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Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you are using or promoting?

As the digital way of life continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules keep changing, it’s absolutely essential that you try to stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having an online presence plays a significant part in your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you must 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. 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 – Better Business Bureau)

The new laws has legal implications for several online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. display advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in a range of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

More importantly, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website(s) may be subject to legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be offering online, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your website become compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. As stated previously, the aim of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws that govern business online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you promote

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• Someone has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement informing prospective subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you’ll do with the details you have collected.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
• You have not divulged to your visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may derive a sales commission if they buy it.
• You did not spell out the terms of your refund/return policies.
• Visitors claim your testimonials are all fake 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 information and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider also these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent 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% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 to the Google program they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being exposed to non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to site users.

Complying With Third-Party Services

Leading online companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site visitors know that your business complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display legal information when using their services. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Earning revenue with your blog using Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell products online via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of selling 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 website is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.

A number of online resources provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references to some of these at the end of this article …

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create applications for your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services on your site via affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, 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 terminated.
• If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

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

What Compliance Information Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If you suspect that your website is falling short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your business keep out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

As well as the pages above, you may want to look into adding any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs readers that you will not receive any type of payment for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you will derive some form of financial or similar kind of benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Explains to visitors that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing or writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Informs your readers that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
• 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

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

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) so that visitors will be able to access the information from all your pages …

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar using widgets here:

• How To Add Widgets To WordPress

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

For more details, go here:

• Find Legal Forms

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

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

Visit this site to learn more:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

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

Here are some plugins for WordPress users you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.

Here are just some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will then be 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 every other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When a user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your main navigation menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of easily creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured 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 plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

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

More info:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro 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 And Conditions
• 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 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. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of lawyers to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some type of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your business to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal forms, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and the terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or offering online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.

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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice in this article. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

Additional Legal Information

Here is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to comply and meet 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
• Better Business Bureau
• 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
• 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your website or blog.

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