{"id":18117,"date":"2021-09-07T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T07:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/?p=18117"},"modified":"2025-04-28T08:05:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T08:05:03","slug":"cookieless-domain-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","title":{"rendered":"How to use cookie-free domains: what they are and why you need them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Website speed has a great impact on user experience, traffic, and SEO. Several tools, such as GTmetrix, allow you to check your website speed, giving warnings and recommendations according to its weak spots.<\/p><p>If your site is experiencing slow load times or GTmetrix displays a cookie-free error when analyzing your web performance, you may want to start using a cookie-free domain.<\/p><p>This article will provide the steps necessary to create and use a cookie-free domain in your WordPress website.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.hostinger.com\/content\/tutorials\/pdf\/Build-WordPress-Website-in-9%20Steps.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"566\" src=\"https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/eBook_-Build-website-in-9-steps_in-text-banner-1.png\/public\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-69276\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/eBook_-Build-website-in-9-steps_in-text-banner-1.png\/w=2048,fit=scale-down 2048w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/eBook_-Build-website-in-9-steps_in-text-banner-1.png\/w=300,fit=scale-down 300w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/eBook_-Build-website-in-9-steps_in-text-banner-1.png\/w=1024,fit=scale-down 1024w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/eBook_-Build-website-in-9-steps_in-text-banner-1.png\/w=150,fit=scale-down 150w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/eBook_-Build-website-in-9-steps_in-text-banner-1.png\/w=768,fit=scale-down 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-are-http-cookies\">What Are HTTP Cookies?<\/h2><p>HTTP cookies are text files containing data components a website sends to the users&rsquo; web browser, such as login authentication and language preferences, to improve user experience.<\/p><p>When you access a site with cookies for the first time, the site sends a request to your browser to store its cookies. The browser then stores this data, which helps the site provide a personalized browsing and online advertising experience based on previous visits.<\/p><p>However, the information it will collect depends on the website&rsquo;s needs. For example, an <a href=\"\/tutorials\/how-to-start-an-online-business\">eCommerce website<\/a> usually uses cookies to track your purchase history and shopping cart items.<\/p><p>The next time you visit it, the cookies stored will help the site recommend products or display ads according to your previous activity.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-a-cookie-free-domain\">What Is a Cookie-Free Domain?<\/h2><p>When an HTTP request is made, the browser sends data and response headers to the site&rsquo;s server. Some of these might include <strong>Set-Cookie<\/strong> headers, which tell the browser to set certain cookies.<\/p><p>Since static content like images, <a href=\"\/tutorials\/what-is-javascript\">JavaScript<\/a>, and CSS files rarely change, sending those cookies will do nothing but clog the web server with unnecessary network traffic &#8210; causing your site to slow down.<\/p><p>A cookie-free domain is a domain that doesn&rsquo;t send the browser a request to store the site&rsquo;s cookies. Using this domain type will reduce the number of requests sent to the server since it will not send cookies for content that doesn&rsquo;t need them.<\/p><p>Consequently, it will improve your website&rsquo;s performance, eliminating unnecessary traffic.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-use-a-cookie-free-domain-in-wordpress\">How to Use a Cookie-Free Domain in WordPress<\/h2><p>There are two methods you can use to set a cookie-free domain. The first one requires creating a separate domain to deliver the static content. That&rsquo;s because if you use a domain like <strong>yourwebsite.com<\/strong>, the cookies will be set in all your subdomains as well.<\/p><p>However, if you use a regular domain like <strong>www.yourwebsite.com<\/strong>, you only need to create a cookie-free subdomain. To use a cookie-free domain on your <a href=\"\/tutorials\/what-is-wordpress\">WordPress website<\/a>, simply follow these steps:<\/p><ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If you use a <a href=\"\/web-hosting\">Hostinger hosting plan<\/a>, go to the <strong>hPanel<\/strong> and select <strong>Subdomains<\/strong>. Create a new subdomain &#8210; static.yourwebsite.com, for example.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Point the subdomain to the WordPress <strong>wp-content<\/strong> directory by updating the document&rsquo;s <strong>root field<\/strong>. You can do so when creating the subdomain via the <strong>Subdomains<\/strong> subdirectory on your hPanel. Select <strong>Custom folder for subdomain<\/strong> and add <strong>wp-content<\/strong> as the folder name, like on the screenshot below.<\/li>\n<\/ol><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"\/tutorials\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"415\" src=\"https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/public\" alt=\"Creating a new subdomain on hPanel\" class=\"wp-image-38933\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/w=1024,fit=scale-down 1024w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/w=300,fit=scale-down 300w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/w=150,fit=scale-down 150w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/w=768,fit=scale-down 768w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/w=1536,fit=scale-down 1536w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/subdomains-directory.png\/w=2048,fit=scale-down 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"3\">\n<li>Navigate to the <strong>File Manager<\/strong> and add the following code to the <strong>wp-config.php<\/strong> file. Don&rsquo;t forget to replace the links to reflect your webpage&rsquo;s URLs.<\/li>\n<\/ol><pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\">define(\"WP_CONTENT_URL\", \"http:\/\/static.yourwebsite.com\");\ndefine(\"COOKIE_DOMAIN\", \"www.yourwebsite.com\");<\/pre><p>Ensure these lines are placed above the <strong>\/* That&rsquo;s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. *\/<\/strong> line. Placing them below this line may result in the settings not being applied correctly.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/file-manager-wp-config-php-codes-highlighted.