Terms and conditions are one of the most important elements for an online business or presence.  Any business that has a website needs them. Though there’s no law that requires them, they are necessary. Essentially, it’s your agreement as the website operator with the visitors of your website. It includes what they can and can not do on your website and what your are offering to website visitors. In addition, it acts as protection for the website operator and the visitors.

Even if your website is simple and only has your blog or list service information, it’s helpful to have terms and conditions. For websites that includes you selling services or products then it needs to be more in depth and in detail. Though it differs how much information to include dependent on what type of website, all terms of use have similar elements.

Terms and Conditions Elements

1. First, is information about the website and the business that operates it. An example would be “welcome to Ice Cream website operate by Ice Cream Coolers. Here is our contact information. These terms of usage govern your use of our website.” That’s a very common introductory paragraph. Just letting people know they’ve landed on your website and in order for them to use it and these are the things you’ll agree to.
2. Permitted use of the site is next. What can your user’s do on your site? It’s common to give age restrictions due to privacy requirements. Another example would be what type of content user’s can upload. If you have a blog, what type of things can they comment on? This helps with protecting what people can use or not use on your site.