Author: WP Compendium

As a website owner, you do not want to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

As the digital era continues growing at such a fast pace and the rules keep changing, it’s vitally important to try and stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your website remains legal, especially if having a digital presence plays an important part in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

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

These laws affect various business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not approve digital products for sale, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could reject web applications, and you won’t be accepted into a number of advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

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

In this guide, we discuss the importance of having a legally compliant website and provide inexpensive ways to make your WordPress website or blog compliant in minutes.

Is Your Site Compliant?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws and regulations wherever your business is based in.

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be if these situations were to take place:

• A customer suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you will do with their personal details.
• Someone steals your content and publishes it on their website.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site users know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you will receive an affiliate commission if visitors purchase it.
• You didn’t spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• Visitors claim that your testimonials are false and try to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy in a product review.
• Your website contains adult information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider now these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received 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 details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape 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 independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking at least three 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 whose policies they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how a business owner can easily be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

it’s important to ensure that your online business stays legally compliant.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

All the big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You are expected to let your site users know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display legal information when using many of their products. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Generating revenue online with your WordPress blog using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your products or services via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their networks …

(Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank)

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

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often ends up with 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 money-making activity 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 ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines.

There are many sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See our additional references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

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

Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance

If you are planning to develop applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with information about your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything on your site using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.

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

Common Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site

If you suspect that your web site lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help your website keep out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and 3rd-party providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms & Conditions
• Website Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

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

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides money-making information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to 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 – This lets users know that you are not being paid for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets site users know that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and buy through an affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Discloses to site users that you have received a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets users be aware that you were 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 Content To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Site

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legal folder in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then easily add a link to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Website

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

(Display links to your legal pages to visitors on all of your site’s pages)

If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer menu, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring Widgets On The Sidebar Area

Use Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)

Go here for more info:

• Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Another option is to download a package of legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business details, 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
• 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 for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described earlier.

More info:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress websites worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages instead …

This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other WP 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 checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when user agrees to your terms.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your WordPress dashboard menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Type of Site menu)

You can also choose from several pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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

Visit this website to learn more this powerful plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs that includes over twenty customizable legal pages for your web presence …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

Legal Suite Pro 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

For more information, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your site to be legally safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal forms, or a legal pages plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not 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, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Additional Resources

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

• 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 – 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
• US Copyright Office

See Also …

• 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 why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add legal pages to your website using simple and inexpensive legal resources and WordPress plugins.

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