About the guide to making a small website properly
Mini Site Maker sets out what a one-to-ten page website needs, from the first planning decision through to keeping it running, written for sole traders, clubs, societies and event organisers doing this themselves.
One set of guides, in the order the decisions actually arrive
Mini Site Maker works through the questions in the order they actually come up: what a small site needs to do, how to plan it in an afternoon, what to register and host it on, what UK law requires it to show, how to build it, and how to keep it running once it's live. Each guide answers one part of that on its own, and the legal requirements guide works alongside the legal essentials checker: one explains the rules, the other checks a specific site against them.
It's written for sole traders, clubs, societies and event organisers putting up somewhere between one page and ten, and for anyone with an old site that's stopped working who is deciding whether to fix it or start again. None of it assumes a reader already knows what a registrar, a nameserver or a DNS record is; each term gets explained the first time it's used, in the guide where it comes up.
No stake in what you choose
There are no affiliate links here, no platform recommended by name, and nothing being sold. The guide to choosing how to build a site sets out criteria. Removing the second changes nothing about what's written except which conclusions are allowed to be reached.
How it stays current
Guides that touch UK GDPR, PECR or other named regulation carry a review date, so it's clear how recent the reading is against rules that do sometimes change. Regulations are named and linked to their source, and where a guide's advice changes, the change is made.
No affiliate links, no platform to sell
Mini Site Maker earns nothing when a reader picks one host over another, registers a domain through a particular registrar, or chooses one way of building a page over another. There are no affiliate links on the site, no builder or host named as a recommendation, and nothing here is for sale. Where a guide describes a platform, it describes what that type of platform does.
Why it matters for the advice you're reading
A site that earns a commission each time a reader signs up with a particular host has a reason to steer them there, whatever the advice actually says. Take that income away and the reason goes with it. That is why Choosing How to Build It sets out criteria, such as what a static site needs versus a CMS (content management system), and what a registrar actually holds versus what a host does. The reader applies the criteria to their own situation, because nobody else is better placed to weigh cost, control and how much fiddling they want to do later.
What this rules out
It rules out the version of this advice that ends with a discount code, a sign-up link, or a nudge toward a paid tier dressed up as a recommendation. The UK Website Legal Essentials Checker works the same way: it checks a site's answers against named regulations and shows its working underneath, and it does not push a subscription, a supplier or a paid fix at the end of the result. It can still give a wrong answer for a situation it was not built to cover, and it is not a substitute for a solicitor or the relevant official body where a case is genuinely contested.
How this stays current
Guides that touch UK GDPR, PECR (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003) or the specific requirements a UK website must show carry a review date, because the thresholds and named bodies behind them are set externally and can move without warning. The date tells you when the page was last checked against its source, not that nothing has changed since that check.
Review dates on compliance-related guides
Where a guide covers something a regulator enforces, such as What a UK Website Must Show by Law, the review date sits with the content itself. If a threshold or a named body's guidance changes after that date, the page may be out of step until the next review. The date is there to check against, not to reassure you.
Naming the regulation, not paraphrasing it
Where a guide states a legal requirement, it names the regulation directly, UK GDPR or PECR, and points at the body that enforces it, such as the ICO or Nominet. A paraphrase tells you nothing you can go and verify. A named regulation and a named source do.
What changes, and what a tool can't tell you
The guides are updated as the underlying rules move, and where a section has changed materially since its last review, that's reflected in the date. The UK Website Legal Essentials Checker works on the same basis: it flags requirements against named regulations and shows its working underneath, but it can return the wrong answer for a situation it wasn't built to cover, and it doesn't replace advice from a solicitor or the ICO for anything complicated.