The minister of communications and digital technologies has directed that all .za websites must have a landing page with a visible link to the South African Resource Portal on COVID-19 and the Coronavirus. In this article, we give guidance on what this means and how to do it. We can also help you ensure that your website has everything it needs by doing a website legal audit for you.
Why is this necessary?
Presumably, the purpose is to ensure that as many people in South Africa get access to the correct information about COVID-19 and the Coronavirus as possible. If everyone links back to the Government page it will rank top in search results. Awareness is definitely an important part of beating this disease.
What is a landing page?
The directions say “All Internet sites operating within .zaDNA top level domain name must have a landing page with a visible link to www.sacoronavirus.co.za.” (Direction 5.1.4)
This begs questions.
- What is a landing page? A landing page is different from a home page.
- Must the link be on our home page or in the footer of our website?
- Should the link only be on landing pages that relate to the disease?
We think you should use your discretion and place the link somewhere on your website that makes sense and that keeps the purpose in mind. For example, if you are in the healthcare industry, place it on your home page. If you’re in the tourism industry, maybe place it on a specific landing page that is relevant to the disease.
Without more guidance, use your discretion.
How to do it
You can link to the South African Resource Portal on COVID-19 and the Coronavirus link this or you can use this image below.
Objections
Some people will object to this direction and feel that it is an infringement on their private property (website). But is it justified by the public interest?
