01 Permission to call or text
Applies to: Any form on your site that takes a phone number.
A separate checkbox the customer ticks themselves — not pre-ticked, and not required to send the form — with wording that says who may contact them and how, plus a dated record of exactly what they agreed to.
Federal law sets damages of $500 to $1,500 per message for marketing calls and texts sent without written permission. It is one of the most heavily litigated consumer laws in the country, and most contractor websites we look at have no box at all.
02 Your license number, where it belongs
Applies to: Any licensed trade — which is most of you.
Your license number displayed on the site in the form your state board expects, usually in the footer and on your contact page.
A lot of states treat a website as advertising, and advertising without your license number showing is a violation on its own. It is also one of the easiest things in the world for a regulator or a competitor to spot.
03 The name you are actually registered under
Applies to: Anyone trading under a name that is not their legal company name.
Your registered entity name alongside the name on the truck, in the footer and in the terms, so it is clear who the customer is actually contracting with.
If the sign says Comfort Air and the invoice says a different LLC, that gap causes real problems in a dispute or a chargeback — and in some states the trading name has to be registered and shown.
04 Written terms for every offer you run
Applies to: Anyone advertising a discount, a free estimate, or a seasonal promotion.
A terms page for each offer: who qualifies, what is excluded, when it ends, whether it can be combined with anything else, and any minimum purchase.
An offer advertised without terms is generally enforceable exactly as it appears. Sooner or later somebody turns up holding you to a deal you did not mean to make, and you have nothing in writing that says otherwise.
05 Financing wording that follows the rules
Applies to: Anyone advertising monthly payments, "0% APR", or "no payments until…".
The additional terms federal lending rules require to appear alongside any advertised rate or payment, written into the page rather than bolted on.
This one catches people by accident. The finance company hands you a banner, you paste it on the site, and the required disclosures never make it across. The obligation sits with you, not with them.
06 Telling people when they are talking to a machine
Applies to: Anyone running a chat widget, an automated answering service, or an AI voice.
A clear disclosure that the thing they are talking to is automated, and an obvious route to a real person.
A growing number of states now require you to say so, and regulators treat an AI-generated voice on a phone call the same as a recorded robocall — which drags it back under the same consent rules as texting.
07 Review and testimonial rules
Applies to: Anyone showing reviews on their site, which should be everyone.
Testimonials shown accurately and attributed, with a disclosure if a review was ever incentivised in any way.
Federal rules on fake and incentivised reviews carry real civil penalties. Offering a gift card for a review without saying so counts, even when the review itself is completely honest.
08 Notice that calls are recorded
Applies to: Anyone recording calls for training or quality.
A notice before the recording starts, and a line in the privacy policy explaining what happens to the recordings.
Plenty of states require every party on the call to be told. Recording without notice is a criminal matter in some of them, not just a fine.
09 Guarantee and warranty wording
Applies to: Anyone advertising a satisfaction guarantee or a warranty period.
The actual terms written out and reachable from wherever the guarantee is advertised.
Federal warranty law requires the terms to be available before the sale. "100% satisfaction guaranteed" with nothing behind it is a promise you may be held to in full.
10 Privacy policy that matches reality
Applies to: Every website that collects anything at all.
A policy written from what your site actually does — the forms you run, the tools that touch the data, how long you keep it — rather than copied off another company.
A copied policy describes somebody else’s business. Publishing an inaccurate description of how you handle customer data is itself the problem, separately from whatever you are actually doing.
11 Cookie notice that actually does something
Applies to: Any site running analytics or advertising pixels.
A banner that genuinely holds the tracking until somebody chooses, and a way to change that choice later.
The usual setup loads the tracking first and asks afterwards, which is not consent, it is notification. If you are running ad pixels it is also how customer data ends up somewhere you never agreed to.
12 A site people with disabilities can use
Applies to: Everyone. This one has no exceptions.
Built to the recognised standard, with an accessibility statement and a way to report a problem.
Website accessibility claims against small businesses are common and rising, and the fix is far cheaper before launch than after a letter arrives.
We are engineers, not lawyers, and none of this is legal advice. Requirements vary by
state and by trade. We build the site so the disclosures exist and stay accurate, and
we are straightforward about where an attorney should look at it.