#189 - Protect Your Online Space - Why Website Ts & Cs Are So Important
Do you really need website terms and conditions?
You might have been told that these are just a “nice to have” or something you can copy from a template, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you have a website, which I’m guessing you do, Website Ts & Cs are non-negotiable for protecting your online space.
They're more than just text at the bottom of your page; they're your shield as part of your core legal documents.
Your terms are what help people understand what they can and can't do on your website. It’s about setting crystal clear boundaries and expectations—kind of like a digital set of house rules.
1. Intellectual Property Protection: Imagine someone screenshots your beautifully curated portfolio and passes it off as their own. Without the right IP provisions in your T's and C's, you could find yourself in a sticky situation. It's essential to make it clear: "Look but don't copy."
2. Disclaimers and Liability Limitations: Your T's and C's should make it known that your site provides general information—not professional advice— and you're not liable if someone misuses it.
3. Third-Party Links & Content Sharing: Whether it's affiliate links or sharing course content, clarity is key. Your terms should articulate what’s permissible with third-party content and what's not.
4. Mailing List Compliance: If you're building a goldmine of a mailing list—great! You just need to ensure that you are compliant with anti-spam laws, which should be reflected in your T's and C's.
Your business, and therefore your website, is unique in its offerings and needs. So it goes without saying that tailoring your website T's and C's to fit your specific business model is a must.
A beautifully tailored set of website terms and conditions will safeguard your brand and protect your intellectual property. This includes your portfolio work, your course content, your blog, your podcast content - everything and anything you create. With the right terms in place, you can confidently showcase your services, share your content, and build meaningful connections without fear of misuse or misunderstanding.
So if you're serious about steering your business toward success, make sure your website T's and C's are as unique and robust as your brand itself.
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[00:00:00] Tracey: If you're a long time listener of the podcast, you will have heard me talk about the three core documents every small business owner needs. And that is every small business owner with a website, which let's face it, that's just about all of us these days. I talk about the core three documents over and over again, because they are the core foundational documents that every business needs to set themselves up for success.
[00:00:48] The three core documents that I talk about are your Client Service Terms and Conditions, or your Client Agreements, so the documents you have with your clients, your Website Terms and Conditions, which govern the use of your website and your Privacy Policy. in this episode. I want to talk to you about protectingyour online space and explain to you why website terms and conditions are so important.
[00:01:11] I am asked by clients every now and then whether they actually need website T's and C's or if it's just a nice to have and clients comment to me that sometimes it might have been their web developer or somebody along those lines has said, Oh, no, don't worry about them. You don't really need them. They're just a nice to have. They're definitely not necessary. That's just plain wrong.
[00:01:32] So I want to explain that in this episode in case you've been wondering the same thing, or in case you're listening along and you don't have website T's and C's, this will be your little nudge to let you know that they're really important and that you do need them. So you might need to think about doing something about that sometime soon.
[00:01:48] First of all, I just want to explain that website terms and conditions are very different to a privacy policy. They're both very different to your client terms and conditions or your client service terms and conditions. It's really easy when business owners are busy doing all the things and wearing all the hats to get confused about what goes where or what does what.
[00:02:12] So they're three very separate documents. In your website terms and conditions, which we're going to talk about in this episode, they are the T's and C's that are made accessible via a link on the bottom of the homepage of your website. If you're not sure, go check out my website, tmsolicitor. com. au, scroll straight to the bottom and you'll see a link.
[00:02:31] One will say terms and conditions and one will say privacy policy. They're two very different documents, so they're made accessible via two different links. Now, in your website T's and C's we don't want to see the terms and conditions you have with your coaching clients, your creative clients, whatever it is that you've got going on in your business.
[00:02:52] We don't want to see your client service terms here or your client agreement here. Wrong spot. Your client terms or your client agreement, that's what gets entered into directly between you and your client. Your website terms and conditions, they are the terms and conditions that govern what people can and can't do on your website and what people can and can't do with the stuff you share on your website.
[00:03:16] So they are made accessible via a link on the bottom of your homepage right next to your privacy policy. I'm not going to talk any more about a privacy policy in this episode, other than to say, very important, yes, you need one. In this episode, I'm going to dive into explaining why the website T's and C's are so important so let's dive into that.
