How To Use Cookie Free Domains ? Should you use a Cookie Free Domain?

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Does the title: How to use cookie free domains surprise you? Remember when you design a website, the most crucial thing which needs to be taken care of is the website speed test. The speed of your website is the main contributor to the overall performance and hence increase the results. Some tools scan and point out the things which are working well and those who require more effort. If, however, you face issues related to the speed and loading time on your websites, then you must need to know how to use cookie-free domains and what are its advantages.

We are here to give you the insight to know how to use cookie-free domains so that you can enhance the performance of your websites. After all, it is the overall performance that matters the most, and for which all these efforts are done.

Proceed to the following sections and make use of the received information.

What Is Meant By HTTP Cookies?

Before we jump to the section on how to use cookie-free domains, it is essential to learn about the meaning of HTTP cookies. These are the small pieces of data that are sent from a site and are stored in the browser of the user. The cookies receive the data related to the website activities such as preferences, the pages you visited, shopping cart items etc.if the user visits the site, which uses cookies. With the use of these cookies, many websites facilitate better user experience. It helps in determining the key functions performed by the user, such as the information about their logging in and with which account they have logged in.

Each time the user visits the website consisting of cookies, it takes the data and stores it in the browser. This provides information that was set in the last time they visited the same website. The three main uses of cookies can thus be summarized as –

  • Personalization,
  • Session management,
  • Tracking.

Many types of cookies can be used at different times and scenarios as per the developer of the website and its requirements.

Here are a few pros and cons of using cookies which should be known if you are a website developer –

Pros:-

  • Cookies are elementary to implement and are easy to use. These are comparatively simpler in terms of Internet protocols.
  • It occupies less memory space as it does not require any kind of server resources. Also, these cookies are stored on the computers of users, which reduces the burden from the servers.
  • There is also an option to configure the cookies and set the browser session ends or the length of time on the user’s computers.
  • You can use cookies for any time lengths or session duration as compared to any other session rate. In other words, cookies have a more extended period than session rates.
  • Cookies do not require any other resources from the server as they get stored on the client’s computer. They do not depend upon any servers, which makes the process easier to implement.
  • Since the client’s side supports the cookies, these are easy to implement.
  • Cookies can be configured to set the session rate as well. They can be set to expire as soon as the client’s session expires.
  • Cookies are domain-specific, and each domain has its cookies. No domain shares the same cookies, which makes them independent.
  • There is an option for the user to disable the cookies and can also be enabled by them.
  • The abilities given to the user’s end makes it simple to use.

Cons:-

  • The main disadvantage of cookies is that it is not secured. It possesses the risk of security as anyone can open the clear text and may tamper the cookies configuration.
  • In case you need to encrypt and decrypt cookies manually, you will require to learn extra coding. This may also hamper the application performance as encryption and decryption require a lot of time.
  • There are several limitations in size.
  • Users have the option to disable or delete cookies. In such situations, even if the cookies are used for ethical purposes, it will fail to show its results.
  • Cookies will not be able to work in the desired manner if the security level is set to ”high” in the browser. This will indirectly disable the cookies.
  • Cookies do not allow the complex type of data as it functions only with plain text. Moreover, cookies allow only string content.

In order to know how to use cookie-free domains, you need to learn about the meaning of cookie-free domain. A cookie-free domain does not send the command to the browser of the user to store cookies from the website. Most of the sites contain static images and other content such as Javascript and CSS files. These files do not change frequently, that is why such content does not need cookies. It does not involve any user interaction with other resources. So when you come to know how to use cookie-free domains, the configuration decreases the total size request of the browser made by the visitors. It reduces the size of downloading resources, which takes comparatively less space.

The central concept behind this is the strategy to reduce server latency, which reduces the number of requests which impact the overall performance of the website.

Therefore, using a cookie-free domain provides the following benefits –

  • Decrease loading time of static content
  • Less traffic on the network.

In order to have a clear understanding of how to use cookie-free domains, there must be a proper understanding of how these cookie-free domains work. When any user requests for any static content from the webserver with the help of a web browser be it Google or any other search engine, then some cookies are also sent, which are of no use to the user. Since they are of no use to the user, it results in delayed loading time, which affects the performance of the website. Many users do not prefer to stay on a site, which takes more than usual time to load. It makes the HTTP requests consume more time. So, to maintain your website’s speed and loading time, there is a way to use cookie-free domains. This can be done by hosting all the static content in a different subdomain. In this way, that particular website will become cookie-free and will deliver better results.

Also, for the record, all the big names in the online industry, such as Youtube, Amazon, etc. use cookie-free domains. This gives you one more reason to know how to use cookie-free domains to make your own space in the online industry.

You should also be familiar with using a cookie-free domain, apart from knowing how to use cookie-free domains. Although the use of cookies can be useful for website developers, it may not provide a great user experience. After all, customer satisfaction is what everyone strives for. The excess use of cookies may profoundly hinder the performance of your website. When a user asks for certain static content, it must not be followed by sending the cookies, too, as this would only create unwanted traffic. Also, since the files are static, they are of no use either to the user or the website owner.

