Category: Website Planning

Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are selling or endorsing?

As digital business continues to grow at such a rapid pace and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important to try and stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if your online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

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

The new laws affect various business activities, including:

• Any form of advertising, like text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you will not be accepted into various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

If your business online is not compliant, you could end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This article explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and lists simple and inexpensive solutions that will make your WordPress site compliant quickly and easily.

Does Your Website Comply With The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws in your country or region.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these scenarios were to occur:

• Someone has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users an adverse reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with it.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site users know that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and will derive a commission if visitors buy the product via your link.
• You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund or return policies.
• A visitor claims your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you as a result.
• You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy of a product in your review.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider also these real examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• 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 information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. 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% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 cautions 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 risk being a target of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s imperative to make sure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

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

Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.

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

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires you to display legal information if using their products. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your blogs using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense display advertising - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell products online through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before your products can be approved for sale in their networks …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for product sellers)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners 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 chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.

Many sites provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

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

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether or not you are 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 plan to promote products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)

Common Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance

If you suspect that your website 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 will keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues):

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

In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider including one or more of these compliance pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides financial information)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the correct type of content disclosure is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your readers be aware that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Informs site users that you may receive compensation if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample Or review Copy – Explains to visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors 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.

How To Add Compliance Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

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

We recommend creating a legal folder in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

You can then easily add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that users can access legal information from every web page …

(Display links to your legal information on all of your site’s pages)

For a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar or footer, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To Your Website

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

To learn more, visit this site:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to purchase a set of legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

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

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

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

More information:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using templates, you can keep things very simple by using plugins.

Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your website feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like 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 website a lot easier and save you many headaches.

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

• Built-in 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 the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when user agrees to your terms.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear in your main dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …

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

Select from several built-in 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

To learn more this useful plugin, visit this website:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance pages for your digital presence …

More info:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 Plugin 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 powered site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of lawyers to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a lawyer.

We want your business to be legally protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, it’s important that your website complies with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed 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 cannot offer legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

Additional Information

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

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

See Also …

• 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
• 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 legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site using inexpensive methods and solutions.

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