Basic Website Terms and Conditions

The Basic Website Terms and Conditions are designed for use with simple, generic websites that provide straightforward, non-interactive content with no e-commerce or contact tools. These template terms and conditions are best suited to websites operated by individuals or micro businesses.

What are the Key Provisions of these Basic Website Terms and Conditions?

These website terms and conditions are intended to be accepted through use. Visitors are deemed to have accepted them as soon as they start using your site. This is made clear at the start of the terms. 

References are also included to other terms which apply, such as a privacy policy. The most suitable match is the Basic Limited Data Website Privacy Policy  Download this policy if your website collects only minimal, technical or contact details. Alternatively, please download the Basic No Cookies Website Privacy Policy if your website collects broader personal data but without use of cookies.

Important information about the website operator is provided, including company registration details, trading address, and details of any relevant regulatory bodies or associations. For certain trades and professions there may be additional information that website operators are required by law to provide. Members of regulated professions should include professional titles, links to professional rules and other important details. Such details are not included in this template and professional advice should be sought by those working in regulated professions.

Intellectual property rights such as copyright are protected by these terms and conditions. Various options are included in the template to allow you to choose how many freedoms to give to your users when it comes to saving and copying material from your site. These options are grouped into two versions of the IP clause. The first is more restrictive; the second, more flexible with more options.

This template has been recently updated to include a clause prohibiting scraping and text and data mining, practices commonly used in the development and training of AI models. The clause is designed to ensure that such activities are a direct breach of the website’s terms of use. It is also recommended that technical measures be taken to further protect a website’s content from scraping and text and data mining.

Further key provisions address links to and from the site, disclaimers, liability (with different provisions for consumers and business users), viruses and security, and acceptable use of the site.

Alternative non e-commerce terms and conditions are also available to download:
The Small Business Brochure Terms and Conditions are more suitable for websites that "showcase" a business but also do not sell directly online. This template has the same general framework (see Key Provisions below) with added disclaimers relating to "no online sales",  provision of general information only and confirming sales to be covered by separate contracts (e.g. offline, phone, email), and including liability disclaimers for possible differences between the online information and actual products/services. These are suitable small businesses with static brochure sites such as restaurants, trades and professional services. 
The Small Business Brochure (+ Contact Tools) Website Terms and Conditions has all the provisions as the above template but includes additional clauses to provide for online contact features such as contact forms or live chat. It defines "Contact Tools", lists acceptable/unacceptable content in communications. It states that communications will be monitored and that personal information shared via the contact tools will be subject to the Privacy Policy (see below).  Whilst all 3 of these terms and conditions include an acceptable usage policy clause, the "contact tools" version also provides for a separate policy.

These Basic Website Terms and Conditions contain the following clauses:

1. Definitions and Interpretation
2. Information About Us
3. How to Contact Us
4. Access to Our Site
5. Changes to Our Site
6. Changes to these Terms and Conditions
7. [International Users]
8. How You May Use Our Site and Content (Intellectual Property Rights)
9. No Scraping, Text or Data Mining
10. Links to Our Site
11. Links to Other Sites
12. Disclaimers
13. Our Liability
14. Viruses, Malware, and Security
15. Acceptable Usage of Our Site
16. How We Use Your Personal Information
17. [Communications from Us]
18. Law and Jurisdiction

This document is unlocked and in .doc format. Either enter the requisite details in the highlighted fields or adjust the wording to suit your purposes.

Optional phrases / clauses are enclosed in square brackets. These should be read carefully and selected so as to be compatible with one another. Unused options should be removed from the document. Please note that while clause numbering is automatic, cross references to other clauses within the text do not update automatically and must be changed manually if the addition or removal of other clauses changes numbering.

Basic Website Terms and Conditions is part of Business . Just £38.50 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Business for 1 year.