Disclaimers

Where they should appear

[microduma]

I would really appreciate some advice:

I am in the process of adding content, in the form of consumer advice articles, to my website. It is going to be difficult to display a link to the general site disclaimer on each and every new article. Is it adequate to rely on a general link (on every new page) to the home page, on which a link to the disclaimer is clearly displayed? (Somehow I do not think so.) Thanks.

[rogerd]

I haven't heard of an established web standard for disclaimers. If you feel the disclaimer is important in relation to the content of the articles, I'd recommend building the disclaimer link into your site template so that it appears on each page. That would insure that even visitors who navigated to your site from a search engine or deep link couldn't claim they never saw the disclaimer.

[ken_b]

"...on each page..."

Depending on how much unique content you have on your pages, and the length of your disclaimer, you might need to be careful about putting a disclaimer on every page.

With too much disclaimer and too little unique content you might run into problems with duplicate content issues.

This might happen more often with image gallery pages, etc, but it's worth mentioning.

[jimbeetle]

On my city guide site I lean very much to caution and use two basic types of disclaimers.

In sections where pages are long listings of events, I'll plop a two or three line disclaimer/informational blurb at the top of each page tailored to the section topic and what can affect it (inclement weather, subject to the whims of the organizers, security precautions, etc.).

In other sections, I try to briefly disclaim each discrete piece of info: Prices do not include..., Hours might vary..., Always confirm..., etc.

I try to keep these short and sweet but very noticeable.

[microduma]

Thanks. I think I should build that link into my template, and choose my words very carefully in any case. Thank you very much.