Terms and Conditions for a Website

What Are Website Terms and Conditions?

Terms and conditions are a legally binding contract between a website owner and its users that explains how a website works and should be used. Terms and Conditions, also known as Terms and Policy for Website, define in detail how the interaction between a website and a user takes place.

A website terms and conditions template usually outlines the following:

• rules for buying products or services;
• general rules related to interaction with a platform;
• payment terms (if applicable);
• community rules (provided a website offers users to post or comment for user-generated content);
• list of actions that are prohibited on the website;
• dispute resolution method and contact details.

Terms and conditions for website is not just a formality. It is the most important document for any business that operates online and has its presence on the Internet. FasterDraft offers a Terms of Service template for various types of online businesses:

• ecommerce website (selling certain goods, products, or services);
• blog purpose website (for posting various types of content);
• business or news website;
• educational platforms, etc.

The content of every terms and conditions template differs depending on the website’s type, purpose, and list of actions users can do. For example, if you have an online store, terms and conditions should include payment terms and refund policies. However, this might not be necessary for a news website or portfolio website.

It is common to refer to the terms of service for a website as a terms and conditions agreement. This is so because terms of use represent an agreement between a website owner and users of a website. Under this agreement a website owner offers the usage of their website according to certain rules, and users agree to that. Unlike classic agreements, website terms and conditions cannot be changed by users. They are being changed by a website’s owner only in unilateral order.

Usually, web terms and conditions are used in conjunction with a privacy policy. Unlike terms and conditions, a privacy policy is a legal document that is focused specifically on the protection of a user’s data while they are using a website.

Reasons to Have Terms and Conditions on Your Website

Neither federal nor state laws require owners of a website to have terms and conditions. In that case you may be wondering what the reason is for having a terms of use template for a website at all. We have a few unbeatable arguments for you:

Legal Protection.

In fact, having a solid terms and conditions template protects your online business as it limits your liability for errors, downtime, or misuse of your website.

User Expectations.

Even for websites having small traffic, clarifying acceptable use policy is a must. Anyone who accesses your website should be aware of prohibited activities, as well as expectations.

Dispute Resolution.

Dispute resolution is an essential element for any online business. Even if you do not plan to sell anything through the website, website visitors might still not be happy for various reasons. Thus, having a solid conflict resolution tool in the form of terms and conditions can help.

Intellectual Property.

You may wish to protect your trademarks, content, and other proprietary assets that are placed on the website against possible infringements.

Payment Terms.

Web terms and conditions templates for e-commerce stores help to clarify payment methods, subscriptions, and regular billing for goods and services. You may wish to outline those terms in a separate policy, or you can include them in the terms of service template as well.

Professionalism.

Clear terms and policy for the website allow you to place all the mandatory rules for website operation and management in one place.

How to Write Terms and Conditions for Your Website or Online Store

It is always challenging to create a sample terms and conditions for website from scratch. If you’re wondering how to write terms and conditions, explore our tips below to create your personalized site terms and conditions template:

Define Your Business

Think about the main purpose of your website. Do you plan to become an e-commerce website selling something to end-users, or do you want to share some news about business, the economy, etc.? Firstly, it helps to define the structure and content of the future document. Secondly, it helps you to set guidelines for users’ behavior.

Set the Rules

Once a website’s purpose is clear, you can dive deeper by thinking about which things you want users to be able to do at your website and which not. The things you do not want them to do are known as prohibited actions. This is the list of important limitations—the longer the list, the better.

If users of a website can post and create their own content, another important pillar for terms and conditions for the website is defining rules on user-generated content. Think how users will be able to generate content—via registration, subscription, or without it.

For e-commerce websites, it is vital to explain in detail how the purchase, delivery, and return should take place. The more detailed those rules are explained in the web terms and conditions template, the fewer disputes and complaints from your potential customers and users you will have along the road.

Limitation of Liabilities

In order to protect your e-commerce website from possible litigations, think about disclaimers for liability in advance. In simple words, a disclaimer on liability limits a website owner’s liability for any omissions, errors, or other mistakes a user can encounter while accessing or using the website.

