Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you advertise or promote?
As the internet continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules keep changing, it’s vitally important that you try to stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if your web presence is an essential factor in your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws has ramifications for several online business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, including Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
Without legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in a number of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If your web presence is not compliant, you could also face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website(s) may be required to comply with legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern businesses online, the importance of complying with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be recommending on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your website become compliant, such as the plugins that we list further below.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice about your website or business. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws in your country or region.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness program.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you’ll do with it.
- Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may receive an affiliate commission if visitors decide to purchase via your affiliate link.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you as a result.
- You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site includes adult-related information and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider now 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 personal information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped 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 prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk 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 websites picked at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
You need to ensure that your website is legally compliant.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies
Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your site visitors know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display legal information if using many of their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your websites with Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products with companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC regulations.
You can find many sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to create applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to various legal pages …
(Apps for social networking sites like Facebook 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 you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything online using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
What Legal Information Does My Website Need To Be Compliant?
If you suspect that your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should help your site stay out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and external providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to consider including one or more of these pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general financial advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to download videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies site users that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
- Sample/Review Copy – Explains to visitors 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 were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets readers 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.
How To Add Legal Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should consult a 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 Pages Manually
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 directory on your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from all of your web pages …
(Display links to legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar and footer here:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to sites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More information:
Alternatively, you can download a set of cut & paste website legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described previously.
For more details, go here:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
As well as using cut & paste templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use a plugin.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-driven websites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your main navigation menu …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal page types)
Choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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
Go here to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin:
Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites and blogs containing over twenty customizable legal pages for your digital business …
Learn more here:
Legal Suite Pro
(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 of Use
- 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. 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).
More information:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your site to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal content, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, 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 are planning to), you need to ensure that your site is found to comply with government regulations and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) provided by third-party sites that you may be promoting or using online. Your website must comply with a whole 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.
Additional Legal Information
Below is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to remain compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- US 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 and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com