How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

If you do any kind of business online, you do not want to suddenly discover that you have been operating on the wrong side of the law.

As digital business continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules constantly change, it’s absolutely vital that you stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your site remains compliant, especially if having an online presence plays an important role in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)

The introduction of these laws affect several online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

If you do not include certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may shut down your account, Facebook will reject your applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in most advertising and online merchant networks.

Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website or blog are subject to legal requirements, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be using online, and that there are easy solutions that can help your site become fully compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.

Is Your Website Breaking The Law?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party companies whose products or services you use on your website

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Are you at risk? Consider for one moment what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A customer suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives people an adverse reaction.
• You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you will earn a financial benefit if visitors buy through your link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund and return policies.
• Your visitors claim the testimonials on your site are misleading and try to sue you.
• You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult information and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken at least 3 of Google’s policies. Although the website owners could technically be sued by Google, more than likely what could happen, is that they would be issued notices or lose access to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risk of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdWords User
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s vitally important to ensure that your digital presence stays legally compliant.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

All the big online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You are expected to let your site visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information if using many of their services. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your blog with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell digital products through companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you are required to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your site, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

There are many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to create apps that will integrate with your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies)

What Legal Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If your website falls short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider implementing any of the following pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets readers be aware that you’re not receiving any type of compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you may derive some form of financial or similar kind of benefit if they buy through your affiliate link.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Lets site users know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to readers that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Content To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legals folder in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add links to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or the footer of your website) to ensure that visitors can access the information from all of your pages …

(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your website’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu using widgets here:

• How To Use Widgets In WordPress

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can download a package of cut & paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new WordPress page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your server as described earlier.

For more information, go here:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using cut & paste legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress users you may be interested in using:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your website feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you time.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear in your WordPress dashboard menu section …

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type dropdown menu)

You can also choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Pre-configured Templates)

Legal page templates include:

• Terms of Use (Users are forced to agree to Terms and Conditions before using site)
• Linking Policy
• External Links Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Refund Policy
• Affiliate Disclosure
• Privacy Policy
• Affiliate Agreement
• Facebook Privacy Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• Antispam Policy
• DoubleClick DART Cookies Policy
• Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclosure Statement Template
• Medical Disclaimer Template
• Testimonials Disclosure – As per FTC guidelines
• Amazon Affiliate Disclosure Template
• DMCA Policy Template
• California Privacy Rights Policy Template
• Digital Goods Refund Policy Template
• COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Policy Template
• Blog Comments Policy Template
• Newsletter Subscription Policy and Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclaimer Widget

Go here to learn more about this useful plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable legal pages for your online presence …

Learn We have written a detailed review of this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you easily install professionally-written legal pages such as:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Social Media Disclosure
• Medical Disclaimer
• Terms of Service
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – Professionally-written legal forms)

Additionally:

• Drag & Drop FTC Disclaimer Widget: Add an FTC Disclaimer to any WordPress sidebar or widget area.
• Customizable EU Cookie Compliance Bar: Display an EU cookie compliance bar if you are getting traffic from the EU and your sites use cookies.

With just one-click you can install almost all of the legal pages your site needs and these professionally written legal pages can be created in your theme and/or as a standalone page outside of your theme.

The plugin developers have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).

For more details, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider at least implementing some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.

We want your business to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal templates, or a plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you make money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service required by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or using online. Your internet presence must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not even be aware of.

Non-compliance puts you at risk of suffering both financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

Legal Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB
• Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
• Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act
• CAN-SPAM Act Guide
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• FTC Regulatory Review Web Page
• FTC Rules and Guides Currently Under Review
• The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force – Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework
• FTC Staff Report: Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising
• FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

Additionally …

• Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• AdSense Help – Required Content
• Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
• Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your website using inexpensive solutions.

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