On the other hand, when you use cookie-free domains, you can segregate the content which does and which does not require the use of cookies. This helps your website to improve its performance as more number of visitors can request for the content with increased loading speed of the website. It also eliminates unnecessary traffic from your sites and gives you genuine consumers of your content.

The next section will give you information on how to use cookie free domain. So if you have made it till here, it is suggested that you keep on reading to know the full meaning of cookies and cookie free domain system.

There are several ways on how to use cookie free domains. Some of them are listed as under –

If you opt to set cookies on the top-level domain, it automatically sets in the other subdomains as well. So in this particular case, you will need to separate the domain name to deliver the static content if you opt to use cookie free domain. There is another option as well, that is of creating a subdomain on ”www”, which will act as a host for all the static files. This will ensure that there are no longer cookies sent to the user’s browser. 

 Following are the steps to know how to use cookie free domain in WordPress –

 – The first step is to create a subdomain. It is from here that you will deliver all your static files.

 – Locate your newly created subdomain to /wp-content directory in the WordPress installation. In case you are a cPanel user, then you will need to update the root file of the document. Change it from public_html/static to public_html/wp-content.

 – After editing the file, run a certain command in the SQL database, which will ensure that all the previous URLs are directed to the newly created subdomain.

 Once the static content subdomain and cookie domain are ready, you are all set to use the website without sending any additional cookies to the static assets.

There is an alternative option to deliver a cookie free domain. It is using a CDN to give static assets and also use a cookie free domain at the same time when you are benefitting from the advantages of CDN features. You can set up a Pull Zone with the help of a KeyCDN and retrieve the Zone Alias or Zone URL. To do this, all you need to do is simply integrate the CDN into Framework or CMS. 

 KeyCDN gives you the ability to ignore as well as strip cookies which helps in the complete prevention from receiving the set-cookie response header for the clients. The use of this method will allow your static content to be delivered via the closest CDN edge server. The cookies will then be automatically be stripped, which will ensure that there is no additional cookie latency. This is one of the easiest ways to remove unwanted cookies from the static content, along with configuring your website to deliver content in the subdomain. CDN, which helps in stripping the cookies, lets you in the smooth delivery of content, which is not loaded with cookies at the same time when you get the benefits of other CDN features as well. These benefits from Content Distribution Network (CDN) can be improved website performance and reduced latency, improving the SEO, impactful features at low and affordable prices, a spike in traffic and downtime protection, increases security and stability, a smooth integration, better user experience, etc.

 Therefore, it can be said that using a CDN, cookie free CDN, and domain can undoubtedly be beneficial for an all-round growth and performance of your websites.

As also mentioned earlier, you can configure a different cookie free domain for websites which will be the host for all the static content for your website. In order to do so, you will require to register a domain name. In case you do not have a domain name, you will need to buy a new one. You can also prefer to use a sub-domain name by adding a static prefix so that it is easy to understand by the users just from the title. The vital point to be noted here is that if you use the root domain without the ”www” version, then it is suggested to use a subdomain as the cookie free domain will not be able to work in such a case. 

 If you are a user of Adsense Advertisements, there will always be a cookie free warning appearing because the subdomain is still a part of your primary domain. Moreover, Adsense adds cookies to each subdomain, which is under one common domain name. 

 To put in simpler words, you will need to follow the below-mentioned steps to configure a separate cookie free domain –

 – Use a static prefix to create a subdomain.

 – Update the root document.

 – Update the wp-config file.

 – Update the contents of existing posts.

 After you are done creating a cookie free subdomain, use your .htaccess file so that your web server can configure the static content without the use of cookies. You will also need to put the file into the folder of your domain. Make sure to upload all the static content to the new subdomain. This is amongst the easiest method to use a cookie free domain.

Reconfigure the WordPress site

In this method, you will require to set up the subdomain’s DNS record as CNAME, which points to the root domain. You can do so by directly looking at your subdomain to /wp-content directory and edit the wp-config.php file.

WordPress plugins such as WP2Static is also in the list of methods to use a cookie free domain. It can be easily downloaded from the WordPress repository. Once you have installed the plugin, activate it, and navigate to the WordPress dashboard. Configure the settings from the ”Deploy settings website” and then visit the URL. Ensure that the URL is in GTmetrix. Therefore, the warning to use the cookie free domain will not occur anymore in the report.

If you are a user of Cloudflare, then you can use its resources to create a cookie free domain. You just need to follow the below-mentioned steps –

 – If you love the services and features of Cloudflare, then you must continue to use the CDN and DNS services for the main domain. But note here that to remove cookies for static resources, you will have to change the hostname completely. 

 – the next step is to sign up for a CDN service, copy the URL, edit the hostname, and paste it into the CDN path in Cache plugin. 

 – Next, you have to check the GTmetrix, and that is it, you are ready to use the plugin.

Some Final Words

You can use any of the tricks mentioned above and tips and know-how to use cookie free domains. This will not only help you achieve several visitors by increasing the loading speed, but also enhance the overall performance of the website. Either of the methods can be suitable as per your website content and requirements. So get going and proceed to make the right use of cookies as well as cookie free domains to tap the benefits of every available feature.