Guides for South African business websites
Straight answers to the questions business owners ask us before and after a website goes live: how to start, what POPIA and ECTA require, when VAT applies, how to get onto Google and what the padlock in the address bar means. Each guide links the law or official page behind every point.
How to create a website for your business in South Africa
Domain, hosting, pages, legal notices and Google, in the order that saves rework.
Read the guide →POPIA website requirements: what your site must tell people
The privacy notice, marketing consent, security and breach rules, section by section.
Read the guide →Legal requirements for an online store in South Africa
What ECTA requires on the shop, the cooling-off right, and when VAT registration starts.
Read the guide →How to get your business on Google
Business Profile, local ranking factors and SEO basics, straight from Google's help pages.
Read the guide →SSL certificates and HTTPS, explained for business owners
What the padlock means, how certificates are issued and why Google and the law care.
Read the guide →How these guides are written
The text of the Acts themselves, SARS, the Information Regulator, the .za domain bodies and Google's own help pages. No blogs quoting blogs.
Rules change: SARS's compulsory VAT threshold is now R2.3 million, and many articles still quote an older figure. Each guide shows the date its sources were read.
We explain what the rules say and what that usually means for a website. For your own legal or tax position, speak to an attorney or tax practitioner. Written by the Allsorts Web Designers team.
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