Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you are doing business with?
As the digital economy continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vitally important to try and stay informed about what’s happening and make sure that your website remains legally compliant, especially if having a digital presence is an essential factor in your overall business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for commercial gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The introduction of these new laws affect several business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be accepted into various advertising and online marketing networks.
If your business online is not compliant, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this article, we discuss the importance of having a legally compliant website and list inexpensive ways that will help make your WordPress website legally compliant.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws wherever you do business.
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what could happen to your business if these scenarios were to happen:
- Someone suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing that you may earn a commission if visitors purchase via your link.
- You don’t spell out the terms of your refund or return policies.
- Someone claims the testimonials on your site are false and decides to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.
Consider too the documented examples of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have 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 issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 entirely to the Google program they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords User
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s vitally important to ensure that your website stays fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With Third-Party Services
Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements 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 engage with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display legal information if using their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Generating revenue online with your online properties using Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
And even promoting your products through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell information products with companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses 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 has already been the case, this will most likely prompt 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 type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.
Many resources online provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you are planning to develop social networking applications for your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Basic Legal Pages To Add To Your Site
If you suspect that your website falls short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies users that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets readers be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Lets your readers be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you will consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legals folder to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) so that visitors have access to legal information from every page …
(Display legal pages to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress using widgets, refer to this tutorial:
Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting sites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More info:
Alternatively, you can download a package of website legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These 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 business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & 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 on your website for each legal form you want to add 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 described earlier.
More information:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress-driven sites you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your website feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your site.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content 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 page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when the user agrees to your terms.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will be added to your dashboard menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)
You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, review sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Type of Site drop down menu)
Choose from various pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages – 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
Visit the plugin site to learn more about using this useful plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
total website compliance & disclaimer solution …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
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 Service
- 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 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 plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.
Visit this site to learn more:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal firm.
We want your business to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software 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 Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate essential 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 business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your website stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices and the guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party services and products that you may decide to promote or sell online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumers, 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 cannot offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Additional Information
Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet its 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
- 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
And …
- 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website using simple legal resources and WordPress plugins.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum