Now the fun stuff… website legal requirements. So you want to run a business or create an online home for a hobby or just blog about a topic or your life in general – guess what! You’re legally required to have a few things on your website.

If you’re collecting any sort of personal information, you are LEGALLY REQUIRED to have a Privacy Policy posted on your website – both by new GDPR laws and by US law. Per GDPR, if you have visitors from the EU and your site utilizes cookies (most do) then you also need a cookies banner.

Here’s the quick guide on website legal requirements:

Cookies banner – this is easy. If you have a WordPress site, download the plugin ‘GDPR Cookie Consent’. This will automatically put the banner up on your site in fonts that match your theme defaults, but you can also customize it if you like. In SquareSpace, simply go Settings -> Cookies & Visitor Data, and enable the Cookie Banner there.

For a Privacy Policy, you can run a Google search to find templates, or grab one off of a reputable, well-established site. Be sure to read through it and customize it for your site. You’ll want to make sure the following is included:

  • Your company information, and contact information.A description of what information you collect (such as cookies), your legal basis for doing so, and what you do with it
  • Their rights under the GDPR
  • A list of any recipients of the personal data you collect (for example, do you use Google Analytics to process data, or MailChimp to store emails?)
  • Disclose any statutory or contractual requirements for processing personal data, and their right to lodge a complaint if they believe their data has been used improperly
  • Their right to withdraw consent at will, or to request erasure, ratification or access
  • Mention how long you keep data

For my health coaches, you’ll also want a Medical Disclaimer. This should outline that you are not a doctor and that suggestions provided on your website, or any associated services are not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional.

Of course, the gold standard is to have a lawyer draft this up for you, but this will do in a pinch!