Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you are selling or endorsing?
As digital business continues growing at such a fast pace and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vitally important to try and stay on top of what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your online presence is an essential factor in your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for commercial gain, then you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory 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.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws affect several business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including 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 (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could reject web applications, and you will not be accepted into many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a whole range 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 certain legalities, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose products or services you may be offering online, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your sites become more compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice in this article. As previously stated, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you recommend
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness program.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you’ll do with it.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website informing your visitors that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you could get paid financial benefits if they purchase it using your affiliate link.
- You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your refund and return policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and decide to sue you.
- You did not disclose that you received a free copy of the product you are reviewing.
- Your website contains adult information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider also these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with 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 prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of 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 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 through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence remains legally compliant.
Compliance With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
All the big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you do business with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using their services. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your blogs with Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell digital products with companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their network …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for product sellers)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you plan to create applications that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your website using 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 terminated.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
What Compliance Information Do I Need To Add To My Site To Be Protected From Legal Compliance Issues?
If your web site is lacking in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website will help your site stay out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and external service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below where applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. 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 advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right disclosure information to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets your readers be aware that you will not receive any form of compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Disclosure that informs your readers that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to site users that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets users 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.
Adding Legal Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares 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 legal folder to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your site) so that users have access to legal information from all pages …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar menu here:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)
For more details, go here:
Another option is to download a package of website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple 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 Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations that came into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.
Go here for more information:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple using WordPress plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users that you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)
If the idea of creating legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you a great deal of time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When a user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear inside your main dashboard menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche sites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
You can also choose from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WordPress 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
Visit this site to learn more about using this powerful plugin:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that contains over twenty customizable legal templates for your online presence …
More info:
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 Use
- 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
More information:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.
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 attorney-prepared legal forms, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate essential 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 (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site is found to comply with government laws and regulations and the terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party services and products that you may decide to promote or use online. Your digital presence must comply with various regulations, some of which you may not 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its 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
- United States Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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
- 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 compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive solutions.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com