Category: WordPress Configuration

If you plan to grow a successful business online, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you have done something illegal.

As the internet continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vital that you stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if having an online presence plays a significant part in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect various business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If there are no legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in a number of advertising or online marketing networks.

Plus, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website(s) may be subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be recommending on your website, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your online properties become more compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.

Is Your Site Breaking The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As previously stated, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws governing business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you advertise

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 user suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people an allergic reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you plan to do with their personal details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their site.
• There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may receive a commission if visitors purchase it.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund or return policies.
• Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult information and you did not take sufficient measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider also the following actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required 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 copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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 randomly-chosen 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% had breached 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 to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming targeted for litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords User
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website remains legally compliant.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies

All the leading online companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

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

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information if using many of their services and product features. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your website with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your business through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell products online via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are 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 companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations.

A number of online business resources provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to resources at the end of this article …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to develop apps that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Legal Information Pages Does My Website Need To Be Legally Compliant?

If your website is falling short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website should help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

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

As well as the above pages, you may want to consider implementing one or more of these pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general financial content)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the correct type of disclosure is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you will derive some form of financial or similar kind of benefit if they buy through your affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to site users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to readers that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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 To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal content 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 directory on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your site) so that users will be able to access legal information from every web page …

(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your site’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer using widgets here:

• Using Widgets

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

Go here for more details:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

You can either create a new WordPress 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 the pages to your server as described previously.

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If manually creating legal pages for your site seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you a great deal of time.

Some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other page on your site.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when the user agrees to your legal terms.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item is added to your main navigation area …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, review sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Select from several built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Visit the plugin site to learn more this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

total website compliance & disclaimer solution …

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

Legal Suite Pro 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 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 one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites.

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring legal experts to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire the services of a legal firm.

We want your business to be legally protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal page templates, 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 Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you do business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) provided by third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.

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, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your website may require 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
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB
• 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

See Also …

• Google 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
• 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 presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.

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