Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you are doing business with?
As the digital way of life continues growing at breakneck speed and rules keep changing, it’s absolutely essential to stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your online presence is a fundamental aspect of your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Do a search online for “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 introduction of these laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, like pay-per-click advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not approve digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed into most advertising or online marketing networks.
If your business online is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and shows you simple solutions to help make your WordPress site compliant in minutes.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws wherever you do business.
The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives someone allergic reactions.
- You’ve told subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you will do with their details.
- Someone copies content from your site and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog informing your site visitors that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may get paid an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Your visitors claim the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you.
- You did not disclose that you have received a free copy of the product you reviewed.
- Your site publishes adult-related information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider also the following real case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to provide 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 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, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least two 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 cautions 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 be exposed to the risk of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Info Product Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
You need to make sure that your website is fully compliant with the law.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services
All of the big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in various countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You are expected to let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you engage with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your blogs with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
And even promoting your business using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information products through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for selling via their networks …
(ClickBank – policy requirements)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted 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 happened in the past, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies 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. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site complies with FTC guidelines.
A number of online business resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to create apps that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with access to various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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 to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- 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 website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Basic Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If your web site lacks in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
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 external service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above, you may want to look into implementing one or more of these pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides advice about financial areas or income opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the correct type of disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs readers that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets readers be aware 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 have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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 Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then add links to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can add these to your sidebar menu (or the footer of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from every web page …
(Display legal information to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets here:
Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Go here for more details:
Another option is to purchase a package of cut & paste website legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website 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 web server as previously described.
To learn more, visit this site:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you a great deal of time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your main dashboard menu …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page Type)
Choose from various pre-written legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – Built-In 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 information about the benefits of using this useful plugin, visit the plugin website:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites containing over 20 customizable legal pages for your online presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(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 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.
For more details, go here:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some form of basic legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a legal expert.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or a legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
***
As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your digital presence must comply with numerous laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice on this website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
Legal Resources & References
Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC 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
- United States Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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 provided above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website.
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com