Category: WordPress Configuration

Is your website legal? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you are promoting or selling?

As the cybersphere continues growing at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s absolutely essential that you stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence is an integral factor in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site 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 BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

The introduction of these laws has legal implications for various business categories, including:

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

If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal 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 may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in various advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your site(s) are required to comply with certain legalities, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be using on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your site become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is located.

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for one moment what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to take place:

• A user has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users an adverse reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you will do with it.
• Someone steals content from your site and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are promoting and could get paid a commission if they purchase it.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund/return policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are all fake and try to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy of the product in your review.
• Your website includes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider too these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to give a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 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% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how you could be exposed to the risk of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

it’s important to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

Complying with third-party services terms and policies is important.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will do business with.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires your site to display legal information when using many of their products or features. This includes using features like Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Generating revenue with your WordPress blogs with Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell products online with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for digital product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your website complies with FTC regulations.

A number of business resource sites provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you are planning to create apps that integrate with your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site via affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
• If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Compliance Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Compliant?

If your website or blog lacks in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your website should help your site keep out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms & Conditions
• Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above, you may want to look into including one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general health or medical information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

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

• No Material Connection – Discloses to readers that you are not receiving compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Informs your readers that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Lets users know that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing or writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Lets your visitors know that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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 Legal Pages Content To Your Site

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

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares 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 adding a legals directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)

You can then add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site

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

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

To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Widgets In WordPress

Templates

You can find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

For more details, go here:

• Find Legal Forms

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

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be 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 Website Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• 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 WordPress page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.

More info:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-driven websites worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …

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

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

• Built-in Legal 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 will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other page on your site.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress 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 page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will be added to your WP dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type menu)

Choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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 about using this WordPress plugin, visit this site:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs containing over 20 customizable legal pages for your web presence …

For a detailed review of this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

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 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 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.

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of legal experts to create your online legal documentation is currently 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 site to be safe!

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 documentation, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

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

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with all government laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of 3rd-party services and products that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your website or blog must comply with a number of regulations, some of which you may not even 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, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice here. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.

Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet 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
• 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

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
• 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 add essential legal pages to your site.

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