Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you use or endorse?
Online laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the 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.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
The introduction of these new laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including text link advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed into a range of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
If your web presence is not compliant, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and lists simple and cost-effective solutions to make your website or blog compliant quickly and easily.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. As stated earlier, the aim of this article is only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws 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 use
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you’ll do with their personal details.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re recommending that you will derive an affiliate commission if they end up purchasing through your affiliate link.
- You did not spell out the terms of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are all fake and try to sue you.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your website contains adult-related information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider too the real case studies of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to issue 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 whopping $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 took a risk 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-chosen websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 notices or lose access to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming a target of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to ensure that your website is fully compliant with the law.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services
Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your website complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will do business with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using many of their services. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your online properties using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell products online using merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially if you plan to sell products and services using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners 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 any 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 all FTC guidelines and regulations.
There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to develop applications that integrate with your site, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others will require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Apps for social networking sites like Facebook also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads 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 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, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If your web site falls short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help your website keep out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider implementing any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio Terms (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Discloses to your visitors that you will not receive any kind of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Discloses to readers that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to readers that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web 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 adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that users will be able to access the information from all of your web pages …
(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer using widgets here:
Using Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted website forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
For more information, visit this website:
Another option is to purchase a package of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal 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 Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for each legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.
Go here for more details:
Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can keep things very simple using WordPress plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you a great deal of time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when users agree to your legal terms.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your main navigation area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)
You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)
You can also choose from several pre-written legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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 for more details about the benefits of using this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …
Learn We have written an in-depth article about this plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
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 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. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
More information:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to 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 are making money online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website is compliant with government laws and regulations and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines of 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or using online. If your website isn’t compliant 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of sites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:
- 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
In Addition …
- 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog using simple methods and resources.
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