Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you offer or promote?
Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t protect someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau)
These laws affect several business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be accepted into most advertising or online marketing networks.
If you are not compliant, you could face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and lists simple and cost-effective ways to make your website or blog compliant.
Is Your Site Breaking The Law?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice about your website or business. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever you do business.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you will do with it.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your site users know that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you will derive a sales commission if visitors purchase it.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you because of it.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website contains adult-related information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.
Consider also the following documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $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 internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 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 notices 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 you could become exposed to the risk of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to make sure that your online business has the right legal pages and information accessible to site users.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
All the leading companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You are obligated to let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you engage with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display legal information when using their services. This includes using features like Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your websites with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your business through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information products via merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you are required to add various legal pages before your products can be approved for sale in their network …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are still 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 website 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 is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations.
There are many resources online that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to develop applications that will integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Apps that interface with social networking sites like Facebook 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 organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all 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, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
Common Legal Pages To Include In Your Website
If your website is falling short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your website stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to consider implementing any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general health or medical advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to your visitors that you will receive compensation if they buy through your affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Discloses to your visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your readers that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will have a lawyer 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 content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can insert these into your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to legal information to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu using widgets here:
Use Ready-Made Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here for more details:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for each legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described earlier.
More info:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things by using WordPress plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs that you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages instead …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your main WordPress dashboard menu …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, review sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
You can also select from a number of pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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
Go here to learn more this plugin:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over twenty customizable legal page templates for your digital business …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
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 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 site. Your legal pages can be 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 websites.
More information:
If using the services of lawyers to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a solicitor.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal page templates, or a plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with government legal requirements and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or selling online. Your internet presence must comply with a whole set of regulations, many 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
References And Legal Resources
Below is a time-saving list of sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau – 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
- US Copyright Office
And …
- 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 above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress site using simple and cost-effective solutions.
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