Category: WordPress Configuration

Is your website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you do business with?

Online laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect someone from taking legal action against your business.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “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)

The new laws has consequences for various online business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like display advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• 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 such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in a number of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website or blog(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 using on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your websites become fully compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Website Comply With The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. As previously stated, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you offer

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for one moment what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to occur:

• Someone suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness program.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you will do with their personal details.
• Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own website.
• You have not divulged to your site users that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may receive a commission if visitors end up purchasing using your affiliate link.
• You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
• Someone claims the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider now these documented 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 (including credit card information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking 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 whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being a target of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s vitally important to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly accessible to all you site users.

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

Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You must let your site visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you will do business with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your blog using Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your site using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell digital products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements product vendors selling through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically results in 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 plan to do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.

A number of resources online provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to develop apps that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)

What Compliance Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If your website or blog lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help your site keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and external providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above pages, you may want to look into implementing any of the following pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides information about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you will not receive for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you may derive some form of financial or similar form of benefit if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample Or review Copy – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your visitors 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 website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Content To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult your lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

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

(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)

You can then easily add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every page …

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar using widgets, see this tutorial:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To Your Sidebar

Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more details:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to download a set of cut and paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste 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 insert your own business details, then pasted into your legal pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• 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 WordPress page for each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described previously.

To learn more, visit this site:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using cut & paste templates, another option is to use a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.

Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you need in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like any page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then 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 WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to your legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will be added to your main WordPress dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)

With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Select from a number of pre-configured legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Visit the plugin website for more information about this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin

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

More info:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 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 site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your website to be legally protected!

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 plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you make money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or advertising online. Your website must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even 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 do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.

Additional Legal Information

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to remain 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 – Better Business Bureau
• 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 …

• 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site using simple methods and resources.

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