[00:03:35] First of all, let me ask you this, a small business owner with a website, do you share details of your services with your clients? Do you sell products? Do you share details of those via the website? Do you run a blog? Have you got a podcast?
[00:03:53] Do you have a lead magnet free to download? Or do you have masterclasses available on your website? Or do you have a course? or a membership or a subscription of some sort. Do you link to other websites on your website? Something we call third party links. If you answered yes to any of this, then you need website terms and conditions.
[00:04:16] If you are a creative, do you share details of your work on your website? So your beautiful portfolio of work that you've done? If you've answered yes, you need website T's and C's. So you see, your website terms and conditions govern what people can and can't do on your website, and that keeps you protected.
[00:04:36] It keeps your business protected because most of us sit out on our business journey and we have a website done, which beautifully illustrates who we are and what we do and how we can help people. And then we want to share information and we want to add value as much as possible. And we do all that from the right place to genuinely serve our potentially beautifully aligned clients. But we need to be protected as well. And that's where the website terms and conditions come in. So your website terms and conditions are going to set out the rules for what people can and can't do on your website and what they can and can't do with your stuff.
[00:05:15] First and foremost is your intellectual property. We want to protect the intellectual property on your website and I'm not going to give you a masterclass here on, Intellectual property and copyright other than to say, we don't want there to be any misunderstandings or any assumptions made by anybody landing on your website that because you haven't said otherwise, you're sharing or assigning your intellectual property. So we don't want there to be an assumption that because we are an interior designer, for example, that it's okay for someone to come and screenshot the images of my work from my portfolio page on my website, because I didn't tell you couldn't so it's okay that you do. You want to avoid that.
[00:06:00] We absolutely want to avoid that and we do that in the intellectual property provisions of the website terms and conditions. So we protect all of your IP, your branding, your trademarks, what you might be using as a mark, your business name. We want to protect your portfolio, your images, your work, your blogs, your content in your podcasts, all the things. We want to protect it and make it very clear that the information on the website is available for you to view and to assist by providing general information only, but please don't take it. Don't copy it. Don't pass it off as your own. Don't take it and try and sell it.
[00:06:36] You can't do any of those things. We'll make it very clear. So if you do get copied, and yes, it happens, I'm so aware that it happens, then you can reach out to your business lawyer. If you don't have one, you can reach out and talk to me. I might become your new business lawyer. And we can talk about the process around a cease and desist letter, which is strengthened and far more streamlined because of your beautifully tailored intellectual property provisions in your website T's and C's.
[00:07:00] You see, so they're really important. The next thing is, if you're sharing information,we want to make sure we have the right disclaimers in there for you so that it's made very clear that any information on your website is shared in good faith and for general information purposes only. It's not a substitute for professional advice. So what we want to make sure is we're protecting you should someone rely on something you've shared, seek to implement it, suffer a poor outcome and look to you for recourse. And by that I mean suing you. So we want to prevent that. We want to make sure you're protected in relation to that.
[00:07:34] And the same goes for any freebie downloads. So you might have lead magnets on your website designed to do a whole host of things but again, we want to make sure that they're addressed in your website terms and conditions so you can't be sued if someone relies on it and also so people can't copy it and think that's a great idea, I'm going to copy that and do the same thing. So we want to make sure we're making it very clear that you're not entitled to copy it. It's not your IP, it's my IP, just allowing you to use it. But also the information in my lead magnet or my freebie download is for general information purposes only.
[00:08:06] So we want to make sure that that's really clear. Then when we get into more nuanced offerings around things like your courses, your master classes, you might have a membership, people might be able to sign up to events on your website, might be able to review your podcast, all sorts of things. We need to make sure that the intellectual property in all of that is protected.
[00:08:29] And we need to make sure that the right disclaimers and liability limitation clauses are included. So that again, people are using it for the good faith intention that you're sharing it and that there's no liability to you attached later. And we do all that in the website terms and conditions so there's a lot going on in these terms and conditions that you have accessible via a link on the bottom of your homepage. They are so important for all the things that you're doing on your website.
