you’re doing well! See below responses to your queries:
As you can see on my website, visitors are not required to click any button like “Accept” or similar. This is because my website is targeted at the U.S., and CookieYes recommends using this type of banner for U.S. visitors.
My question is: Do I still need to activate Consent Mode in this case?
We have a guide on consent mode added to the plugin website. It’s only a requirement for Google Ads and Google Analytics customers in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland and the United Kingdom, but not the US at present. This could always change of course, but I’m not aware of any planned changes.
Since this banner seems to grant automatic consent, I’m unsure if Consent Mode is necessary. If you can check this for me and provide guidance, I would really appreciate it.
What do you recommend in a situation like this?
If you’re a Google Ads and Google Analytics user, and you have visitors from the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or the United Kingdom, consent mode can ensure you’re in compliance for such visitors. You know your site and visitors best, so it may be useful for you, or maybe not.
By the way, you can chack my website? see if consent mode working without clicking on any banner?
Happy to do so. From the checks I performed, and a location within the EEA area, I can confirm that consent is denied, so my visit is not tracked in your Analytics reports. Note that consent is managed through your consent management plugin, so you may wish to allow for a grant or other button for me to explicitly grant consent. This would be something your plugin support team can assist with if you wish to do so.
Hopefully the above is of use. Let me know if you have any further questions on the above, and be sure to read the consent mode guide on the plugin website. Thank you.
Hey hello, how are you?
I got inside [ redundant link deleted ]
from Spain. (Europe, like you)
and i see on my google analytics its actully shows the data…
so i am confused, you sure its not work? and how can i chack something like that from the United State?
I will still reach the CookiesYes plugin support but i just wanna be sure, if you can help me clearify why i see the visit in google analytics when i visit the website?
And how its possible constant mode block your visit?
Thanks for the update @123nadav.
And how its possible constant mode block your visit?
The default behavior or consent mode if enabled, is to not included visitors to your side from the regions mentioned above, until they explicitly grant consent. Granting consent is something that is done via a third party consent management plugin, so it’s possible that your consent management plugin is configured to auto grant consent, I can’t be sure. It’s also possible that some of the optimizations performed on your site, are impacting consent mode and Google Analytics tracking,
If you wish to test this further, you can use the tagassistant.google.com service to ensure tracking is working as expected with consent mode, by reviewing the Consent Default tab.
Let me know if you have any questions with the above. Thank you.
I excluded the wp consent plugin and google analytics from the plugin cache (ls-cache plugin)
I will chack it with the cookie banner plugin deeper and get back to you.
Sounds good. Feel free to revert if you have any questions in the meantime.
@123nadav How did you get on with the above? Please ask if you have any questions. If I don’t hear back from you, I’ll go ahead and close this support topic. Thank you.
I still didnt chack it, if you want to close the ticket, close it and i will open a new one.
But thank you for the support, appriciate that.
Regards,
Levi
Thank you, and I apologize for my delayed response.
I followed your recommendation and opened a ticket with CookieYes Plugin, which you can view here:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/quastion-about-constant-mode-and-cookieyes-banner-for-the-usa/
I explained to them that when you visited my website from the EU, I still saw your data appearing in my GA4 reports. Additionally, I informed them that we need to verify a visit originating from the U.S. to confirm whether Consent Mode is automatically active for U.S. visitors.
I’ll update you once I receive their feedback.
If have something more you want me to ask them please tell me.
Regards,
Levi.
Thanks for the update @123nadav ! Good to know.
I don’t have anything specific to suggest, but great if you can get confirmation all is setup and working as expecting. With Site Kit alone, consent mode when enabled means visitors from some regions (outlined here) won’t be counted in Google Analytics traffic unless they explicitly grant consent. It shouldn’t impact US based users, but there may be configurations with any consent management plugin that result in blocks from other regions. I can’t be sure.
Have a great weekend.
If what you’re saying is correct, then I shouldn’t see traffic from users in the EU on my GA4. However, when I visit my website in incognito mode, I can still see GA4 tracking my traffic from Spain (where I currently am).
This could indicate that Consent Mode isn’t properly implemented, especially after you checked constant mode with Tag Assistant and its show you its negative.
Since GA4 is registering EU traffic, something clearly isn’t working correctly.
Another point that needs to be verified is whether Consent Mode is properly enabled automatically for visitors from the USA. I’m not exactly sure how to test this, maybe by using a VPN or possibly someone from your teams (Google Site Kit support or CookieYes support) could help me double-check that Consent Mode activates automatically for USA-based visitors. I’d really appreciate your assistance here.
@123nadav From the checks I previously performed on your site, consent mode was working. I’m based in the EU and it looks like in my case consent was not granted, so I believe that your configurations were working as expected. I didn’t see any issue with your setup.
For consent to be granted, this is handled via third party consent management plugin. If you’re finding your own visits are being counted, as you stated above, maybe you granted consent previously. I can’t be sure, but do use the tagassistant.google.com service to check your consent defaults.
i did the chack with incognito mode. its mean i was needed to grant it again if i want to see it on my GA4 from Spain.
And about the USA, we need to chack if the consent granted automatically.
We not really know if its working for people in the USA… (you checked that in EU, and i am in Spain – EU)
@jamesosborne how are you?
