5 Legal Requirements for Small Business Websites

Many regulations affect business websites, from GDPR to ADA compliance. Although the rules can seem overwhelming, we have compiled a list of 5 legal requirements to help you protect your customers as well as web visitors.

These legal requirements are more than just minimizing legal risk and avoiding liability to the site owner. They create goodwill and show respect for your customers. These requirements are essential in establishing and maintaining trust with your customers. These elements will not only ensure a safe online environment but also improve the customer experience.

1. Compliance with the ADA and web accessibility

Every business website must consider accessibility best practices when designing and writing content. Web accessibility is ensuring that all users have equal access to your website’s information.

These best practices are not easy to understand. The legal landscape is confusing right now. The American Disabilities Act was first passed in 1990. There were no websites at the time. Therefore, the original legislation did not provide clear guidelines for applying websites to ADA compliance.

However, several legal proceedings have shown that websites can be considered “places for public accommodation.”

The courts have recommended the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG) in the most recent court proceedings, including the Dominos lawsuit.

Every year, there are more lawsuits against businesses because of inaccessible websites. Implementing the WCAG standards for your website can help reduce this risk. The WCAG’s most important features include:

• Alternate text for specific imagery
• Captions for video content
• Adequate color contrast ratios
• Accessible forms with clear labels.
• Navigation via keyboard throughout the site

These are only a few of many items. You’ll want the complete WCAG 2.1 guidelines to discuss accessibility with your legal counsel or a web agency that is familiar with accessibility.

You might also consider creating an Accessibility statement or feedback page for your website. It will allow users to find out how to contact you about accessibility issues. Visitors who have difficulty using your site or need to give feedback about accessibility issues can use this page as a way to contact you. Accessibility is an ongoing process and not a one-off project, as content frequently changes on all sites.

2. Data privacy and collection

Data privacy has been a controversial topic over the past few years, with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in Europe. Similar policies in the U.S. State-level laws include the California Online Privacy Protection Act and the most recent California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), both passed in 2019.

If you collect personal information from your users, one of these requirements is that you have a privacy statement on your website. The definition of “personal information” is different depending on the law. However, it can include names, email addresses, addresses, and sometimes IP addresses.

It doesn’t matter if you collect data or not; it is safer to add a privacy statement and put a link in a prominent place on your site. Most businesses will include a link to their privacy policy page in their footer.

Legislation like the GDPR or CCPA is more than a privacy policy. It requires that businesses allow users to request a copy (or deletion) of their collected data.

It’s essential to include a Personal Data Request Form on your website to meet this requirement. WordPress can be used as a CMS. There are features within the WordPress core that allow you to process a request for data in your website dashboard. In addition, you can include instructions on how customers can reach you to request copies or deletions of their data in your privacy policy.

Consumers are becoming more aware of privacy regulations. As a result, things like cookie notifications and privacy policies have become trust symbols for businesses websites.

3. Copyright requirements

Every business website should consider copyright and protecting intellectual property. You can add a copyright notice in the footer to protect your business from copyright infringement if someone copies or reuses your website content.

During a website build or redesign, most web designers will place this text in the footer. Copyright notices must contain the copyright symbol, or the words “copyright” or “copy,” the year that the website was created, and the name or business name of the owner.

You must ensure that your website design does not violate copyright laws.

Inappropriate image use is a serious legal problem. Although it may seem obvious, you shouldn’t download images from Google and put them on your website. These images could be licensed stock images or owned by other websites. Therefore, you could be violating copyright laws by placing these images on your website.

Stock imagery is something you should be cautious about when purchasing stock images. There are many free stock image websites, but high-quality sites will benefit from imagery purchased from places like Shutterstock or Getty Images.

You must ensure that the images you use are licensed and purchased from these sites. These companies can track down images that have been misused through metadata and take legal action to stop them from being used again.

You should be aware of the source of your images and what licensing they have. For example, specific Getty images can be used on websites, but you will need an additional license to print marketing materials or advertising. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that you don’t inadvertently violate these terms by using images from your website and placing them into marketing materials.

4. Data security measures

Data privacy is not the only legal area that covers protecting and secure data. For example, all 50 US states have legislation that requires businesses to notify customers about any security breaches that could affect customers’ data.

Companies exposed to consumer data to security breaches are subject to reporting requirements under the GDPR or CCPA. Similar to privacy laws, personal data can refer to a wide range of consumer information, including email addresses, phone numbers, and more unique items.

Remember that even though you’re not collecting confidential information or processing payments, security problems can still arise on your website and within your business.

Implementing security protocols on your website is one of the best ways you can reduce your liability. In addition, it is a good idea to invest in a secure hosting platform and an SSL certificate.

WordPress is a content management platform. It means that you need to keep up with software and plugin updates. These often include security patches. There is a greater risk of your site being hacked due to increased online transactions and activities. Businesses also continually invest in a 24/7 security monitoring system to monitor their site.

It is vital to assess what data is stored and collected on your website to ensure web security.

Finally, trust and credibility are built with visitors through web security. Visitors won’t feel secure navigating and submitting information to your site. It will make it difficult to convert them.

5. eCommerce transactions and compliance

eCommerce websites are more vulnerable to data security than traditional sales sites. eCommerce fraud has increased nearly twice as fast.

If you process any payments through the site, you will be subject to additional data security and privacy liability. Major credit card companies created the PCI Security Standards Council to create these global standards. These standards must be followed by all online merchants that accept credit cards payments, regardless of how many transactions they receive.

These guidelines provide extensive guidance for PCI compliance. However, the core principle is to store and protect cardholder information adequately.

Avoid storing credit card information on any website. Instead, use a third-party payment gateway that securely collects credit card information and authorizes payment. The most used payment gateways are Authorize.net, Stripe, PayPal, and Stripe. All of these payment gateways can help you reduce your risk for PCI compliance through credit card processing.

These payment gateways can integrate with most eCommerce platforms and can be configured so that customers stay on your site during the checkout process. It is essential to be familiar with all PCI compliance regulations and eCommerce security before setting up an online shop or adding a paid subscription site.

You will need to create a Terms and Conditions page for an eCommerce site.

It is possible to set up the checkout process so that customers must agree to these terms and conditions before completing a transaction. However, you might consider consulting your legal counsel before you create the terms and conditions. They will give your business some legal protection in case of customer disputes.

Disclaimer. The opinions and views expressed in this article are the authors Shalom Lamm.