Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you are advertising or endorsing?
Online laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, then you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws has ramifications for several business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (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 won’t approve digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in many advertising or online merchant networks.
If your business online is not in compliance, you could face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website or blog may be subject to legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you may be recommending online, and that there are plugins for WordPress that can help your online properties become more compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Is Your Site Breaking The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A customer suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness program.
- The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you plan to do with it.
- Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your website making your site users aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you will derive a commission if they end up buying using your affiliate link.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials are misleading and decides to sue you.
- You did not disclose that you received a free copy of a product in your review.
- Your website includes adult information and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider too these documented examples 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 to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to give a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with 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 does not allow users to scrape 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 chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed 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 notices 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 you could easily become exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
All of the big websites and government regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You are required to let your site users know that your website complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you engage with.
For example:
Google requires your site to display legal information when using their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your online properties with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
Or promoting your services via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell products online using companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale in their networks …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation 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. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your website complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.
There are many online resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you plan to create apps for your website users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- 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 are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
Basic Legal Pages To Include In Your Website
If your website or blog falls short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to look into implementing any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides money-making advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs readers that you are not receiving any kind of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies users that you may receive compensation if they buy through an affiliate link.
- Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to your visitors that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets 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 website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares the legal content 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 server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your site) so that users will be able to access the information from every page …
(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu using widgets, see this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared website forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
For more information, go here:
Another option is to purchase a package of website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as described previously.
More information:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using cut & paste legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins that you may be interested in using:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Built-in Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other WP page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your navigation menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate websites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page Type)
You can also choose from various built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Pre-configured 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 this handy plugin:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
The Compliance Bar WordPress Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your website …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(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 And Conditions
- 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 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 this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
To learn more, visit this site:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some form of basic legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your site to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal content, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate basic 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 do business online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with all government regulations and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines of third-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
Additional 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 – 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
And …
- 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive solutions.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)