Category: WordPress Configuration

Is your website legal? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you do business with?

As digital business continues growing at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vital that you try to stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is an essential factor in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate 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 agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these laws affect various business categories, including:

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

If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be accepted into a number of advertising or online marketing networks.

Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

This article explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your website.

Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice about your website or business. As previously stated, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you endorse on your website or blog

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider what could happen to your business if these situations were to take place:

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online workout program.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone an adverse reaction.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with their personal details.
• Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their site.
• There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re marketing and will earn a financial benefit if visitors purchase it.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund or return policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy of a product you reviewed.
• Your site contains adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider too these real examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information 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 without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting 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 breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 entirely to the Google program whose policies they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

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

it’s important to make sure that your online business is fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

All of the leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.

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

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information when using many of their services and product features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your blogs using Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell products online with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages to your site before your products can be approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling products via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been 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 business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC regulations.

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

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything online as an affiliate marketer, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.

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

Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance

If your website is falling short in terms 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 consumer protection authorities and third-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):

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

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

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides money-making information)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to downloadable media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you will not receive for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you will derive some form of financial or similar kind of benefit if they buy through your affiliate links.
• Sample Or review Copy – Informs your visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to visitors that you have been compensated in some way 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 Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that users can access the information from every web page …

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu here:

• How To Add Widgets To WordPress

Use Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

Go here for more details:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to download a package of website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These 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 add your own details, then pasted into your pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new 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 your legal pages to your web server as described earlier.

Go here for more information:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, you can keep things very simple by using plugins.

Here are some great legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time.

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

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. 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.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear in your main navigation menu section …

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

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

You can also choose from various pre-configured legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – 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

Visit the plugin site to learn more about using this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

Learn more here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 And Conditions
• 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute 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 using the services of lawyers to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.

We want your website to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal documents, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic 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 engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to make sure that your site complies with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or advertising online. Your internet presence must comply with a whole range of regulations, many 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. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

References And Legal Resources

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 legal obligations:

• 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
• 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

Plus …

• 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 why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website.

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