I’m usually the person on the team who volunteers to read the terms and conditions. So when I signed up for a seven-day workshop, then discovered I needed a beginner class before I was eligible to attend, I had questions.
The workshop hadn’t been labeled as advanced on the website. The company canceled my booking, kept my payment as a credit, and refused a refund, pointing me to the terms. The workshop cost a few thousand dollars more than the beginner class. Now I have a large credit and another class to arrange.
I’m not deciding the legal dispute in a blog post. But the customer-service lesson is clear: eligibility requirements, prices, and cancellation conditions need to make sense together before payment. A paragraph in the terms isn’t a substitute for explaining the offer.
These fifteen website standards help close that gap between what a visitor expects and what a business delivers. Some improve usability. Some explain the agreement. Others concern privacy, security, or responsibilities that depend on your industry and location. Not terribly glamorous. Considerably more interesting when your money is involved.
The short answer: which standards should you check?
Check on every website: accessibility, clear button labels, accurate business information, content permissions, data protection, and whether your data collection, tracking, and visitor interactions require specific policies or controls.
Check when taking payments or fulfilling orders: payment security, pricing, purchase terms, cancellations, refunds, and—when you send physical products—shipping and returns.
Check when your content, audience, or industry creates additional responsibilities: professional rules, legal disclaimers, promotional disclosures, and customer reviews.
An online shop should assess the full checklist, not assume every document applies identically. A business selling online classes doesn’t need a parcel policy simply because the business accepts payments. A service business without a checkout may still need clear pricing and cancellation terms.
Tap any square to jump to it.
- 01AccessibilityEvery site
- 02Terms & conditionsEvery site
- 03Privacy policyEvery site
- 04Contact detailsEvery site
- 05Cookies & trackingEvery site
- 06CopyrightEvery site
- 07Button labelsEvery site
- 08Security & paymentsE-commerce only
- 09ShippingE-commerce only
- 10Refunds & returnsE-commerce only
- 11PricingE-commerce only
- 12Industry rulesDepends on your content
- 13DisclaimersDepends on your content
- 14Promo disclosuresDepends on your content
- 15Genuine reviewsDepends on your content
Every site
1. Accessibility: help everyone use your site
If someone can’t read your text, use your menu, or fill in your form, they can’t do business with you.
Check that text stands out clearly from the background, that the site works without a mouse, that form fields are labeled, that images have short descriptions, and that videos have captions. Try it on a phone too: can you tap each button without hitting the one next to it?
WCAG (the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the standard most people check against. It’s worth asking a professional which requirements apply to your site.
Customer benefit: more people can read, get in touch, book, or buy.
2. Terms and conditions: explain the deal before anyone pays
When a customer and a business understand a deal differently, someone ends up disappointed, usually after money has changed hands.
Say what’s included, when payment is due, who the service is for, and what happens if either side cancels. Put the important conditions next to the booking or buy button, not just in the footer. That’s the lesson from my workshop: the sales page and the terms need to tell the same story.
Have a qualified professional check your terms. Small print can’t take away a customer’s legal rights, and an informational site doesn’t need the same contract as an online shop.
Customer benefit: the customer knows what they’re agreeing to before they pay.
3. Privacy policy: say what happens to people’s information
When someone types their email into your form, they’re trusting you with it. They deserve to know where it goes.
Follow the information through your own systems. Does a contact-form message land in your inbox, a customer database, or an email-marketing tool? Your privacy policy should say what you collect, why, who else gets it, how long you keep it, and how people can contact you about it.
I’ve spent weeks with a client’s legal team making sure their policy matched what the business actually did. That’s the real work: checking the promises against reality. When you add a new tool, review the policy then, not six months later.
Customer benefit: visitors know how you’ll handle their information, and you can stand behind what you’ve promised.
4. Contact information: make it easy to see who you are
If people can’t tell who runs a website or how to reach them, they move on.
Show your business name, how to contact you, your hours, and where you work or which area you serve. Keep those details consistent with your Google Business Profile and other listings. If you work from home, you don’t have to publish your home address; check what you’re actually required to show.
Clear business details help people and search tools understand who you are. A contact page on its own won’t put you on Google Maps, though. That needs a Business Profile.
Customer benefit: visitors can tell whether you’re right for them and reach a real person.
5. Cookies and tracking: ask before you track
Many sites start tracking visitors the moment they arrive, before anyone has had a say.
