Is your WordPress website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are doing business with?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t protect someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection 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 to learn more.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
These laws affect various business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like text link advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your website does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed into most advertising and online merchant networks.
If your business online is not compliant, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website(s) are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be using online, and that there are solutions that can help your sites become compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Is Your Site Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As previously stated, the purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose products or services you advertise
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A user has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness program.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement informing prospective subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you plan to do with their details.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website making your site visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you could derive an affiliate commission if visitors purchase it.
- You did not spell out the terms of your refund or return policies.
- A visitor claims your testimonials are fake and decides to sue you as a result.
- You didn’t disclose that you were given a free copy in a product review.
- Your website includes adult-related information and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider now the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he is now required to give everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- 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 does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 entirely 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 becoming exposed to non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s imperative to ensure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Complying with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You are required to let your site visitors know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you engage with online.
For example:
Google requires websites to display legal information when using their products and features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Monetizing your site using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell digital products with places 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 sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and policies on your website, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines.
There are many online resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See our additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to create social networking applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- 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 you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or monetizing 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 suspended.
- If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to 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 terms of use and policies)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site
If you suspect that your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your website stay out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and external providers, and 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
Additionally, you may want to consider adding any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs visitors that you’re not receiving any kind of compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Explains to your visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users know that you have been compensated in some way 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 website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Pages To Your Website
If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can add these to the sidebar menu (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that users will be able to access legal information from every web page …
(Display legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu, refer to this tutorial:
Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Go here for more details:
Another option is to download a package of legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)
Cut & Paste website templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.
You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described earlier.
Go here for more details:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, another option is to use plugins.
Here are some great WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you many headaches.
Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When the user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your main WP dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, review websites, medical sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type menu)
You can also select from various built-in legal templates …
(WP 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 the plugin website to learn more this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 of Service
- 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.
For more details, visit this website:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal forms, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you do business online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with government laws and regulations and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Non-compliance 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 are not providing legal advice in this article. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.
Additional Legal Information
Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to remain compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau
- 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
- 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 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