Category: WordPress Configuration

If you plan to grow a successful business online, you do not want to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

As the digital era continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules keep changing, it’s absolutely essential to stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if having a digital presence is important in the success of your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these laws has ramifications for various business activities, including:

• Any form of advertising, e.g. display advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

If your website does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising and online marketing networks.

If your business online is not in compliance, you could also face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

In this article, we look at the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website.

Is Your Site Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice about your website or business. As stated earlier, the aim of this article is only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you promote on your website

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Consider what would happen to your business if these scenarios were to occur:

• Someone suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
• You’ve told subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you will do with it.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their site.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site users know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate and may derive a financial benefit if they buy it.
• You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund and return policies.
• A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are all fake and tries to sue you as a result.
• You did not disclose that you were given a free copy of the product you reviewed.
• Your website publishes adult-related content and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider now these real 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 (including credit card details to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached 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 with warnings or lose access entirely 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 be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

it’s important to ensure that your website or blog is fully compliant with the law.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies

Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.

You are obligated to let your site users know that your business complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you will interact with online.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information when using their products. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your WordPress blog using Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

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

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

New 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 flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, 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 do any kind 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 complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.

Various business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, 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 terminated.
• If you have ever wondered whether “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, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)

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

If your web site falls short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):

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

As well as the above pages, you may want to consider adding any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides health or medical advice)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs readers that you will not receive for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Notifies your visitors that you may receive compensation if they purchase through your affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Informs visitors that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs users 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 satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), 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) …

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

You can then add a link to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar menu (or the footer of your site) to ensure that visitors can access the information from all your pages …

(Display legal information to visitors on all of your site’s pages)

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Configuring Widgets On Your WordPress Sidebar Section

Ready-Made Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

To learn more, visit this site:

• Find Legal Forms – Legal forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your legal web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page for every legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described previously.

Go here for more info:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.

Here are some great legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you many headaches.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:

• Built-in Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content 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 page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks only when users agree to your terms.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear inside your main dashboard menu section …

(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

Choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WP 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

To learn more about using this powerful plugin, visit this website:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over 20 customizable legal pages for your online presence …

More info:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro 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 Service
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress – 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 (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.

We want your website to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal templates, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site complies with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or selling online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:

• 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
• Google 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

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your site.

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