How to protect your website and be legally compliant

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To sell your products online, you need to set up a website. This can feel a little daunting at first but there are lots of different website builders out there to use. Just make sure that you get one that includes an e-commerce option on the plan (an online store so you can sell your products and take payments) and possibly a blog feature (see notes below and also in Online Marketing). See Starting Your Online Business guide for all the steps you need to take, complete with checklists.

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One of the things you should be doing if you have a website is collecting the names and email addresses of the people who visit your site. This means that you will have a list of people who you can email with details of special offers, discounts or new product launches. If you collect personal data in the UK (names and email addresses) you must comply with certain data protection regulations (known as GDPR - General Data Protection Regulations). Find out more about a GDPR Compliance Action Plan and Checklist course.

 

If you are based in the UK you may also want to check the Information Commissioner's Office Website which deals with data protection and GDPR. There is loads of help available here with guides and a help section for small businesses so you can find out whether you need to register with them. Their fees are annual and based on the size and turnover of a company but for most companies who need to register it will be about £40 with no VAT. 

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If you are going to market your products on social media, it is really useful to have a blog on your website which you can keep up to date with photos and details of your products. You can then post the links to your blog on social media, which is a great way to drive traffic to your website. You can also send the blog post link to all the people on your email list too, boosting traffic to your website even further.

 

What legal pages should a website have

 

There are quite a few basic legal pages you need on your website. Privacy and cookie policies and probably a set of terms and conditions as well. If you are collecting names and email addresses or running a blog, you'll then be faced with the challenge of attempting to create your own legal pages for your website. It's important to protect your website legally and avoid fines and formal complaints but no start up business usually has the budget to hire a lawyer for this type of thing!

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It's also important to make sure that your website and the content you create is protected by copyright,

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Luckily there is a solution to all the legal problems in the name of Lucrezia! Lucrezia has worked for over 15 years as a lawyer, University lecturer and GDPR expert (PhD), and she is a blogger herself. Lucrezia runs a site called Blogging for New Bloggers. Don't let the name put you off, all her courses, advice and legal templates are suitable for any type of website owner. 

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To stop yourself getting totally overwhelmed I would suggest you initially sign up for her online Free Legal Course to get an overview of what is involved and it will help you work out what legal pages you need for your website.

 

You can then either take your pick and buy a template or two to suit your circumstances or go for the Legal Bundle Value Pack where you get all the courses and templates plus a load of bonus goodies too. 

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You can easily create your legal pages with the templates and they were designed specifically to help you tackle your legal compliance with confidence. 

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When you buy a template you always have access to the most current versions and all future updates so there is no need to worry about significant changes to the law as you will have access to revised templates at no extra cost.

 

A weight off your mind or what!

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Take a look at all the legal template and courses that are available.