Is your website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you recommend or offer?
As the digital realm continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vital that you stay on top of what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence is important in the success of your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, you will 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, also referred to as the BBB. Search online “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 has implications for various online business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like inline advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you will not be accepted into various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could also face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your site are subject to legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern business practices online, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be advertising on your site, and that there are easy solutions that can help your online properties become more compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. 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 policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you advertise
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be if any of the following were to take place:
- A customer has a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users an allergic reaction.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not defined what you’ll do with their details.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
- You have not divulged to visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you are endorsing that you will earn an affiliate commission if visitors decide to buy using your link.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- Online visitors claim your testimonials are all fake and decide to sue you.
- You didn’t disclose that you were given a free copy of the product in your review.
- Your website contains adult information and you have not taken sufficient measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider too the actual examples of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue everyone he does 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 information.
- 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 $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were in violation of 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 entirely 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 you could become exposed to the risks of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
You need to make sure that your website or blog stays legally compliant.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you interact with.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your blog with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
Or promoting your site via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies on your website, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies for breaches of regulation 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 chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
Various business resource sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you plan to create applications for your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether 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 are considering promoting services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website with 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 - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website
If your website is falling short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your business stay out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to look into adding one or more of these legal pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general advice about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Use Of Media (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you will not receive for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Review/Sample Copy – Informs users that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to your readers that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors 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.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Pages To Your Site
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 creating a legals folder on your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or place them in the footer of your site) to ensure that users have access to the information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer here:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
For more details, go here:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations and guidelines that came into effect on March 2012)
- 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 for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described previously.
Go here for more details:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily 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 like every other page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When a user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your WP dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, niche websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type drop down menu)
Choose from various built-in legal templates …
(WordPress 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 this WordPress plugin, visit this site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your online business …
For more details go here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)
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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
Go here for more info:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford a solicitor.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal forms, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates 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 are making money online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or advertise online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed 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 offer no legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.
Resources
Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- 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
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
- Google 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress site.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)