A cookie is a small file your site saves in a visitor’s browser. Some are essential, like keeping someone logged in or remembering their cart. Others measure visits or follow people for advertising. Ask your developer which ones your site uses, including any added by analytics, video embeds, or chat tools.
Where the rules require consent, optional tracking should wait until the visitor says yes, and “Reject” should actually work. If you market to people in Europe, EU cookie rules and GDPR may apply even though your business is in the US. Get advice on your situation.
Customer benefit: visitors get a real choice, and your site does what it says.
6. Copyright: keep proof you’re allowed to use it
Using a photo, font, or piece of music without the right permission can lead to a bill you didn’t expect.
Check the license before you publish, and give credit where the license asks for it. A credit or a link isn’t the same as permission.
A client of mine once got a demand for thousands of dollars over a font on their website. They had paid for it, but the font company had changed owners and had no record of the sale. Producing the original receipt cleared it. Keep receipts and license terms somewhere your business can find them.
Customer benefit: your site stays up and your content stays yours, without avoidable disputes.
7. Clear button labels: say what happens next
A button that just says “Submit” leaves people guessing.
Use words that describe the action: “Send my message,” “Book my appointment,” “Pay now.” Read each button on its own. Would a first-time visitor know what happens when they press it? Then check that the page they land on matches what the button promised.
Customer benefit: visitors take the next step with confidence.
E-commerce only
8. Secure payments: protect information on the way in
When someone sends a message or pays on your site, their details travel across the internet. They need protecting on the way.
HTTPS (the padlock in the browser bar) scrambles that information so nobody can read it in transit. Every page needs it, including contact forms, not just checkouts. It doesn’t prove a business is honest, though, and it doesn’t protect information once it’s stored.
For payments, use an established provider so card details go through their secure system, never your inbox. Keep your site updated, use strong passwords with two-step login, and only collect what you need.
Customer benefit: less chance of a customer’s information ending up where it shouldn’t.
9. Shipping and delivery: keep customers informed after they pay
Nobody minds waiting. They mind not knowing.
Say where you ship, what it costs, how long you need to prepare the order, and how long delivery takes. “Two-day shipping” doesn’t mean much if you need a week to make the product first.
Send an order confirmation, a shipping email, and a tracking link, and tell people who to contact if something goes wrong. Then place a test order yourself and see whether the experience matches your policy.
Customer benefit: customers know when to expect their order and where to go for help.
10. Refunds and returns: explain the way back
If customers can’t tell whether they can return something, many won’t buy it in the first place.
Say whether you offer a refund, an exchange, or store credit; how long people have; and what condition items need to be in. Then explain the steps: how to start a return, how the item gets back to you, who pays postage, and when the refund arrives. A “final sale” label doesn’t cancel someone’s rights if the product is faulty.
Some shoe retailers make returns so easy you can order four pairs and send back the ones that don’t fit. I’ve done exactly that and kept more pairs than I meant to. Generous returns don’t suit every business, so choose a policy you can afford and deliver.
Customer benefit: customers feel safe buying, and know what to do if it doesn’t work out.
11. Clear pricing: show the full cost up front
Surprise costs at checkout are one of the fastest ways to lose a customer’s trust.
Say what the price includes and whether anything else is required. In my workshop example, needing another paid class first changed the real cost. Show taxes, fees, and delivery before people commit, and for subscriptions, explain how often they’ll be billed and what happens after any introductory price.
If you offer custom work, you don’t need a fixed price. A starting price or a range, with a note on what affects the quote, helps people decide whether to get in touch.
Customer benefit: customers can tell whether it fits their budget before they pay.
Depends on your content
12. Industry rules: check the extra rules for your work
Some businesses have rules a general checklist won’t cover.
A bakery may need to list allergens. A financial adviser needs to explain risks. A service that collects information from children has extra responsibilities. What applies depends on what you do, who you serve, and where.
Ask your regulator, professional body, or an adviser what your website needs to show, then check your pages and forms against it.
Customer benefit: customers get the information they need to make a safe decision.
13. Disclaimers: be clear when information is general
Readers can mistake a general article for personal advice.
If you publish helpful articles on things like tax, health, law, or money, say what the article is for. For example: “This article gives general information about US taxes, not advice for your situation. Speak to a qualified tax professional before acting on it.”
Put the note where readers will see it, and keep the content accurate. A disclaimer won’t fix a misleading headline.
Customer benefit: readers understand what your information can and can’t do for them.