[00:08:58] If you are building a mailing list and you email your list and you've got a page there where someone can subscribe to receive your lovely emails, then we need to make sure that's addressed in your website terms and conditions so that you're complying with the Spam Act, because there is such a thing. And you can't just add someone and start emailing them because you like them or because you want to. They need to go through the process of making sure they've given you consent, whether express or implied and that's all covered in the provisions included in your website terms and conditions.
[00:09:31] There's a lot going on, but as you can probably guess, Like all of the legals that you are having developed for your business, website Ts and aren't one size fits all either. So if you're a long time listener, you will have no doubt heard me say so many times, DIY is for bunnings, not for your legals.
[00:09:50] And that's because these legal documents are far too important to take shortcuts with, and no two businesses are the same. Similarlno two y, websites are the same. So we all do different things on our website, whether it's blogs, freebie downloads, sharing our portfolio, having access to our podcast, signing up for other offerings, watching our masterclasses, everybody's doing different things.
[00:10:14] And everyone's rules tend to be nuanced as well in relation to cancellations, refunds, money back guarantees. There's a ton of things that vary between business to business and it's really important to take the time to get these right so that your website T's and C's work for your business. They protect what you're doing on your website.
[00:10:35] Now, when we start talking about the different offerings, if you're selling things through the website, or if people can sign up to your courses or programs, you also need CLICRAP terms and conditions,which relate to each particular offering, whether it's a course, a program, an event, products, whatever it might be, special Ts and Cs need to be set up at the point of payment or the point of purchase or sign up. And You need your participant or your client to tick a box to say, yes, by ticking this box, I agree to these terms and conditions. They are not the website terms and conditions. They are a bit different because they relate to whatever it is that's being purchased or whatever offering someone's signing up for.
[00:11:17] So we can't just replicate and I've seen people do this in error or copy and paste our website T's and C's in that tick box area. that's an error. don't make that error now that, you know,there's no doubt that digital content has boomed over recent years. We've got more online businesses than ever before, which is fabulous. It's fabulous that this is the age that we live and that our services can be accessed so far and wide.
[00:11:41] I think it's incredible, but the caveat to that is you need to make sure you're protected in the same way that you do when you're engaging with your clients in a one on one capacity. You have your client contracts for that. Your website T's and C's and your privacy policy, which form The core trio of documents that I talk about so often, They're just as important to get them right, to make sure that you're set up properly, that you're complying with your obligations under the consumer law, that you're protecting your business and you're building trust and credibility with your clients. We've all seen fly by night websites come along, buy this for me, do this for me, I promise you this, we've all seen it.
[00:12:21] But one of the things you can do, I do it always, I know my clients do it now, you can too. One of the things you can do always is scroll to the bottom of that website that you haven't seen before and have a look. Do they have website terms and conditions? Do they have a privacy policy? If they don't, then you, do what I do,move on because they're either saying to you, I don't know.
[00:12:41] I'm not a serious business person, or I just don't care. And regardless, I don't want to do business with that, soyour website terms and conditions do so much more than just tick a box to say, yep. I've done it. They need to be tailored for your business to protect what's happening on your website and if done well, you're helping build trust and credibility with your potential clients because you're sending the message right from the first time someone lands on your website, yes, I'm a serious business person and yes, I know what I'm doing. I hope this has been helpful for you in answering any questions you may have had around why do we need website T's and C's and why are they so important?
[00:13:18] I have resources on my website as well if you want to dive in and read more about your website T's and C's about your privacy policy. There's a page specifically dedicated to website documents on the resources page of my website. You can go and check it out.
[00:13:34] There's loads of stuff there designed to help you and answer questions that other people have had.
[00:13:38] If you want to talk more about developing website terms and conditions that are tailored for your business, please reach out. I would love to have the conversation and I'm so happy to help. You can reach me on Instagram over in DMs or send me a message through the website for tmsolicitor. com. au. I always love hearing from you and can catch me easiest those two ways.
[00:13:59] As always, thanks for your time. I appreciate you listening. I'll catch you next time.
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