Category: Website Planning

One of the worst predicaments a business owner can find themselves in is to be on the wrong side of the law.

Online laws were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person 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 the law won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against you.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website 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 Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Search online for information about “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 categories, including:

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

Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in a number of advertising or online merchant networks.

More importantly, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

This guide explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website using inexpensive methods, resources and WordPress plugins.

Does Your Website Comply With The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you offer on your website or blog

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Is your business at risk? Consider for a moment what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A person suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you plan to do with it.
• Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their website.
• You have not divulged to visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you are selling that you could earn a financial benefit if visitors decide to buy using your affiliate link.
• You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your refund and return policies.
• Visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and try to sue you because of it.
• You did not disclose that you have received a free copy in your product review.
• Your site contains adult content and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider now these real 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 (including credit card information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ 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 took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars 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 breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two 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 notices or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming exposed to non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

You need to ensure that your online business 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 trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You are required to let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will engage with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information when using many of their services. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your website using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information-based products with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling digital products via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically 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 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 ensuring that your website complies with all FTC regulations.

You can find many online business resources that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to create apps for your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide information about your legal pages …

(Apps that interface with social networking sites also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or monetizing your pages 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 shut down.
• If you have ever wondered whether “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)

What Compliance Information Should I Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

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

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above, you may want to look into including any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides advice about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs visitors that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing.
• Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages Manually

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website) so that users have access to legal information from every page …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar using widgets here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To Your Website

Use Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

For more details, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms

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

Cut And 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 simple search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & 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 page for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your web server as previously described.

More info:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple by using a plugin.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you a great deal of time.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:

• Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any page on your website.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when the user agrees to your legal terms.
• Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your WordPress dashboard menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type drop down menu)

Choose from several pre-configured legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages – 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

Visit this site to learn more about this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites containing over 20 customizable legal templates for your digital business …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro 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 & Conditions
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 powered site. Your legal pages can be 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 sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your business to be legally safe!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

***

As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines of third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or use online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.

Legal Information

Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet 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
• United States Copyright Office

Plus …

• 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

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website using simple methods and solutions.

***