Is your WordPress website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you endorse or sell?
Online laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not prevent someone from taking legal action against your business.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory 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 – BBB)
These laws affect several business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to enroll in many advertising and online marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website or blog(s) are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be offering on your site, and that there are plugins for WordPress that can help your websites become compliant, such as the plugins that we list further below.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice in this article. As stated above, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you promote
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for a minute what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with the information you’ve collected.
- Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their website.
- You did not tell your site users that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and will receive a financial benefit if they buy it.
- You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy of the product in your review.
- Your website contains adult content and you have not taken sufficient measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider also the following real case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s vitally important to make sure that your online business has the right legal pages and information displayed to site visitors.
Compliance With Third-Party Services
Leading online companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site users know that your website complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display legal information if using their products or features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue online with your site using Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)
Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell products online via merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, 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 do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
Many business resource sites provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to develop apps that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites 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 using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, 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 their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
Basic Legal Pages To Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should help keep you out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider implementing any of these legal pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general content about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you are not receiving any type of compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies site users that you may receive compensation if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Review/Sample Copy – Informs readers that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Informs your readers that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know 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 Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal content for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal folder in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to these pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that users have access to legal information from all your pages …
(Display links to legal information on all of your website’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your WP sidebar or footer using widgets, refer to this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
Go here for more information:
Alternatively, you can download a set of cut & paste website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)
These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & 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 for every legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as described previously.
More info:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using WP Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WP page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to your legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your navigation section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)
Choose from a number of pre-configured legal templates …
(WP 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 using this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over twenty customizable legal templates for your site …
For more details go here:
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 – 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
More information:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire the services of a legal expert.
We want your website to be protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and any terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
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, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice in this article. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
Additional Legal Information
Below is a useful list of websites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet 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
- 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
- AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
- ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
- Facebook Platform Policies
We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website using inexpensive methods, resources and WordPress plugins.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)