· 1 min read
Cookie-less web analytics: measuring without watching
You can know which pages work without identifying anyone. How to design analytics that don't need a consent banner.
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The premise
Most web analytics identify users: cookies, browser fingerprints, IPs. For a pageview counter, that's using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
The minimal design
An aggregated counter with three columns:
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| path | /blog/my-post |
| day | 2026-07-07 |
| views | 42 |
No cookies. No IP. No identifiers. The schema can't hold personal data, so there's nothing to protect or consent to.
What you lose and what you gain
- You lose: unique users, funnels, cohort retention.
- You gain: zero legal friction, zero banners, zero risk of PII leaks, and the metric that actually matters for content: which pages drive traffic.
For a portfolio and blog site, that trade-off is almost always worth it.