4 Reasons Why You Need a Terms & Conditions Document On Your Site

REASON #1: LAY DOWN THE LAW FOR YOUR SITE!

A Terms and Conditions (also called Terms of Use or Terms of Service) acts as a legally binding contract between yourself and visitors to your website. This agreement sets the ground rules and guidelines for any visitor to your site.

Any visitor to your site must follow these rules in order to access or use your website.

Why is it important to set the ground rules? Well because it helps prevent any abuses for happening on your site. For example, it prevents visitors from spamming other visitors, making derogatory comments on your blog posts, from hacking into your website or basically any other rule that you see fit for your website.

This gives you the power to ban any visitor from your site if they break any of the rules that you create.

REASON #2: SETS HOW YOU SETTLE DISPUTES

A Terms and Conditions sets the Governing Law for your website.

Okay, this seems boring, right?! Well it’s actually a really important reason to have a Terms & Conditions in place on your website!

Governing Law refers to the jurisdiction where a dispute will be settled. For example, if you’re located in San Francisco, California and a visitor from Ohio wants to bring an action for a lawsuit for something you posted on your website, you don’t want to travel to Ohio to defend yourself!

The Governing Law section will require all disputes to be settled in (or as close to) your hometown! No more traveling!

This section can also require all disputes to be settled by arbitration or mediation rather than a lawsuit… saving you SO MUCH money!!

REASON #3: OWN YOUR S&*T

As a business owner, you have a TON of intellectual property, whether you know it or not! Your logo, the content you create, the website design, titles to your courses, just to name a few.

Your Terms and Conditions lets your visitors know which information you own and that it is protected under intellectual property law, copyright law and trademark law.

EVEN IF you don’t have any content that is trademarked or has been granted a copyright, you can still protect it! This is so important as business owners that we remain unique and stand out!

REASON #4: LIMITS YOUR LIABILITY

Terms and Conditions should have a warranty disclaimer in them that limits your liability in case any errors are found in the content that you post.

This puts your visitors on notice that you cannot be held responsible for any errors in the content which is posted, or for the information provided as being accurate, complete or suitable for any purpose.

If for some reason you post something in error on your site, you want to make sure that the visitor knows that following any “advice” is their responsibility and that you make no guarantees for the accuracy of the content.