Is your WordPress website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you are advertising or endorsing?
Internet laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent 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, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Do a search online for “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)
The new laws has legal implications for several online business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will reject web applications, and you will not be allowed into various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
In addition, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
In this guide, we discuss why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive methods and resources.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever you do business.
The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider for one moment what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- Someone suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you’ll do with the information you’ve collected.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website letting your site visitors know that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may derive financial benefits if visitors buy it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Someone claims that your testimonials are misleading and decides to sue you because of it.
- You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy of a product you reviewed.
- Your site publishes adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider also the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with 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 information.
- 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 $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in breach 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 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 cautions 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 easy it is to risk being exposed to litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s imperative to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and information accessible to site visitors.
Complying With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
All of the leading companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your website complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with.
For example:
Google requires websites to display legal information when using many of their products and features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your WordPress site with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell digital products with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their network …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially if you plan to sell products and services online using testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site 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 does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC regulations.
A number of resources online provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See our additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you are planning to develop social networking applications that integrate with your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, 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 shut down.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Compliance Information Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Compliant?
If your website is lacking in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to look into including any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides advice about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets readers know that you are not receiving any form of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you will benefit financially if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to your visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to users that you have been compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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 To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, 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 server via FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add these to your sidebar menu (or place them in the footer of your site) to ensure that visitors can access the information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer in WordPress using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Templates
You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
More information:
Alternatively, you can download a package of legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations brought into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new 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 the pages to your server as described previously.
Go here for more info:
Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-driven websites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear in your main navigation menu …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)
With WP Legal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
Choose from several pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured 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 this WordPress plugin, visit this website:
Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable legal pages for your digital business …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(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 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.
More information:
If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose 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 Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you do business online, it’s important that your site is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines of 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or advertising online. Your website or blog must comply with a whole set of regulations, many of which you may not even 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
References And Resources
Below is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- BBB – 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
- United States 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
We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress site using inexpensive solutions.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum