Category: Website Planning

One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.

Online laws were designed to protect the rights of 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 legal requirements will not protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, 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 for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect various online business categories, including:

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

If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed to promote a range of advertising or online merchant networks.

If you are not compliant, you could also face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be endorsing on your site, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your website become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Site Comply With The Law?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As previously stated, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you offer on your website or blog

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what could happen to your business if these scenarios were to take place:

• A user suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you plan to do with it.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you are marketing a product as an affiliate and could get paid financial benefits if visitors purchase through your affiliate link.
• You didn’t spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• Someone claims the testimonials on your site are misleading and decides to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy of the product in your review.
• Your website contains adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do 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 information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation of 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to be exposed to the risk of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s vitally important to make sure that your website remains legally compliant.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies

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

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using their services or features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your blog with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)

And even promoting your products or services through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell information-based products via places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures on your site, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation 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 is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.

There are many business resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

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

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to create apps for your website users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

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

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

Common Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site

If your website lacks in aspects 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 consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

Additionally, you may want to consider including any of the pages listed below if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides financial information)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your readers be aware that you will not receive any type of compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Informs your readers that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets your readers know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your visitors be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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 To Your Website

Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legal directory in your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that users have access to legal information from every web page …

(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your site’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar or footer using widgets here:

• How To Add Widgets To The Sidebar

Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

To learn more, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

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

To learn more, visit this website:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

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

Here are some great WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s a 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 time.

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

• Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your dashboard menu …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, niche sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)

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

(WordPress 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 the plugin website to learn more this handy plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

For more details go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

This 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 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some kind of basic legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a lawyer.

We want your website to be protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal templates, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) for third-party products and services that you may be promoting or recommending 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. 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 wherever your business is based.

Resources

Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to comply and meet legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission 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
• US Copyright Office

Additionally …

• Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• Google 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website using simple and inexpensive methods and solutions.

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