Category: Management Plugins

Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you sell or recommend?

Internet laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person 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 will not protect someone from taking legal action against your business.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)

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

• Any form of advertising, including Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

If your online business is not compliant, you could face a number 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 are required to comply with certain legalities according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be endorsing online, and that there are plugins for WordPress users that can help your sites become fully compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Does Your Site Comply With The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. 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 federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you endorse on your website or blog

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what would happen to your business if the following were to happen:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website making your site users aware that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you could receive a commission if they purchase through your affiliate link.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Online visitors claim that your testimonials are fake and decide to sue you as a result.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult-related content and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider also these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• 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 hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• 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 independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation of at least three 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 risk being targeted for litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s imperative to ensure that your website remains legally compliant.

Complying With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

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

You must let your site users know that your website complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products or service. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue online with your WordPress blog using Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your products via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell information products using places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines.

You can find many online business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create applications for your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others require you to provide information about various legal pages …

(Apps that interface with social networking sites also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
• If you’ve been wondering 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)

Common Legal Pages To Add To Your Website

If your website or blog lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

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

Additionally, you may want to consider adding any of these legal pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general money-making information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding correct web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs readers that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Notifies your readers that you will be compensated if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample Or review Copy – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs your readers that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
• 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Content 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 add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers 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 adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then easily add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that users have access to the information from every web page …

(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer, refer to this tutorial:

• Using WordPress Widgets

Use Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

For more details, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to purchase a set of cut and paste legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use plugins.

Here are some legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you time.

Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages are:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your 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 every other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When a user agrees to the terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature is added to your main WordPress dashboard menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

With WPLegal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)

You can also choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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

To learn more about using this plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your online business …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 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.

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your site to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, 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, you need to make sure that your website remains compliant with government regulations and any terms of service and guidelines for third-party services and products that you may be promoting or offering online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended 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 cannot provide legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.

Additional Information

Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain 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
• 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

And …

• 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

We hope this article 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 site using simple solutions.

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