If you do any kind of business online, you do not want to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.
As digital business continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules keep changing, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website or blog remains compliant, especially if your digital presence is important in the success of your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)
These laws has consequences for various business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like PPC advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could reject web applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in various advertising and online merchant networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, you could end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website(s) may be required to comply with various legalities in accordance with the laws that govern your business, the importance of complying with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be recommending on your website, and that there are plugins for WordPress that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. As previously stated, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws governing your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you advertise
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Is your business at risk? Consider for a minute what could happen to your business if any of the scenarios below were to occur:
- A customer has a heart attack after using your online workout program.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not defined what you plan to do with the details you’ve collected.
- Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your site telling visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing and will derive a commission if they buy through your link.
- You did not spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Your visitors claim your testimonials are false and try to sue you as a result.
- You didn’t disclose that you received a free copy of the product you reviewed.
- Your site includes adult content and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider too the following actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape 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 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 notices or lose access entirely 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 risk becoming a target of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to ensure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you interact with online.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires you to display legal information when using their products. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your WordPress blog with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your site via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell products online via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their networks …
(ClickBank – policy requirements)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product 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 still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this often ends up with 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 do any type of selling 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 by making sure that your website complies with FTC guidelines.
Many business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide references to a number of these at the end of this article …
(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to develop applications for your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to various legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered if “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)
What Legal Information Does My Website Need To Be Insured Against Legal Compliance Issues?
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help your website stay out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and 3rd-party providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to look into adding any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general health or medical advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the correct type of web content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you may be compensated if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to users that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets readers be aware 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Website
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 Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar menu (or place them in the footer of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer in WordPress using widgets, see this tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
Go here for more information:
Another option is to purchase a package of cut and paste legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages 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 Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service & 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 for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described previously.
Go here for more details:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)
If manually creating legal pages for your website feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages instead …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you many headaches.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages are:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 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 Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like any WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will be 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 your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will be added to your WordPress dashboard menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)
You can create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review sites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Choose from several pre-written 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
Go here to learn more this great plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress sites that includes over twenty customizable compliance templates for your digital business …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 – 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 plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
More info:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a lawyer.
We want your business to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal documents, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate necessary 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 engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website complies with government regulations and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines of 3rd-party services and products that you may decide to promote or use 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to remain compliant 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
- US Copyright Office
And …
- 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
- 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 compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website using simple methods and resources.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum