Category: Website Planning

If you do any kind of business online, you do not want to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

As digital business continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s absolutely vital that you stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your website remains compliant, especially if having a digital presence is an essential part of your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Search online “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 several online business categories, including:

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

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in a number of advertising or online marketing 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 or blog may be required to comply with various legalities, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be selling on your site, and that there are easy solutions that can help your websites become compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.

Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations wherever your business is based.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Consider for one moment what could happen to your business if any of the following scenarios were to happen:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog informing your site users that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you will get paid a financial benefit if they buy it.
• You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are false and tries to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider now these actual examples 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 his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to give everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — 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 does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk 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 websites picked at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 being targeted for litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords User
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to ensure that your website is legally compliant.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services

Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you interact with.

For example:

Google requires your site to display certain information when using many of their services. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your websites using Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your site through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information products with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling digital products through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, 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 doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your website is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.

There are many resources online that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide references to a number of these at the end of this article …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create apps for your website, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Apps that integrate with social networking sites like Facebook also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue 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 include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you’ve ever wondered 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, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

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

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help you keep out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

As well as the above pages, you may want to look into adding one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Informs visitors that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Lets your visitors be aware that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs site users that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
• 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 online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages To Your Website

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

We recommend adding a legals folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages using FTP)

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

(WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that users will be able to access legal information from all pages …

(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 and footer here:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Blog

Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more info:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to purchase a set of cut & paste legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC 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 each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.

To learn more, go here:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

As well as using legal templates, you can keep things really simple by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered sites that you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you time.

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

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WordPress page.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will then 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 any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When a user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your navigation section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

You can create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review websites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Choose from various pre-written legal templates …

(WP 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 the benefits of using this great plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 And 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. You can have legal pages 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).

To learn more, visit this website:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your business to be protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or a plugin as described in the 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 stated earlier, if you do business online, you need to ensure that your site complies with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or advertise online. Your website or blog must comply with numerous laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Legal Information

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

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 the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your website or blog.

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