Category: WordPress Configuration

Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you sell or endorse?

As the internet continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and rules keep changing, it’s vitally important that you stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

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, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also known as 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)

These laws has legal consequences for several online business activities, including:

• Any form of advertising, like Google AdWords
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in various advertising or online marketing networks.

If you are not compliant, you could face a number 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) are required to comply with various legalities, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be selling on your website, and that there are plugins for WordPress that can help your site become more compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.

Is Your Site Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. As stated above, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you use

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness program.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
• You’ve informed your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their own site.
• You haven’t advised your visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re recommending and will earn an affiliate commission if they purchase it.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy of a product you reviewed.
• Your website publishes adult information and you did not take sufficient measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.

Consider now the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches described:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a massive $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 Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 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% were breaking at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program with the infringement, 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 through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to ensure that your website is legally compliant.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

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

You are required to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you engage with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information if using their products or service. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your websites using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell digital products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you are required to add legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to sell or promote online with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines 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 reveals that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines.

Many business resource sites provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These

If you plan to create apps for your site users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about your legal pages …

(Apps that interface with social networks 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 it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue 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 display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
• If you’ve been wondering if “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 terms of use and policies)

What Compliance Information Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Compliant?

If your website or blog is lacking in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help your website stay out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and external providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider adding any of the following pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general content 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 media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding correct disclosure information to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets readers be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to your visitors that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product 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 readers 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 Website

Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legal folder in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages using FTP)

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

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from every web page …

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar menu, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Use Widgets

Use Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Visit this website to learn more:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates)

Cut & Paste website templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page on your website 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 these to your server as described earlier.

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using templates, you can keep things very simple using WordPress plugins.

Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other WP page.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to 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 any WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When the user agrees to the terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your main dashboard menu …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from the admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)

With WP Legal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review sites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)

Choose from several built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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

To learn more this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

The Compliance Bar Plugin For WordPress is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your online presence …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 & Conditions
• 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider at least implementing some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a lawyer.

We want your business to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal documents, or a legal pages plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online, it’s important that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines provided by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your website or blog must comply with various regulations, some 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. We strongly advise you to 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 recommend you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• 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

See Also …

• 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

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website.

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