Category: Management Plugins

Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you do business with?

As the internet continues to grow at such a fast pace and the rules keep changing, it’s vitally important that you try to stay informed about what’s happening and make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence is important in the success of your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect several online business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, including Google AdWords
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in a range of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

Additionally, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website(s) are required to comply with certain legalities, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be using online, and that there are easy solutions that can help your website become fully compliant, such as the tools listed further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations regarding your specific business.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Consider what the implications to your business would be if these situations were to happen:

• A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link an adverse reaction.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not defined what you’ll do with the information you’ve collected.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing and could derive a financial benefit if visitors purchase via your affiliate link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
• Online visitors claim your testimonials are misleading and decide to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now the real case studies of costly compliance breaches listed below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card details to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many internet 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-chosen websites, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 they had infringed, 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 litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords User
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s imperative 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 - ToS, Policies, etc.

Leading online companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you engage with online.

For example:

Google requires your site to display certain information if using their products and features. This includes using features like Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your websites using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information products through merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, 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 Require Your Site To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses 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 is already the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of business 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 interests by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.

Many resources online provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you are planning to develop applications for your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Apps for social networking sites also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or monetizing your pages 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 their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Legal Information Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?

If your website lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most 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 Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms & Conditions
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider including one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides health or medical advice)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs your readers that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs readers that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Informs your readers that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets visitors know that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend creating a legals folder in your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages via FTP)

You can then add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can add these to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that users have access to the information from all pages …

(Display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu here:

• Configuring Widgets On Your Sidebar

Use Store-Bought Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

Go here for more information:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Alternatively, you can download a set of website legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC guidelines that came into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (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 WordPress page for each 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 server as described previously.

For more information, go here:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can keep things very simple using WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress-driven websites and blogs that you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin:

• Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any WordPress page.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then 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 every other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when users agree to your terms.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your navigation area …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)

With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Select from several pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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 information about this handy plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered sites containing over 20 customizable legal templates for your site …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

Legal Suite Pro 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your site to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you are making money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or offering online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

Additional Legal Information

Below is a time-saving list of sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC 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

See Also …

• 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.

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