Add an age verification popup to your website

If your website includes age-sensitive content, you might need to use an age verification popup, also known as an age gate. Simply put, an age gate requires visitors to explicitly confirm that they have reached a certain age before starting to browse the website.

Although none of the age gate solutions can technically detect and stop underage visitors from using a website, many website owners choose to implement them for legal and moral reasons. With Getsitecontrol, you can add one to your website for free and within a couple of minutes – even if you have zero technical knowledge.

One way to do it is by using a popup with two buttons:

If a visitor clicks I’M OVER 18, the popup will automatically close and they will be able to continue browsing the website. If a visitor clicks I’M UNDER 18, they will be redirected to any URL of your choice.

Another template you may want to consider contains a mandatory age confirmation checkbox:

With this template, a visitor will only be able to enter the website if the box is checked.

Note that both age verification widgets are fullscreen. This means they will completely cover the webpage content when they pop up. There is also no way to close these popups without confirming your age.

Feel free to click on each template to see them in action. If you decide to use any of them on your website, simply follow the instructions that will appear on the right-hand side. Of course, you’ll be able to change the copy, the color theme, and the background image.

Below, we’ll show you in detail how to customize an age verification popup and make sure it is displayed timely on your website.

How to add an age verification popup to your website using Getsitecontrol

The fastest and easiest way to add an age gate to your website is by using one of the templates above.

Suppose you’ve selected template number one – the popup with the two buttons. Make a click on the template to activate the live preview mode and follow the instructions on the right-hand side to create an account.

Once you sign up, the selected template will automatically open in your dashboard. This is what it will look like:

Now, let’s see how to fine-tune its content to make the popup match your website and your goals.

Step 1. Change the copy on the age verification popup

On the first screen, you’ll have options to change the copy and the appearance of the popup. Let’s start with the former option. Go to the right-hand side menu, click on the text you want to change, and type your copy.

For example, let’s change the minimum age requirement from 18 to 21.

Once you change the age in the title, remember to go back and do the same for the text on the buttons.

Step 2. Decide what happens when a visitor clicks on the buttons

As you start editing the copy on the buttons, go ahead and confirm the action triggered by the button click. For instance, when a visitor hits I’M OVER 21, the age verification popup will automatically close – hence, the Close widget action is selected.

For the I’M UNDER 21 button, you need to select the option that will prevent visitors from proceeding to the website. For example, if you choose Open URL, you can type any web address and redirect underage visitors from your website anywhere you want.

Step 3. Change the color theme and the image

Depending on your industry and the color theme of your website, you may want to make a few appearance adjustments. That’s easy!

To change the color theme and the font, open the Theme menu and select the desired options. To change the background image, make a click on Images and proceed to Change image — you’ll access the built-in image gallery. In the search field, type the keywords relevant to your business and select a different background picture.

Once you select a new image, you can change its sizing and opacity.

To check how your age-gating popup will look on mobile screens, switch to the mobile preview mode. Go ahead and try different options in the dropdown menu at the bottom to see how the popup will appear on screens with different resolutions.

Just keep in mind that if you’ve made any changes to the image for the desktop version of your popup, you’ll likely have to replicate them for the mobile version.

Step 4. Decide when and where the age verification popup should appear

Finally, you need to decide when to display the age verification popup on your website. To set the displaying conditions, open the Targeting tab in the dashboard.

By default, the age gate will pop up on any landing page a visitor enters your website from. It makes sense if your entire website contains age-sensitive content.

With the default settings, every visitor, no matter where they start browsing your website, will see the age verification popup as soon as they enter.

If you only want to place an age gate on particular pages, type the URLs of these pages in the following field: Show widget on these pages — Include section.

Another displaying condition you may want to set is Stop to display the widget. It’s a premium feature, and it allows you to stop displaying the popup for a certain period of time (for instance, for 1 day) once the user closes it. In other words, once a website visitor confirms they’ve reached the required age, they won’t see the age gate for the next 24 hours.

Step 5. Activate the age gate on your website

If you’re happy with how the popup looks, save it and activate it on the website. Test and click it through to make sure it works the way you intended — you’ll be able to change its appearance at any moment, if needed. Once your visitors start interacting with the popup, you’ll see the statistics of views and clicks right in the Getsitecontrol dashboard.