What are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files containing data about a person’s actions taken on a website. Everything a person clicks, views, and exits out of is collected and available to be accessed by website owners, marketers, etc. If you accept a website’s cookies, it will save any personal information you may have provided on a website such as your name, address, email, or phone number.
First-party cookies and third-party cookies are the two most commonly used by marketers and business owners alike.
What are they used for?
Online businesses use cookies to track consumer behavior, personalize their visitors’ experience, and manage the site’s visitors. Cookies also allow you to save your shopping cart and login information to make it easier the next time you come back to the page. They streamline the customer’s user experience and assist the website owner in providing valuable information on their visit to improve their strategy for getting conversions.
Changes to Cookies
Starting January 2, 2024, Google will start disabling third-party cookies for 1% of Google Chrome users. Third-party cookies allow outside companies to track visitor engagement such as visits, clicks, and page views on another website that is not their own.
Google is working to remove third-party cookies to eliminate tracking and introduce new standards of security. These new adjustments will implement more fraud prevention and send relevant ads. During this transition, advertisers will need to be flexible to adapt to the new landscape. First-party cookies will still be available for businesses to see their website’s visitor engagement and utilize the data for future advertising. With the removal of third-party cookies, private data will no longer be going to advertisers and marketers but Google still owns everything.
What Should I Do Now?
Google Chrome is offering a variety of resources and options for websites to transition into this new cookie-less era. As a business owner, you should be going back into your website code, identifying any third-party cookies, and auditing the usage. Your next step is to work to improve your first-party cookies.
Yelling Mule can be a resource to your business as they transition into a new format of collecting market research. Request a quote today!
