Your website is live, your products are online, and the first visitors are starting to arrive. But have you thought about the legal aspects of your website? No? Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be complicated. In this blog, we’ll tell you the most important rules regarding privacy, cookies, your terms and conditions, and more! Make sure your website is legally compliant!
1: The Privacy Statement
Do you collect personal data via your website? For example, through a contact form, newsletter subscription, or webshop? Then, according to privacy legislation (the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR), you are required to post a privacy statement on your website. This statement informs your customers and visitors what personal data you collect, what you do with it, and why.
Your privacy statement must include the following:
- What data you collect (such as name, email address, postal address)
- Why you collect that data
- How long you store it
- Whether you share the data with others (for example, for payments to external parties)
Tip: Use the privacy statement from termly.io. They will help you with a basic text for your own privacy statement. Then create a new page via Webador and name it ‘privacy statement’. Add the generated text to the page and place the page in the footer of your website.
2: Cookies
At Webador, you don’t have to worry much about the cookies that are automatically placed on your website. We have taken measures to ensure that these cookies comply with privacy legislation:
- We use Google Analytics to gain insight into the use of your website. To guarantee the privacy of your website visitors, we have set the cookies so that IP addresses are anonymized and Google is not allowed to use the data for other services.
- We place functional cookies. We place a functional cookie that is necessary to check whether you are the owner of your website. This cookie has no further influence on the privacy of your visitors.
For these standard cookies, it is not mandatory to add a cookie notification to your website. Only if you add additional external elements, such as a YouTube video, do we recommend placing a cookie notification! You can easily activate this via your website settings.
3: General Terms and Conditions
Want to avoid confusion? Include information in your terms and conditions about how you handle warranties, cancellations, who is responsible, and how payment is made. That way, your customers, and visitors know exactly where they stand.
The terms and conditions are the rules that apply to an agreement, for example, when a customer purchases a product or service from you.
Good to know: terms and conditions are not mandatory, but they can offer you a lot of clarity and certainty!
Drawing up your general terms and conditions
- You can find examples of general terms and conditions online, or ask ChatGPT to draw up a document for you!
- Some industries have standard terms and conditions that you must add.
Topics that frequently appear in the general terms and conditions:
- Quotation (is it non-binding or binding, and what is the acceptance period)
- Payment
- Delivery
- Transport (who pays for transport and what are the shipping costs)
- Warranty (if applicable, under what conditions)
- Liability
- Cooling-off period (i.e., right of withdrawal)
4: Other
There are a number of legal issues that may be useful for your site, but this depends on what exactly you post on your website:
- A Disclaimer: This allows you to limit certain liabilities, for example for the content of external links or the completeness and accuracy of the information on your website. A disclaimer can therefore add some nuance (you remain responsible for the basics, of course).
- An ‘Intellectual Property’ notice: Have you written some great texts, taken beautiful photos, or designed a recognizable logo? Then it’s a good idea to let people know that these things are yours and are protected by copyright, for example. This prevents others from simply taking them and using them without permission.
- Codes of conduct: Are you a member of a trade association with certain rules? Then it is good to mention this. This applies, for example, to travel agencies, real estate agents, lawyers, and construction companies.
- The small print for promotions: Do you have a great promotion or special offer? Make sure the terms and conditions are clear. What exactly does the promotion entail? How long does it last? Are there any exceptions? Describe this in a way that is immediately clear to everyone, so that you and others can always refer back to it without any problems.
Conclusion: a legally well-regulated website helps you gain trust.
Investing in this legal foundation ensures that your website meets all requirements and gives your visitors a sense of security. It shows that you take rules and personal data seriously. Don’t wait any longer and check now whether the legal aspects of your website are up-to-date!
