Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you offer or recommend?
As the digital way of life continues growing at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important to stay informed about what’s happening and make sure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is important in the success of your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online “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 has implications for various business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed into most advertising and online marketing networks.
If your business online is not in compliance, you could also face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website are required to comply with various legalities according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of complying with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be advertising online, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress users that can help your online properties become more compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations pertaining to your specific business.
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be if these situations were to take place:
- A customer suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you will do with the information you have collected.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their site.
- You haven’t advised your site users that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and could derive financial benefits if visitors buy it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund policies.
- Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your website contains adult content and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider also the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches listed below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received 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 does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 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% had breached at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 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 a target of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies
Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will engage with.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information if using their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue online with your sites using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell digital products via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements product vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to sell or promote online with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – 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. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any kind of business 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 making sure that your site complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.
You can find many online business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to develop apps that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with information about various legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Compliance Information Pages Should I Add To My Site To Be Protected From Legal Compliance Issues?
If your website is falling short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website should keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to consider adding any of the following pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general money-making advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you are not being paid for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs visitors that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Explains to site users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your visitors know that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with 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 Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should consult your lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can insert these into your WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website) to ensure that users have access to the information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu and footer in WordPress using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared internet forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)
More info:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut and paste website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations that came into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as previously described.
For more details, go here:
Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things by using WordPress plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered websites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Templates – Includes 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 legal pages you need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will be 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 every other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your main dashboard area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
With WP Legal Pages, you can create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, niche sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal page types)
You can also select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – 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
To learn more about using this WordPress plugin, visit this website:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
total website compliance and disclaimer solution …
More info:
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 & Conditions
- 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. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
For more details, go here:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be 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 ready-made legal page templates, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service required by third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or endorse online. If your website isn’t compliant 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 are not providing 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 pertaining to your business.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau Website
- 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
And …
- Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- 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 the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your website.
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