Category: Website Planning

One of the worst things that can happen to a business owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.

As the digital era continues to grow at such a rapid pace and rules constantly change, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence is important in the success of your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. 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)

The introduction of these new laws affect several online business activities, including:

• Any type of advertising, like text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could shut down your account, Facebook could reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a range of advertising and online marketing networks.

If your online business is not compliant, you could also face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This guide explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site using simple methods and solutions.

Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws wherever your business is located.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Is your business at risk? Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be if any of the following were to occur:

• A user has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not defined what you’ll do with it.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website telling your site visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and may receive financial benefits if they purchase it.
• You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• Your visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and decide to sue you because of it.
• You did not disclose that you were given a free copy of the product in your review.
• Your site contains adult-related information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider also the documented examples of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• 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 information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many 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 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of 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 entirely to the Google program they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.

You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you will do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information when using their products and service. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your blog using Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

And even promoting your products or services via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell information-based products using companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals 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 companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of money-making activity 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 all FTC regulations.

Various online business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with 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)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

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

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be 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 products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, 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’ve been wondering whether “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 websites require you to comply with their policies)

Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your website falls short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help your business keep out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us Page
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to consider implementing one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets visitors know that you are not receiving any form of compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to visitors that you may benefit financially if they buy through an affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets your readers know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to site users that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with 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 Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers 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 legal folder on your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

You can then easily add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all your pages …

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar menu using widgets, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Use Widgets

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

Go here to learn more:

• Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Another option is to download a set of legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates)

Cut & Paste website legal pages were written 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 templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

You can either create a new WordPress 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 the pages to your server as described previously.

More information:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, you can keep things really simple by using plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-driven websites and blogs worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If manually setting up legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you loads of headaches.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your website.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your legal terms.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)

This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from the admin area …

(WP Legal Pages – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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

Visit this site for more information about using this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital business …

Learn We’ve written an in-depth review of this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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 – 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

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 page templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate basic 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 any type of business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service for third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or recommend online. If your website isn’t compliant 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 a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your site may require to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:

• 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
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• US Copyright Office

See Also …

• 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 why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress site.

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