Category: Website Planning

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

As the internet continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules keep changing, it’s vitally important to stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your website remains compliant, especially if having an online presence plays a significant role in your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The new laws affect various online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, including display advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be accepted into most advertising and online merchant networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

This guide explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and shows you simple and inexpensive resources and solutions that will make your WordPress website compliant in minutes.

Is Your Website Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice about your website or business. As stated previously, the aim of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws that govern business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose products or services you use on your website

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• Someone suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness program.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you’ll do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
• There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you will get paid a financial benefit if they buy via your link.
• You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund or return policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and decides to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose that you were given a free copy in a product review.
• Your site includes adult content and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider too these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’ve also been 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 whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach 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 to the Google program whose policies they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

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

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Compliance With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

All the leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade in various countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you engage with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

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

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your site using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your site through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell digital products through companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add various legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site 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 websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you 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. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC regulations.

There are many sites that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to resources at the end of this article …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to develop apps that integrate with your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about your legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their 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 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)

What Legal Pages Does My Website Need To Be Protected From Legal Compliance Issues?

If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and external service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

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

As well as the above, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides content about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets readers be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets visitors be aware that you may be compensated if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Lets users know that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets readers be aware that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• 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 website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Compliance Pages To Your Site

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

Upload Legal Web Pages Manually

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

You can then add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website) so that users have access to legal information from all pages …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar here:

• Adding Widgets To The Blog Sidebar Navigation Section

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More info:

• FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms

Alternatively, you can download a set of cut and paste website legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as previously described.

To learn more, go here:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using copy & paste legal templates, you can simplify things using plugins.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users that you should check out:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

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

WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you time.

Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your 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 page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when users agree to your terms.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item is added to your dashboard area …

(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site menu)

Choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Built-In 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 plugin, visit the plugin website:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin containing over twenty customizable compliance page templates for your site …

Learn We’ve written a detailed review of this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress 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 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 license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring legal experts to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your site to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documentation, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your website stays compliant with government laws and regulations and the terms of service and guidelines of third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or offer online. Your digital presence must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not 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 do not offer legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.

Resources

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

Additionally …

• 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 above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your site using simple and cost-effective legal resources and solutions.

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