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"229\" src=\"https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/file-manager-wp-config-php-codes-highlighted.png\/public\" alt=\"The wp-config.php file on the public_html directory, highlighting the scripts\" class=\"wp-image-101592\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/file-manager-wp-config-php-codes-highlighted.png\/w=880,fit=scale-down 880w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/file-manager-wp-config-php-codes-highlighted.png\/w=300,fit=scale-down 300w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/file-manager-wp-config-php-codes-highlighted.png\/w=150,fit=scale-down 150w, https:\/\/imagedelivery.net\/LqiWLm-3MGbYHtFuUbcBtA\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/file-manager-wp-config-php-codes-highlighted.png\/w=768,fit=scale-down 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div><ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"4\">\n<li>Navigate to <strong>phpMyAdmin<\/strong> <strong>-&gt;<\/strong> <strong>SQL<\/strong> and redirect all posts to the new domain by running this command in the SQL database. Finding your <a href=\"\/tutorials\/wordpress\/how-to-find-out-wordpress-database-name\">WordPress database name<\/a> is very simple, you just need to follow our guide.<\/li>\n<\/ol><pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\">UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content =\nREPLACE(post_content,'www.yourwebsite.com\/wp-content\/','static.yourwebsite.com\/')<\/pre><p>Once that&rsquo;s done, static.yourwebsite.com will deliver all static content without cookies.<\/p><p>Another way of using a cookie-free domain is to set up a <a href=\"\/tutorials\/what-is-cdn\">content delivery network<\/a> (CDN) like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.keycdn.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KeyCDN<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cloudflare<\/a>.<\/p><p>If you use KeyCDN, enabling the <strong>Strip Cookies<\/strong> feature will stop the server from sending <strong>Set-Cookies<\/strong> headers in response to HTTP requests. The<strong> Cache Cookies <\/strong>setting allows users to ignore all cookies.<\/p><p>This will help the website load faster, and the user will no longer get the cookie-free error.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-benefits-of-using-cookie-free-domains\">Benefits of Using Cookie-Free Domains<\/h2><p>Cookie-free domains are an essential part of website optimization efforts &ndash; even GTmetrix includes in its scoring metrics. GTmetrix displays a cookie-free error for websites that don&rsquo;t use a cookie-free domain as their server is deemed unoptimized, harming the site&rsquo;s overall score.<\/p><p>Using cookie-free domains can bring several benefits for your website, including:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Less network traffic<\/strong> &#8210; using a different domain to serve static content lets you reduce unnecessary cookie traffic on the server.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faster loading speed<\/strong> &#8210; this particularly applies to static content, as cookie-free domains don&rsquo;t require that the users&rsquo; browsers store cookies for them.<\/li>\n<\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-conclusion\">Conclusion<\/h2><p>When analyzing your site&rsquo;s performance using a tool such as GTmetrix, you might have found the cookie-free error. It might seem complicated at first, but it is not difficult to solve it &ndash; you can set a cookie-free subdomain or change your CDN settings.<\/p><p>We hope this article helped you learn what cookie-free domains are and how to set them up on WordPress to improve your traffic, SEO, and user experience. Good luck!<\/p><p>\n\n\n<div class=\"protip\">\n                    <h4 class=\"title\">Learn More About Website Maintenance<\/h4>\n                    <p><a href=\"\/tutorials\/website-maintenance-cost\">Website Maintenance Cost<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/hacked-website\">How to Diagnose and Fix a Hacked Website<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/hotlinking\">Hotlinking: What Is It and Why Is It Bad?<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/clear-browser-cache\">How to Clear Browser Cache and History<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/website\/how-to-inspect-and-change-style-using-google-chrome\">How to Inspect Element<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/backups\/downloading-website-backup\">How to Download a Website Backup<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/specify-vary-accept-encoding-header\">How to Fix &ldquo;Specify a Vary<\/a><br>\n<a href=\"\/tutorials\/website\/how-to-check-your-website-error-log\">How to Check Your Website&rsquo;s PHP Error Log<\/a><\/p>\n                <\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Website speed has a great impact on user experience, traffic, and SEO. Several tools, such as GTmetrix, allow you to [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":42785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"How to Use Cookie-Free Domains for WordPress - Step-by-Step","rank_math_description":"Not sure what are cookie-free domains? Wonder what are the benefits of using a cookie-free domain? Read this tutorial and find out!","rank_math_focus_keyword":"use cookie-free domains","footnotes":""},"categories":[22640,22637],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-and-maintenance","category-wordpress"],"hreflangs":[{"locale":"en-US","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","default":0},{"locale":"en-UK","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/uk\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","default":0},{"locale":"en-MY","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/my\/tutorials\/how-to-use-cookie-free-domains","default":0},{"locale":"en-PH","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/ph\/tutorials\/how-to-use-cookie-free-domains","default":0},{"locale":"en-IN","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/in\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","default":0},{"locale":"en-CA","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/ca\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","default":0},{"locale":"en-AU","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/au\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","default":0},{"locale":"en-NG","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/ng\/tutorials\/cookieless-domain-warning","default":0}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18117"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101594,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18117\/revisions\/101594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}