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Is your website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you are offering or endorsing?

Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes products or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, 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 (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)

The new laws affect various business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. contextual ads
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t approve your digital products for sale, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote many advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website or blog(s) are subject to certain legal requirements according to laws that govern businesses online, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be using online, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your site become compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Is Your Website Legally Compliant?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice in this article. As stated above, the purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern business practices online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you advertise

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

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

• Someone suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you will do with the details you have collected.
• Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their own website.
• You have not divulged to your visitors that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you could earn an affiliate commission if they buy via your affiliate link.
• You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• A visitor claims that your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site contains adult information and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider too the real case studies of costly compliance breaches listed below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many internet 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 websites picked at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 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 violated, 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 non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords User
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s imperative to ensure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to your site users.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies Terms And Policies

Complying with third-party services terms and policies is important.

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

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your site with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your site via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell products online through places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners 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 chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your site complies with FTC regulations.

Many online resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Compliance Information Pages Should You Add To Your Site To Be Covered Against Legal Compliance Issues?

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should keep you out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

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

As well as the above, you may want to look into including one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general advice about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the correct type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets visitors be aware that you will not receive for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors know that you will be compensated if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors be aware that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs users that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
• 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 Pages Content To Your WordPress Website

Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages Manually

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

We recommend adding a legals folder to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

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

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all of your web pages …

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Website

Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can download a set of legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, 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 earlier.

More information:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using cut & paste legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use plugins.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress websites and blogs that you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

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

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time and effort.

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

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of 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 mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any page on your website.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When a user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear in your main dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

You can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page type menu)

You can also choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages – 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

Go here to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites and blogs with over 20 customizable legal templates for your digital business …

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

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 Service
• 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 one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.

For more information, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your site to be safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or a plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate essential 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 make money online, you need to make sure that your site complies with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service of third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or advertise online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect 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 cannot provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires 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 – 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
• US Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

Plus …

• 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 legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

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