Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you recommend or offer?
As the digital way of life continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vitally important that you try to stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your site remains compliant, especially if having a digital presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, 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 to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau)
The new laws has ramifications for various business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, including display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your website does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed into many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
If your web presence 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(s) are subject to legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be advertising online, and that there are plugins for WordPress users that can help your sites become compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Is your business at risk? Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A person has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you’ll do with it.
- Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own site.
- There is no statement on your site letting your site users know that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you will earn a financial benefit if visitors purchase it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund or return policies.
- Someone claims the testimonials on your site are fake and tries to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site contains adult information and you have not taken sufficient measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider also the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two 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 cautions 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 risk being a target of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Info 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
It’s vitally important to make sure that your online business complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
All of the big websites and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information if using many of their products and features. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your blog with Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to sell products or services online using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically 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 does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations and guidelines.
There are many sites that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See our additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you are planning to develop applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Apps that integrate with social networking sites like Facebook also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are 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 plan to promote services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages 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 provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website
If your website or blog falls short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and 3rd-party providers, and avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to look into adding any of these compliance pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs readers that you will not be receiving any form of payment for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets visitors be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product you’re writing about by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs visitors that you have been compensated in some form to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add these to your sidebar (or the footer of your site) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:
Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
More information:
Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut & paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & 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 these to your web server as previously described.
Go here to learn more:
Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use plugins.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered sites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages instead …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will 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:
- Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog 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 any page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when user agrees to your legal terms.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your WP dashboard menu section …
(WP Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)
With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, niche sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)
You can also select from various built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured 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 the plugin website to learn more about this plugin:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your digital business …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 Plugin 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
More info:
If using the services of legal experts to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some kind of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or consider using 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 Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates 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 we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or advertise online. Your internet presence must comply with a whole range 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
References And Resources
Here is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Additionally …
- 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
We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website.
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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