Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you are endorsing or using?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly 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). Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws affect various business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
More importantly, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to 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 external providers whose products or services you may be offering online, and that there are solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your website become fully compliant, such as the plugins that we list further below.
Is Your Website Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws regarding your specific business.
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone an adverse reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you plan to do with it.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their site.
- There is no statement on your site making visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you will derive a commission if they purchase it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you because of it.
- You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy in a product review.
- Your site publishes adult-related content and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider also the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- 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 using software that scrapes UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, 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 broken 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 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 through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s imperative to ensure that your website is fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Complying with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you engage with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using their services or product features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your blogs with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
Or promoting your business using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for selling via their network …
(ClickBank – policy requirements)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell products using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
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 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 companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your site complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.
A number of online business resources provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to resources at the end of this article …
(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you plan to create social networking applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook 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 services or products on your site via affiliate marketing, or generating revenue 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 are required to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
What Legal Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Legally Compliant?
If your web site falls short 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 many regulatory authorities and third-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider adding any of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides money-making information)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Media Terms (if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets users know that you will not receive any kind of payment for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your readers know that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
- Sample Or review Copy – Informs users that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to readers that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors know 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.
How To Add Legal Content To Your Site
Ideally, you will 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.
Upload Legal Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that users have access to the information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages to users on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:
Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-prepared internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Visit this website to learn more:
Another option is to download a set of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms 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 WordPress page 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 the pages to your server as described earlier.
To learn more, visit this website:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple by using WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users that you should check out:
WordPress Legal Pages
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when user agrees to your legal terms.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your main dashboard section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page Type)
Select from several built-in legal templates …
(WP 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
Go here to learn more about this handy plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable legal pages for your site …
Learn more about this plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro
(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 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 very flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites.
More info:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some type of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your website to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal templates, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates 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 do business online, it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or recommend online. Your internet presence must comply with a whole range of 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC 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
- US Copyright Office
In Addition …
- 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
We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
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"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