One of the worst things that can happen to a business owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Online laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of 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 the law won’t excuse someone from taking legal action against your business.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, then you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The introduction of new laws has legal consequences for several business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, like text link advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your 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 will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your applications, and you will not be accepted into most advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your site may be subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be offering online, and that there are solutions that can help your site become more compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. 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 the laws that govern your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party companies whose services or products you offer on your website
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you plan to do with it.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own site.
- You haven’t advised your site users that you are an affiliate for the product you’re promoting that you will receive financial benefits if visitors buy it.
- You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and decides to sue you.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site includes adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider too the following real examples 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 received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could become exposed to the risk of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to ensure that your digital presence complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
All the big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You must let your site users know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products or service. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue online with your website using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)
Or promoting your business via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell digital products via merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add various legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for selling via their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank digital product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners 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 is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by making sure that your website complies with all FTC guidelines.
There are many business resource sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to create social networking applications that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, 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 are required to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies)
What Compliance Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?
If your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to look into implementing one or more of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. 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 advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding correct disclosure information to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets users know that you will not be receiving any kind of payment for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets users know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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 Content To Your Website
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares the legal content for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, 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 (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that users have access to the information from every web page …
(Display links to your legal pages to users on all of your website’s pages)
If you need help displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Use Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Visit this website to learn more:
Another option is to download a package of legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web 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 (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your web server as previously described.
More info:
Plugins – Legal Pages
As well as using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress websites worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider using WP Legal Pages …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like every other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will be 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 every other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your main dashboard area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)
You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, niche websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Select from several built-in legal templates …
(WP 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
To learn more about the benefits of using this handy plugin, visit this website:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs containing over 20 customizable compliance pages for your online business …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(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 & Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
Go here for more info:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal templates, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website complies with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service of 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or using online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect the rights of 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
Legal Information
Here is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what your site may require to stay 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
- 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
We hope this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your website or blog using simple and inexpensive methods, resources and WordPress plugins.
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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)