How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

If you do any kind of business online, the last thing you want is to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

Online laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of new laws affect various online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to enroll in a range of advertising or online marketing networks.

If you are not in compliance, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This article explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and lists inexpensive methods that will make your WordPress website or blog legally compliant.

Is Your Website Breaking The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for one moment what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
• You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you plan to do with it.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making visitors aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may earn financial benefits if visitors purchase it.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and decide to sue you because of it.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site includes adult content and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider also the real case studies of costly compliance breaches described:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to give everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ 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, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 cautions or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being exposed to litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant.

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

All the big websites and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You are obligated to let your visitors know that your website complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you engage with online.

For example:

Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their services or features. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Earning revenue with your blogs with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages before your products can be approved for sale in their networks …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

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

Many business resource sites provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These

If you plan to develop apps that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
• If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

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

Common Legal Pages To Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your business keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

Additionally, you may want to consider adding one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general content about financial areas or income opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets visitors know that you will not receive for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs users that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets readers know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to visitors that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares 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 folder in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

You can then easily add links to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your site) to ensure that users have access to legal information from all pages …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:

• How To Configure Widgets On Your WordPress Blog Sidebar

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

Go here for more details:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your legal web pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

As well as using copy & paste templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress-driven websites and blogs you may be interested in using:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your site seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you many headaches.

Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages are:

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog 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 WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When the user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your navigation section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

Select from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In Legal 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

To learn more about the benefits of using this great plugin, visit the plugin website:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital business …

For a detailed review of this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 – 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a solicitor.

We want your business to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

***

As stated earlier, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service provided by third-party sites that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your website or blog must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, some 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

Legal Resources And References

Here is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program
• 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
• United States Copyright Office

Also …

• 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
• 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 presented above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

***