GDPR Website Checklist for Small Businesses in Europe
If your business has customers in the European Union, your website must follow the GDPR and the EU’s cookie rules. Most problems on small business websites are easy to fix once you know where to look. This checklist covers the usual ones. It is general information, not legal advice.
1. A clear privacy policy
Explain who you are, what personal data your site collects (forms, bookings, newsletters, analytics), why, the legal basis, how long you keep it, who you share it with, and how people can exercise their rights.
2. Real cookie consent
Analytics, advertising pixels and similar tools need consent before they load. “Reject” must be as easy as “accept”, and pre-ticked boxes do not count.
3. Contact and booking forms
- Ask only for the information you need.
- Link to your privacy policy next to the form.
- If you want to send marketing emails, use a separate, unticked opt-in box.
4. Third-party services
Every tool on your site that processes visitor data (hosting, forms, chat, booking, analytics) should be listed in your privacy policy, with a data processing agreement where required. Note that a German court fined a website for loading Google Fonts from Google’s servers without consent; hosting fonts yourself avoids the issue.
5. Legal notice where required
Some countries, such as Germany and Austria, require an Impressum (legal notice) with your business name, address and contact details, easy to reach from every page.
6. Security
Use https everywhere, keep your website software updated, use strong passwords and limit who can access customer data.
7. Handling requests
Customers can ask to see, correct or delete their data. Know where your data lives (inbox, booking system, CRM) so you can answer within the legal time limit, usually one month.
8. AI chat assistants
If you use an AI chatbot, tell visitors they are chatting with an assistant, avoid collecting sensitive data in chat, and check where conversations are stored.
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