Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are promoting or selling?
As digital business continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and rules constantly change, it’s absolutely vital to stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your digital presence is an integral aspect of your overall business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) 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)
The introduction of new laws affect several business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote most advertising or online marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
In this article, we look at the importance of having a legally compliant website and present simple resources and solutions to make your WordPress website compliant quickly and easily.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws wherever you do business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to happen:
- Someone has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you will do with it.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your site users know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you could earn a financial benefit if visitors purchase it.
- You did not spell out the terms of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you.
- You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult-related information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider now these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received 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 prohibits using software that scrapes 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 independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 cautions or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming targeted for non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
it’s important to make sure that your website or blog remains fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue online with your site using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information-based products with companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale in their network …
(ClickBank – policy requirements)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of business 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 interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.
Various business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to develop social networking applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with access to your legal pages …
(Apps that integrate with social networks also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website 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 - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, 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 terms of use and policies)
What Legal Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Protected From Legal Compliance Issues?
If your web site is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your site keep out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-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 Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider adding any of these pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides information about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets site users know that you will not receive any form of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you may be compensated if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample Or review Copy – Lets your readers know that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your readers that you were compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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.
How To Add Legal Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can add these to the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that visitors have access to legal information from all of your pages …
(Display links to legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress here:
Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms)
Go here for more info:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – 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 insert your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates FTC regulations brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & 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 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 web server as described earlier.
For more information, go here:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
As well as using templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any WordPress page.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will then 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 any other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when user agrees to your terms.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear inside your dashboard section …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type dropdown menu)
You can also choose from various pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Pre-configured 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 website to learn more this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin containing over twenty customizable legal pages for your digital presence …
For a detailed article about this plugin go here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
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 And Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro – 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. 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
To learn more, visit this site:
If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a lawyer.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal templates, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or recommending 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.
References And Legal Resources
Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC 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
- US Copyright Office
Additionally …
- Google 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
We hope this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site using simple and cost-effective legal resources and solutions.
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