Is your website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you are promoting or offering?
Online laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not excuse someone from taking legal action against you.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for material gain, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
The introduction of these laws affect various business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could shut down your account, Facebook could reject your applications, and you will not be accepted into many advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this article, we look at the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your website using inexpensive methods and resources.
Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws and regulations wherever your business is located.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement that lets subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with the information you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your site letting your visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you are recommending that you could receive an affiliate commission if visitors purchase it.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials are false and decides to sue you as a result.
- You haven’t disclosed that you were given a free copy in your product review.
- Your site contains adult content and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now the following real examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete his offer. 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 prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many 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 randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 cautions or lose access entirely to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could easily be exposed to the risk of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords User
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
You need to make sure that your website or blog is fully compliant with the law.
Complying With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies
All the big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in various countries emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You are expected to let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information if using their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue with your website with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information-based products via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take 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 complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.
Many online business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you are planning to develop applications that integrate with your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure 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 anything online via affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you’ve 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, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Basic Legal Pages To Add To Your Website
If you suspect that your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your business keep out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider adding any of these pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides content about financial areas or income opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right disclosure information to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not receive for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets site users know that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to readers that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers be aware 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.
Adding Compliance Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will consult a lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually
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 creating a legals directory in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or the footer of your website) to ensure that users have access to the information from all of your pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress here:
Using Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here for more information:
Another option is to download a set of cut & paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for each 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 previously.
More information:
Legal Pages – Plugins
As well as using cut & paste legal templates, you can keep things really simple by using plugins.
Here are some great legal WordPress plugins you may be interested in checking out:
WordPress Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you many headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
- 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 terms.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear in your navigation section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal page types)
Choose from several built-in 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 this handy plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs containing over twenty customizable legal pages for your online business …
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro 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 Use
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 powered 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 the plugin on all of your sites.
More information:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a lawyer.
We want your site to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website stays compliant with all laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) provided by third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or use online. Your website must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site 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 – 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
Also …
- 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 why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site using simple resources and solutions.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum