One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
Online laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against your business.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, 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 to learn more.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
The new laws affect several online business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you won’t be accepted into a range of advertising and online merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this guide, we discuss why it’s important to have a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. As stated earlier, the aim of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party companies whose services or products you recommend on your website
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider for one minute what would happen to your business if the scenarios below were to happen:
- Someone has a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives people an allergic reaction.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement that lets subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you will do with it.
- Someone steals content from your site and publishes it on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you will get paid a financial benefit if visitors purchase through your affiliate link.
- You have not spelled out the conditions of your return policies.
- Visitors claim your testimonials are all fake and try to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site contains adult content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider now these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- 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 private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ 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 infringed at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords Advertiser
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence remains fully compliant with the law.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site users know that your website complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you interact with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using their products. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Generating revenue with your website with Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell digital products with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you are required to add a number of legal pages to your site before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell products online with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of selling 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 by making sure that your website complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.
Many sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you are planning to develop applications for your site users, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies)
What Legal Pages Should I Add To My Website To Be Compliant?
If your website or blog is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your website keep out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into adding any of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general financial advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio 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 – Disclosure that informs users that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Informs users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets readers be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets readers know 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares 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 legals directory in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to these pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all your site’s pages …
(Display links to legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More information:
Another option is to download a package of legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates)
Cut & Paste website templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your 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
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
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 web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as previously described.
More information:
Legal Pages – Plugins
As well as using templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users that you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages instead …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – 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 page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information is then 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 page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear inside your main WordPress dashboard menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Choose 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
Go here to learn more about the benefits of using this great plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your online presence …
Learn We have written an in-depth review of this plugin here:
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 & Conditions
- 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 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. Your legal pages can be 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).
More info:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a lawyer.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal templates, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online, it’s important that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines for 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumer rights, 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Legal Resources And References
Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- BBB – 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
- US Copyright Office
Additionally …
- 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 legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website.
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