Category: Management Plugins

Is your WordPress website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you are selling or endorsing?

As the digital realm continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vital to stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if having an online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, you need to 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.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these laws has legal consequences for various business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, like pay-per-click advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t approve digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising or online merchant networks.

Additionally, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

In this article, we look at the importance of having a compliant website and show you simple and cost-effective methods and solutions to make your WordPress site compliant in minutes.

Is Your Website Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever you do business.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider what could happen to your business if any of the scenarios below were to occur:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link an adverse reaction.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with the information you have collected.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their website.
• There is no statement on your site telling visitors that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you could derive a sales commission if visitors purchase it.
• You don’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
• Your visitors claim that your testimonials are misleading and try to sue you because of it.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site includes adult content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider now the documented examples of costly compliance breaches listed below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete his 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 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 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed 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 infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming targeted for litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s vitally important to make sure that your online business is legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Companies

Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in various countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you will interact with online.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using many of their services. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Earning revenue online with your online properties with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your services through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information products through places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for vendors)

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

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many websites are 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 plan to do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.

Various resources online provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide links to useful and additional references to some of these at the end of this article …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to create social networking applications that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Apps for social networks 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 companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve 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, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Basic Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your website is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should help your business keep out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and external providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us Page
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above, you may want to consider including any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general health or medical advice)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs site users that you’re not being paid for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to readers that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Explains to users that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors 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 Pages Content To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you should 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 Manually

If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legal folder on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can add these to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your site) so that visitors can access the information from all pages …

(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your website’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Site

Legal Templates

You can find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)

To learn more, visit this site:

• Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Another option is to download a set of cut and paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

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

More information:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using cut & paste templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when users agree to your terms.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your WP dashboard menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

This lets you create, edit and view your legal pages from the admin area …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, niche sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal page types)

You can also select from several pre-configured legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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

Go here to learn more this powerful plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over twenty customizable legal templates for your digital presence …

Learn more here:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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 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 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 (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your business to be safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal page templates, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.

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, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your specific business.

Additional Legal Information

Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your site may require 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
• 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

Also …

• 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
• 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 provided above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

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