OK so i have very bad news…
I received CookieYes response, and we have a major problem here. I believe Google Site Kit needs to step in, especially since your documentation clearly states that the CookieYes and WP Consent API plugins are 100% supported:
https://sitekit.withgoogle.com/documentation/using-site-kit/consent-mode/#consentmanagementplugin
I’m quite certain that many users who are using Google Site Kit together with the CookieYes plugin are unaware of this critical issue.
You can view the support ticket and my latest message to them (I also contacted them directly via email):
Let me know if you want to include any more context or escalate this further.
Regards,
Levi
Hi Levi,
Thanks for the update. I checked your support topic over on the CookieYes support forums. From what I gather, the issue you are facing is due to a configuration within CookieYes, regarding a US State Laws Opt Out banner.
I also read their response regarding using Site Kit, and this is normal and expected. You can enable consent mode within Site Kit, or you can enable consent mode within CookieYes. They alerted you to use their own, which is fine, in particular if you’re using other features of their plugin, such as the US State Law banner mentioned above. I would agree that it’s not advisable to enabled consent mode within Site Kit and also a consent management plugin, including CookieYes.
I’m happy to discuss this with the team on your behalf, however, I don’t see any unusual or unexpected behavior.
I also do note your last response in the CookieYes forums and I’m happy to chime in with your query below:
Why is Consent Mode via Google Site Kit and WP Consent API not working properly with your plugin? It should block GA4 tracking by default for EU users (when consent is not granted), but I still see tracked sessions in GA4.
Without any consent management plugin, if you have Site Kit’s consent mode enabled, Google Analytics will not record visitors from EEU countries, the UK or Switzerland. This is by default. A consent management plugin must be used to that these users can explicitly grant consent, that’s all. It’s not up to consent management plugins to automatically deny consent by default – although some may do, I can’t be sure and I can’t answer for them. If they have their own consent mode feature, they may very well do if enabled within their plugin,
So to summarize, all is working as expected. Withing any consent management plugin, Site Kit will ensure consent is denied by default for an EEU, UK and Swiss traffic – if consent mode is enabled within Site Kit. Using a consent management plugin will allow these visitors to grant consent. You may wish to check for conflicting settings with any consent management plugin if you wish because as CookieYes yes mentioned, enabling consent mode within both could cause complications.
Hi again @jamesosborne , and thank you for your response.
I’d like to clarify a few important points:
First, I’m not using Consent Mode with the CookieYes plugin because CookieYes forces users to configure Consent Mode through their online web app. Instead, I use the CookieYes plugin locally, for performance reasons.
Please note that Consent Mode is enabled only via Google Site Kit and the WP Consent API plugin.
According to your documentation, CookieYes is supported using this method:
https://sitekit.withgoogle.com/documentation/using-site-kit/consent-mode/#consentmanagementpluginAlso, I believe that if Consent Mode were somehow being activated twice, your tools would have detected that during your site check.
Now, here’s the core issue, and it’s a significant one:
👉 My website: [ redundant link deleted ]
👉 My audience: Only U.S. customers, specifically local residents in Florida.However, since I can’t control internet traffic, some EU visitors occasionally land on the site. These visits appear in GA4, even though Consent Mode is active via Google Site Kit.
This happens because CookieYes handles consent based on a button interaction, and here’s the issue:
- With the free version of CookieYes, you can only choose between a “USA Policy” banner or a “GDPR EU” banner.
- There’s no option to geo-target and show the correct banner based on the user’s location.
- And no, I can’t add a manual “consent” button to the banner. That option is locked behind their premium plan.
I understand they’re trying to upsell the premium version, which includes geo-targeting, but I don’t need that. My website isn’t e-commerce or global. It’s a local service business that only targets Florida residents.
If I were targeting global traffic or selling worldwide, I’d consider their premium plan. But that’s not the case here. Still, since we can’t control who lands on the website, we do get visits from outside the U.S. And as i said before, this EU visitors are not potential customers and i am not targeting them.
I enabled Consent Mode via Site Kit to provide a fallback for EU users who land on the site accidentally, so that their consent preferences are respected. (not granted by default).
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The second issue is more serious:
For actual U.S. visitors, the CookieYes banner still requires an action (a button click) to trigger Consent Mode. This is a problem.
If you visit my site using a VPN from the U.S.A, you’ll see that Consent Mode isn’t granted by default.
But for U.S. users, Consent Mode should be granted automatically, with the ability to opt out, not the other way around. That’s in line with U.S. data privacy policies.
So, based on my understanding, if Consent Mode is enabled via Site Kit and a user from the U.S. visits the website, Site Kit should automatically grant consent, without requiring banner interaction (and give me the option to opt-out, the CookieYes banner has an option to opt-out). But that doesn’t seem to be happening.
I hope everything was clear and that you understand my point. These are two major issues, and I’m quite sure many other website owners are facing the same problem, most of them probably don’t even realize it, since it’s very difficult to detect.
Please advise on how we can resolve this properly. I want to ensure that Consent Mode works correctly and that we’re fully compliant for both U.S. and incidental EU traffic.
Thank you again for your time and support.
Best regards,
Nadav Levi
[ redundant link deleted ]
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