A brochure site needs short website terms covering content ownership, accuracy and liability, which is different from the contract terms governing the work you actually do.

Two different documents

The confusion behind most of what goes wrong here.

Website terms govern the use of the site: who owns the content, that information may not be current, and the limits of your responsibility for it.

Contract terms govern the work: payment, cancellation, variations, guarantees, what happens if something goes wrong on site.

Those are separate, they serve different purposes, and the second is far more important to a trade business.

A downloaded template frequently mixes them, producing a page about online orders on a site that takes none.

None of this is legal advice, and terms that actually matter are worth having drafted properly for what your business does.

What a brochure site needs

The second is the practically useful one for a trade, since a price on a page that somebody quotes back to you is exactly the situation this addresses.

What it does not need

The clauses that arrive with templates and describe a different business.

Refund and returns policies, where nothing is sold.

Shipping terms.

Account registration, passwords and user conduct, where there are no accounts.

Subscription and cancellation terms for a service that is not subscribed to.

Each of those is harmless in isolation and collectively they produce a document that plainly was not written for the business, which undermines the parts that matter.

A worked example

A trade business whose website terms ran to several thousand words, downloaded from a template site.

It covered digital downloads, user-generated content, account termination and international shipping.

The business fitted kitchens.

What it did not contain was anything about prices on the site being indicative, which was the only clause they had ever needed, having twice had a customer quote an outdated figure back at them.

They replaced it with about four hundred words covering the five points above.

Shorter, relevant, and for the first time actually addressing the situation the business had encountered.

The prices clause specifically

Worth doing properly, since it is the one that earns its place.

Prices on a website are generally an invitation to enquire rather than a binding offer, and saying so plainly is sensible.

Which means stating that figures are indicative, subject to survey or inspection, and confirmed in a written quotation.

That is not a way of avoiding your prices. It is an accurate description of how quoting works for any job where the scope is not known in advance.

And it is better placed on the service pages themselves, beside the figures, than buried in terms nobody reads.

The counter-case

Where fuller terms are genuinely needed.

Anything sold or paid for through the site, including deposits, which brings consumer protection requirements with it.

Accounts, logins, or anything storing customer data beyond an enquiry form.

Booking systems where a slot is reserved and may be cancelled.

And downloads, quoting tools, or anything the visitor uses rather than reads.

In those cases the requirements are real and specific, and a template is the wrong instrument.

Accessibility statements

A third document worth a mention, since it appears in footers increasingly.

An accessibility statement describes what the site does to be usable and how somebody can report a problem.

Which is useful when it is true and worse than nothing when it is not, since a statement claiming conformance on an untested site is a claim you cannot support.

For a small business, a short honest version works: what you have done, what you know is imperfect, and how to tell you about a problem.

That is more credible than a template asserting a standard nobody checked.

Contract terms are the important ones

Worth saying plainly, since attention goes to the website page and the money is in the other document.

The terms governing your work decide what happens when a job overruns, a customer changes their mind, materials rise in price, or payment is late.

Those situations occur regularly and the website terms are irrelevant to all of them.

Which means a business with excellent website terms and no written contract terms has protected the wrong thing.

Getting contract terms drafted for your trade is one of the better uses of professional fees available to a small business.

The template problem generally

Worth naming, since it applies to every document in a website footer.

A template is written to cover the widest possible range of businesses, which means it contains clauses for situations you are not in.

Those are not merely redundant. A document describing accounts, shipping and downloads suggests nobody read it, which weakens the clauses that do apply.

It also occasionally contains something actively wrong for your jurisdiction, since many templates are written elsewhere.

Cutting a template down to what applies is better than leaving it whole, and having something short drafted properly is better than either.

What a footer link signals

A minor benefit worth knowing about.

Terms and a privacy policy in the footer are among the things a cautious visitor looks for when deciding whether a business is real.

Their absence is noticed by a proportion of people, particularly for anything involving money.

Which is a reason to have them beyond any obligation, and a reason for them to be readable rather than impressive.

Where it should live

A practical note.

Linked from the footer, on every page, alongside the privacy policy.

Not in the main menu, since it is not something anybody is looking for.

Dated, with a note of when it was last updated, which is a small signal that the site is maintained.

And readable: short paragraphs, plain wording, no capitals throughout, since a document nobody can read protects nobody.

What to do

  1. Read your current terms and note what does not apply.
  2. Delete everything about shopping if you sell nothing.
  3. Add a prices are indicative clause.
  4. Repeat that beside your actual prices.
  5. Link it from the footer and date it.
  6. Get contract terms drafted properly.

The sixth is the one that actually matters commercially, and it is precisely the one that the website page tends to distract attention from.

The other footer document is covered in installing analytics without breaking privacy rules.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the two documents?

Website terms govern use of the site; contract terms govern the work. They are separate, and the second matters far more to a trade business.

What does a brochure site need?

Content ownership, a statement that information may change and prices are indicative, liability limits, a note about external links, and which law applies.

What does it not need?

Refunds, shipping, account registration and subscription terms, where none of those exist. They make the document plainly not written for the business.

Which clause is most useful?

That prices are indicative, subject to inspection, and confirmed in writing. That addresses the actual situation of a customer quoting an outdated figure.

When are fuller terms needed?

Anything sold or paid for through the site including deposits, accounts and logins, booking systems, and anything the visitor uses rather than reads.

What should I prioritise?

Contract terms for the work. A business with excellent website terms and no written contract terms has protected the wrong thing.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Terms covering shipping and refunds on a kitchen fitting site?

Four hundred relevant words beat four thousand describing somebody else's business.

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