One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to break the law.
Online laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law 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 website for profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (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 – BBB)
The introduction of new laws has implications for various online business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, like Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in a number of advertising or online merchant networks.
If your online presence is not compliant, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and provides simple solutions to help make your WordPress website or blog compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As previously stated, the purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with the laws that govern online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose products or services you promote on your website or blog
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider what could happen to your business if any of these situations were to happen:
- Someone suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you will do with it.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
- You haven’t advised visitors that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may receive financial benefits if they buy it.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- A visitor claims your testimonials are false and decides to sue you as a result.
- You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy in your product review.
- Your website includes adult content and you have not taken sufficient measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to give 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 from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being exposed to non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to make sure that your digital presence stays fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies Terms And Policies
Complying with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are expected to let your site visitors know that your business complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will engage with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information if using their products or service. This includes using services like Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue online with your website with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
And even promoting your products via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell information products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see 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 companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your website complies with all FTC guidelines.
There are many resources online that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you plan to develop applications that integrate with your website, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you may be 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 anything online using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their 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, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
What Legal Information Should You Add To Your Website To Be Insured Against Legal Compliance Issues?
If your website is lacking in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and external service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider including any of these pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs your visitors that you will not receive for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you will be compensated if they purchase through your affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets readers be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Informs users that you were 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 online 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 content of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legals folder to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) so that users have access to the information from every page …
(It’s important to display legal pages to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer menu using widgets here:
Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
For more information, go here:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut & paste website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (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 page on your website for each legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.
For more details, go here:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple by using a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress websites and blogs that you may be interested in using:
WP Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages)
If the idea of creating legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you many headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks only when users agree to your legal terms.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your main dashboard area …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)
You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)
You can also select from several pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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
For more details about using this great plugin, visit the plugin website:
Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites that contains over twenty customizable compliance templates for your online presence …
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
More info:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some type of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your site to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal content, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines provided by third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or endorse online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumer rights, 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
References And Legal Resources
Below is a time-saving list of sites we recommend you visit to 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
- 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
In Addition …
- 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website using simple methods and resources.
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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)