The Legal Side of Website Building: Plugins to Ensure Your LLC's Site Complies with Laws

In its infancy, the Internet often felt a bit like the Wild West. When it came to building websites or publishing online content, there was little in the way of clear legal oversight. Over time, the Web has become far more regulated, with many laws in place to defend consumer privacy and confidentiality. Other laws protect consumers from an onslaught of aggressive pop-ups and ads. Still, other laws require websites to be accessible to all, even those who experience disabilities.

The upshot is, every business owner needs to think about the legal implications of having a company website. If you have an LLC and you’re in the process of developing a website, there are several plugins that can help you maintain legal compliance.

LLCs at a Glance

Before we dive into the plugins, it’s worth pausing to define what an LLC actually is.

Simply put, the LLC (or Limited Liability Company) is a legal structure you can choose for virtually any business. Unlike Sole Proprietorships, LLCs create entirely distinct business entities. In other words, an LLC ensures that the business and the business owner are separate in the eyes of the law.

This yields some significant personal liability protections, and the LLC structure also provides benefits such as tax flexibility and managerial flexibility. For these and other reasons, it’s one of the most popular legal formats for small business owners. To get started with an LLC, consider the best state to start an LLC.

The Best Plugins for Legal Compliance

So what are some of the most valuable plugins for maintaining a legally compliant LLC website? Consider a few top-recommended options:

GDPR Cookie Consent

You’ve probably heard of GDPR, the sweeping privacy protection law that’s gone into effect in the EU, inspiring countless similar laws across the world. Basically, under the terms of the GDPR, you’re required to alert your website visitors if you’re using cookies to collect information about them and to provide them with a way to manage their cookie preferences. If your LLC is doing business in the EU then compliance with this law is mandatory. And even if you’re not, compliance is a good idea, allowing you to stay on the right side of public conversations about digital privacy.

The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin provides an easy way to do exactly that. Features include an automated notice to your website visitors, providing them with an option to accept or reject cookies.

This is one of the most popular privacy-centric plugins out there, and definitely a helpful tool for LLCs looking to ensure legally compliant websites.

EDD Quadermo

While online privacy is one of the main legal concerns for LLC websites, it’s certainly not the only concern. For instance, if you’re selling products via an ecommerce store, you’ll need to ensure you’re compliant with state-specific tax laws. And if you have customers coming from all 50 states, that can obviously get a little hairy.

Thankfully, there are plugins that automate and streamline things for you, providing an easy way to ensure that state taxes are accounted for with each transaction and on each receipt. We recommend EDD Quadermo, though there are plenty of other options that might be worth considering.

WP Autoterms

Another legal requirement for any LLC website is to provide your visitors with easy access to legal terms and conditions. If you’re not a lawyer then that might seem like a headache, but again, there are some plugins that can make this compliance task much more straightforward.

If you’re building your site in Wordpress, consider using WP Autoterms, which provides an easy, automated menu where your visitors can view things like your boilerplate privacy policy, cookie policy, and terms of use.

Alternatively, consider a plugin called Privacy Policy Genius, which will create a legally solid, fairly general privacy policy you can use on your LLC website.

Copyright Proof

You may wonder about protecting your intellectual property, and specifically about proving and protecting your copyright of the website. Copyright Proof handles all of that for you, making it an invaluable tool for any business owner zealous for avoiding copyright infringements. 

Surbma

Depending on your industry and the nature of your website content, you may need to ensure that your visitors are 18 or older before they can access the site. Surbma is an invaluable plugin that creates an automatic popup window, prompting your visitors to input their age or to choose a simple yes/no age confirmation. Easy Age Verifier is another plugin that works in much the same way; either one can help you fulfill your legal duties as a website owner.

accessiBe

This isn’t strictly speaking a plugin, but accessiBe is a terrific online service that helps you ensure a website that is fully ADA compliant, meaning it’s accessible to visitors who might have impaired vision or hearing. This is a legal compliance issue many LLC owners overlook, yet it’s essential not only for avoiding legal peril, but for ensuring all your visitors feel welcome.

Legal Compliance is a Website Priority

When building your LLC website, you naturally think about things like branding, messaging, SEO, and user experience. Don’t neglect the importance of legal compliance. These plugins can help to keep your business website on the right side of the law.

Author Bio

Amanda E. Clark is a contributing writer to LLC University. She has appeared as a subject matter expert on panels devoted to content and social media marketing, as well as more general topics related to digital marketing and to small business ownership.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)