One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a business owner is to break the law.
As the digital realm continues growing at such a rapid pace and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s absolutely vital to try and stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your website remains legal, especially if having a digital presence is an important part of your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau)
The new laws affect various online business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, including Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
This guide explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.
Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. As previously stated, the purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with the laws that govern business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose products or services you promote on your website or blog
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A person has a heart attack after using your online fitness program.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people an allergic reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you plan to do with their personal details.
- Someone copies content from your site and publishes it on their own website.
- There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are promoting that you may derive an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your return policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials are misleading and decides to sue you as a result.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website contains adult information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider now the real examples of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- 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 children’s private information.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of 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 entirely to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could easily be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to make sure that your website or blog is legally compliant.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services
Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will do business with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires your site to display legal information when using many of their services and product features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your online properties using Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your products using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell information-based products using companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
A number of resources online provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether or not you may be 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 plan to promote services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If your website or blog is lacking in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your site stay out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and external providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to look into including one or more of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides information about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the correct type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets your visitors know that you’re not receiving any form of compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors know that you may be compensated if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets users be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs visitors that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or place them in the footer of your site) so that visitors will be able to access legal information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your WordPress sidebar using widgets, refer to this tutorial:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to sites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
For more information, visit this website:
Another option is to download a package of legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
These templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations and guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.
You can either create a new page on your website for every legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.
More information:
Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress-powered sites you should check out:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any WordPress page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks only when users agree to your legal terms.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will be added to your main dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
You can easily create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)
Choose from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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
For more details about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
total website compliance and disclaimer solution …
Learn more here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
Legal Suite Pro 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 Use
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress – 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
Go here for more info:
If using the services of lawyers to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.
We want your website to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documents, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate essential 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 engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to make sure that your website is compliant with all government laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your digital presence must comply with a wide range of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even be aware of.
Being non-compliant 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau Website
- 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
Also …
- Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- Google AdSense Help – Required Content
- Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
- AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
- ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
- Facebook Platform Policies
We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website using simple legal resources and plugins.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com