14. Promotional disclosures: say when you benefit from a recommendation
If you’re paid to recommend something, readers deserve to know.
Use plain words next to the recommendation: “I earn a commission if you buy through this link,” or “The company gave me this product to review.” “Affiliate link” on its own may not mean much to readers.
For example, I run Fast Forward Hosting as a GoDaddy reseller, so when I recommend that hosting, I say my business earns from it. The same goes for sales: if something is “half price,” the original price has to be real.
Customer benefit: readers can weigh the recommendation knowing the full picture.
15. Genuine reviews: ask for them, don’t manufacture them
People trust other customers more than they trust a business talking about itself.
So ask. After a sale or a finished project, send a short thank-you with your direct review link, or print a QR code on a receipt or thank-you card. Let customers use their own words.
Don’t write your own reviews, buy fake ones, or ask staff and family to pose as customers. On Google, don’t offer anything in exchange for a review, and don’t send the link only to customers you expect to be happy. Google prohibits both.
A bad review can work in your favor. A mix of opinions looks more believable than a wall of five stars, and a calm, honest reply shows future customers how you handle problems.
Customer benefit: the next customer gets an honest account of working with you, including how you put things right.
How do these 15 standards help with AEO?
AEO (answer engine optimization) means making your website easy for AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews to understand and cite. Some of the 15 standards help with that directly:
- Genuine reviews carry real weight. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. Reviews also give AI tools customers’ own accounts of working with you, not just yours.
- Contact information tells AI tools who you are and where you work, so they can match you to questions like “Who builds websites near Asheville?”
- Clear pricing and clear terms give them specific facts to work with, instead of vague marketing language.
- Accessibility — readable text and descriptive headings also make answers easier for tools to find. Structured data can describe the same facts in a format machines read directly.
The rest help the person who arrives. Security, privacy, cookies, shipping, and returns won’t change whether an AI tool mentions you, but they decide whether a visitor trusts you enough to book or buy.
Even good reviews don’t guarantee a mention. None of the 15 is a confirmed AI ranking factor, and completing the checklist doesn’t guarantee an AI recommendation or citation. Being mentioned in an AI answer is only the introduction. Making a business easier to discover without making the purchase clearer is a very efficient way to disappoint more people.
What to do
- Run an accessibility check on your top pages — contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation. Fix the cheap wins first.
- Do a footer audit. Privacy policy, terms, refunds, shipping, cookie policy: all linked, all current, all in plain English.
- Test your own checkout (or your contact form) end to end. If you get confused, your customers already were.
- Check your cookie banner actually blocks trackers before consent — not after.
- Sweep your buttons. Replace every “Submit” and “Click here” with a label that says what happens.
- Review your reviews. Remove anything you can’t show came from a real customer.
It’s not the fun part of building for the web. But it’s the part that lets everything else work — for your visitors, for the engines, and for you.
Standards up, be honest about what you do — and, as I said on the podcast, do not get sued.
Printable checklist
| # | Standard | E-commerce | Informational |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accessibility | ✅ | ✅ |
| 2 | Terms and conditions | ✅ | ✅ (lighter) |
| 3 | Privacy policy | ✅ | ✅ |
| 4 | Business contact information | ✅ | ✅ |
| 5 | Cookie policy & tracking consent | ✅ | ✅ |
| 6 | Copyright | ✅ | ✅ |
| 7 | Clear button labels | ✅ | ✅ |
| 8 | Secure payment & data protection | ✅ | — (still HTTPS, always) |
| 9 | Shipping & delivery policy | ✅ | — |
| 10 | Refund & return policy | ✅ | — |
| 11 | Clear pricing | ✅ | — |
| 12 | Industry-specific compliance | ✅ | ✅ if regulated content |
| 13 | Legal disclaimers | ✅ | ✅ if you give advice |
| 14 | Promotional disclosures | ✅ | ✅ if affiliate/sponsored |
| 15 | Real reviews only | ✅ | ✅ if you show testimonials |
Two that catch informational sites out: show testimonials and the real-reviews standard applies to you. Earn from affiliate links or sponsorships and promotional disclosures apply, cart or no cart.
Your website makes promises before you ever speak to a customer. Make sure those are promises you can keep.
Rather have help? Talk to Irishguy Design Studio about reviewing your website’s content and customer experience, with qualified legal or specialist input where needed.
This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Requirements vary by jurisdiction, industry, audience, and business model.