Category: WordPress Configuration

Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you are advertising or recommending?

Internet laws are designed to protect 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 your business.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) BBB, or Better Business Bureau. 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 – Better Business Bureau)

The introduction of these new laws has ramifications for several online business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, including inline ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in many advertising or online marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be advertising on your site, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your sites become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. As previously stated, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you endorse

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Consider for a moment what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A person has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement informing subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you will do with their personal details.
• Someone steals content from your site and puts it up on their site.
• You haven’t informed your visitors that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you will derive an affiliate commission if they purchase it.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you received a free copy in a product review.
• Your website publishes adult-related information and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider too the following actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped a whopping $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 Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, 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% had infringed 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 whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

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

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

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Generating revenue online with your WordPress blogs using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense display advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your site using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages to your site before your products can be approved for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business 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 documented on their website, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.

Many resources online provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references to a number of these at the end of this article …

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you plan to develop apps for your site, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about your legal pages …

(Apps that integrate with social networks also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site using affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using 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 provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
• If you’ve ever wondered if “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 services require you to comply with their terms of use)

Essential Legal Pages To Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your web site lacks in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help your business stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues):

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

In addition to the above, you may want to consider adding any of these compliance pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general content about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right disclosures to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your visitors know that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors be aware that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
• Sample/Review Copy – Explains to your visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets users know that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Pages Manually

If someone prepares 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 creating a legals directory on your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …

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

You can then add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access legal information from every web page …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar using widgets here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Website

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared website forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

To learn more, visit this website:

• FindLegalForms.com

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

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were written 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 business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web 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
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates FTC regulations that came into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

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

More information:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can simplify things by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress users that you may be interested in using:

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your legal terms.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)

With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

Choose from several pre-configured legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Visit this site for more details about this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

total website compliance & disclaimer solution …

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

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 & Conditions
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your site to be protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal forms, or a WordPress plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential 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, it’s important that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or use online. Your website or blog must comply with a wide range of regulations, 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

Resources

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• BBB – 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

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
• 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 and easily add legal pages to your website using simple and cost-effective methods, resources and WordPress plugins.

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