Category: WordPress Configuration

One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a business owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.

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

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws affect various online business activities, including:

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

Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in many advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

If your business online is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern your business, the importance of complying with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be selling online, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress that can help your websites become more compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice about your website or business. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be if any of the scenarios below were to occur:

• Someone suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with it.
• Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your site letting visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you’re marketing that you will get paid an affiliate commission if they end up purchasing via your link.
• You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
• Someone claims your testimonials are misleading and decides to sue you because of it.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider too the actual examples of costly compliance breaches below:

• 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. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ 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% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed 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 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 be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s vitally important to make sure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

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

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

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products and service. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue with your WordPress site using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell digital products using places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add a number of legal pages before your products are approved for selling via their network …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for sellers)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often ends up with 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 type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your website is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.

Many sites provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources to some of these at the end of this article …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to create apps for your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you have ever wondered whether “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 services require you to comply with their policies)

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

If your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site will keep you out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above pages, you may want to consider adding one or more of these pages if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• 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)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Discloses to readers that you will not receive compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate links.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets site users know that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs users that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Content To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to include them in 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 site, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors can access the information from all pages …

(It’s important to display legal information to users on all of your site’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer in WordPress here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Sidebar

Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms)

More information:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste website legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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

For more information, go here:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using templates, another option is to use plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered websites that you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing WP Legal Pages instead …

WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Some of the benefits of using the 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 legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your 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 checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when users agree to your terms.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your main navigation menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

Choose from various pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress 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 this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

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 – 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

To learn more, visit this website:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider at least implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your site to be legally protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily 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 do business online, it’s important that your site is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online and any guidelines and terms of service for third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or advertise online. Your website or blog must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not even be aware of.

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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.

Additional Resources

Here is a useful list of sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to comply and meet its legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission 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
• United States 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
• Google 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 presented above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress site.

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