Author: WP Compendium

One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a business owner is to break the law.

Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not excuse someone from taking legal action against your business.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws affect various online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, like contextual advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in most advertising or online marketing networks.

If your digital presence is not compliant, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be recommending on your site, and that there are solutions that can help your sites become more compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Is Your Site Compliant?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. As stated above, the purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with the laws that govern your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you advertise on your website or blog

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• Someone suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness program.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you will do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone copies content from your site and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog letting your visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you are marketing and may receive financial benefits if visitors purchase it.
• You did not spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you because of it.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your site includes adult-related content and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider too these actual case studies 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. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• 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 information.
• 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, resulting thousands of dollars 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% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 with warnings or lose access 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 non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog remains fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Services

Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You must let your visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you engage with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display legal information if using their products or service. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your online properties with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

And even promoting your products using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell products online using merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for selling products via ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website 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 is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations.

Many online resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with 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)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to create apps that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or use 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 provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you have been wondering if “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 websites require you to comply with their policies)

What Compliance Information Does My Website Need To Be Insured Against Legal Compliance Issues?

If your website or blog lacks in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should help your website stay out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and external providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

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

In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider adding one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms Of Use (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

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

• No Material Connection – Informs site users that you are not being paid for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Notifies readers that you will benefit financially if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Discloses to readers that you have received a sample or review copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to site users that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets readers 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.

Adding Legal Content To Your Website

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

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal content for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legal directory to your web 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 add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website

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

(Display links to legal information on all of your website’s pages)

We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets here:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In The WordPress Blog Sidebar

Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to purchase a package of cut & paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates)

These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page for every legal form you want added 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 previously.

Visit this website to learn more:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.

Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you loads of headaches.

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

• Built-in Templates – 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 a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to 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 checkbox and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks when users agree to your legal terms.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

You have the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Select from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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 the plugin website to learn more this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin containing over 20 customizable legal templates for your digital presence …

For an in-depth review of this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less 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).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your website to be legally safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documentation, or a plugin 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 Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your website stays compliant with all legal requirements and the terms of service and guidelines of third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or use online. Your digital presence must comply with a wide range of regulations, 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

Additional Resources

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

• 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
• United States Copyright Office

Plus …

• 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
• Google 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 legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website using inexpensive legal resources and solutions.

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