Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
Online laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)
These laws affect various online business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed into most advertising and online marketing networks.
If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this article, we look at why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and present inexpensive methods to make your WordPress site compliant quickly and easily.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As stated above, the aim of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you advertise on your website
The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to occur:
- A user suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
- You’ve told subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you will do with it.
- Someone steals content from your site and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website telling your visitors that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may derive an affiliate commission if they buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and decides to sue you.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult-related content and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider also the following actual case studies 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 an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $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 internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 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 broken 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 with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a website owner can easily be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Info 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 make sure that your online business is fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You must let your site users know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires you to display legal information when using many of their services and features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Generating revenue with your website with Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense - 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 via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add a number of legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
There are many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you plan to develop applications for your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., 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 generating revenue with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies)
What Compliance Information Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Legally Compliant?
If your website or blog is falling short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and external providers, and avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- 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 if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website provides content about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets visitors know that you will not be receiving any type of payment for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies users that you will receive compensation if they buy through an affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets your readers know that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing.
- Sponsored Post – Lets your visitors be aware that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs readers that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legals folder in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar (or the footer of your website) to ensure that users can access legal information from all your pages …
(Display legal pages to users on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar using widgets here:
Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Go here to learn more:
Another option is to download a package of cut & paste legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)
Cut & Paste website legal templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission regulations that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & 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 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 web server as previously described.
Go here to learn more:
Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use a plugin.
Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you a great deal of time and effort.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and 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 other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then 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 or post lock down. Page unlocks when user agrees to your legal terms.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your main dashboard area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page type drop down menu)
Select from several pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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 useful plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
total website compliance & disclaimer solution …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 & Conditions
- 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
More information:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.
We want your site to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate necessary 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 do any type of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with government legal requirements and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or endorsing online. Your internet presence must comply with numerous regulations, some of which you may not 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 are not offering legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant 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
- 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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
- Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
- ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
- Facebook Platform Policies
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using simple and cost-effective legal 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