Limitation of liability basically means setting up a maximum threshold a website is ready to compensate for the said omissions, errors, or mistakes. For instance, the liability could be limited to a fixed amount. It is also possible to limit the liability for the total sum of all customers’ purchases made by them within a specific period of time through the website.

Explain Dispute Resolution

A good example of a web page terms and conditions template usually has a detailed clause on how a dispute between a website owner and a user should be dealt with. Parties can go through the negotiation process themselves first.

If it does not help, a website owner may select a court of a specific type that shall deal with a dispute. Usually this is a court of the state where the business is registered or mainly operates. Another option is to select an independent arbitration or mediation.

Use Appropriate Language

The language in which you create your terms and conditions template also matters. If it is being written in a simple and engaging way, it will help users to better understand the rules of usage, as well as manage their expectations of a website. When drafting website terms and conditions, think about the portrait of your ideal customer—their background, profession, and interests. This should help you better adjust the wording and create a good document.

What to Include in Your Site’s Terms and Conditions?

There are no specific legal requirements that website terms and conditions should or should not include:

Introduction.

This is a part of a document where a business owner explains the purpose of a website. This chapter can also include short information about the company, its goals, or its values.

It is also common to include here the definition of terms used within the terms and conditions template.

Acceptance of Terms.

A standard terms and conditions template explains how users should agree to the terms. There are a number of ways to do that: (1) check the box; (2) use the website by default; (3) proceed with the registration at the website; (4) perform a purchase; and so on.

Your website terms and conditions should be placed directly on the website so that users can easily spot them while scrolling the website. The link to the terms and conditions page can be placed in the footer of a website, for instance.

Change of Terms.

A website owner may need to adjust the existing website terms and conditions from time to time. It might be necessary due to various reasons: (1) change of legislation; (2) change of how websites operate; (3) addition or removal of certain website features (e.g., users can generate content or purchase goods); and so on.

Therefore, every website terms of service template should explain how the changes can be introduced. However, the most important thing here is that those changes should be communicated directly to the users. Either of the following ways could be chosen:

• Change of “Last Updated” date in the text of terms and conditions.
• Send a personalized email to every website’s customer informing them about the changes.
• Put a message/banner on the front page of a website to communicate about changes, etc.

Having a clear policy regarding terms and conditions’ amendment protects every business from potential customer claims.

Account Requirements.

If users of your website can create their accounts, in that case, the website terms of use template should define the process of registration, recovery of password, and termination of account.

Payment Terms.

This chapter is mandatory only when creating terms and conditions for ecommerce website. This chapter should detail price formation, billing cycles, refunds, and payment methods, as well as terms and conditions for credit card use on e-commerce websites.

Shipping and Returns.

Same as for payment terms, shipping and returns policies should be included only in sample terms and conditions for online stores. Some website owners prefer to outline them in separate documents, while others prefer to keep everything in one document.

Shipping terms may include delivery methods, a list of states/countries where delivery can be performed, and conditions for delivery (e.g., free delivery, paid delivery, etc.).

A returns and refunds policy is also vital when creating website terms of use template. It should deal with the following: (1) list of items that cannot be returned/refunded (e.g., items that are on sale or that expire quickly); (2) time limitation for claiming return or refund (e.g., within 10 days after purchase, etc.).

Contact Information.

For better communication, it is recommended to include a phone number, email, or both so that users can contact the website’s owner to raise a complaint or leave feedback.

Get your website’s terms and conditions template online.

There are a lot of website terms and conditions generators online that offer website terms and conditions for free. It might be appealing, though we won’t recommend using them, and here is why:

• Firstly, a free template might not reflect the type of your online business. For example, you want to create ecommerce website terms and conditions, while a free sample is for an online blog post website.
• Secondly, a free template might not be up to date or contain legal mistakes and errors.

FasterDraft offers customized website terms of use templates for online stores and ecommerce businesses. In order to create your personalized sample terms, follow the steps below:

• Click on the button “Create Document.”
• Answer a few simple questions inside the questionnaire.
• Select a format for the Terms and Conditions template—PDF or Word.
• Make a payment.
• Your personalized Terms of Service template is ready for download.