A website builder for licensed professionals

The rules come from two directions

Consumer law applies to every business. A licensing body then adds its own rules about how you may describe the service, which titles you may use, and what you may claim.

Those extra rules differ a lot by trade and by state, and they change. A page that was fine three years ago may not be now, and nobody will tell you when it stops being fine.

So take your own advice on what applies to you. Our compliance pages explain what the rules tend to cover, trade by trade. Nothing on this site is legal advice.

Check whether your body publishes guidance for websites specifically. Many do, and it is usually short, plain and far more useful than trying to work the rules out from first principles.

Credentials, stated exactly

Name the qualification, the body that awarded it, the number where there is one, and the states it covers. Vague wording here is the most common cause of trouble, and an answer engine will repeat whatever you wrote.

Be careful with protected titles. Several trades limit who may call themselves what, and using one loosely is a disciplinary matter rather than a marketing choice.

Our page on credentials covers the shape. Keep them current. A lapsed registration on a live page is worse than no claim at all.

Claims about outcomes

Most licensed trades limit claims about results, success rates, and how you compare with others. A page promising an outcome is the first thing looked at when a complaint arrives.

Describe the service and the process rather than the result. That is safer, and it works better, because a client is judging you rather than shopping for a promise.

Our page on honest claims covers the general rule. The licensed version is stricter in every trade we have looked at.

Be careful with statistics too. A figure about your own results is a claim you must be able to evidence, and one taken from elsewhere needs its source named on the page.

What a professional site has to handle

The list below is what differs from an ordinary business site. Each one is a place where a general builder can quietly create a problem for a licensed practice.

• Exact control over wording, with no automatic rewriting
• Credentials displayed with the issuing body and number
• Any required regulatory notice or disclaimer
• Testimonials handled according to your profession's rules
• No client identified without written consent
• A record of what the site said and when
• Contact handling that respects confidentiality

Testimonials and client identification

Several trades ban testimonials outright and most of the rest limit them. Using a client's words without written consent is a privacy problem before it is a marketing one.

Even a case study with no names can identify somebody in a small town. Change enough that nobody could tell, and get consent anyway if there is any doubt.

Our page on testimonials and reviews covers the general rules. Your own body's rules sit on top and come first.

Keeping a record

Keep a dated copy of every version of a page that carries a claim or a credential. If anybody asks what your site said in a given year, that copy is the answer.

Note who checked it and against what. Being able to show how you check matters nearly as much as the wording, and it takes one file to keep.

Pick a builder that keeps old versions or lets you export easily. Our page on comparing builders covers testing that first.

Confidentiality in the contact route

People often describe private matters in a first message. Where it goes, who can read it, and how long you keep it are all questions you need an answer to.

Say on the form what happens to the message, and ask people not to include details that should wait. Our page on form data covers the rest.

And use a form rather than a published address. We do that on every site we build. Addresses get harvested, and a form you watch is safer and easier to control.