Does my website need to be accessible?

Legally it depends on your market and sector; commercially it always pays. The European Accessibility Act has covered consumer e-commerce since June 2025, the UK Equality Act applies to service provision, and the work overlaps almost entirely with usability and SEO.

What is a DPA and do I need one?

A Data Processing Agreement is a contract setting out how a supplier handles personal data on your behalf: what they may do with it, what security they apply, who else can see it, and what happens on a breach. You need one whenever a supplier processes personal data for you.

What analytics should I use?

Something cookieless, unless you have a specific need GA4 uniquely meets. Cookieless analytics answers how many people arrived, from where, and how many converted — without a consent banner, and without putting visitor data into an ad network.

Process

Do I need a cookie banner?

Only if you store or access information on a visitor’s device beyond what is strictly necessary. A site with no analytics cookies, no advertising pixels and no third-party embeds needs no banner — and adding one anyway is theatre that costs conversions.

Answered by Anas Bin Masud 215 words 4 sections

What triggers the requirement

Analytics that sets cookies or identifies visitors
Advertising or remarketing pixels
Embedded video, maps or social widgets that set cookies
Any third-party script storing something on the device

What does not

Cookies strictly necessary for a service the user requested — a session for a logged-in area, a basket. And nothing at all, if the site genuinely sets nothing.

The option most sites never consider

Cookieless analytics. It counts visits without storing anything on the device, needs no banner, and answers the questions a small business actually has. The trade is losing cross-session user tracking, which most businesses never used.

How to check what your site actually sets

Open developer tools with F12
Go to the Application tab in Chrome or Edge, or Storage in Firefox
Look under Cookies for your own domain
Check the Network tab too — every request should go to your domain unless you deliberately added something
If both are empty, you do not need a banner and adding one costs you conversions for nothing

The longer version

This answer is deliberately short. If you want the full treatment, The 35 types of SEO, explained without the padding covers it in about 6 minutes — free, ungated, written from client work.

Who answered this

Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan — fifteen live client sites, six of them stores taking real payments. These answers come from those projects rather than from a content brief. More about how I work, or ask me something directly.