Is your website legal? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, you will 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. 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)
These laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not let you list digital products on their network, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could reject your applications, and you will not be accepted into various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and lists simple methods and solutions that will make your website compliant quickly and easily.
Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with the laws governing business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party companies whose products or services you recommend on your website or blog
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Consider for a moment what would happen to your business if these situations were to take place:
- Someone has a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
- You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you plan to do with the details you have collected.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your site letting your site visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you are endorsing and may earn a sales commission if visitors buy via your link.
- You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you as a result.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider too these actual 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 substantial $390,000 fine, he is now required to issue 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 from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being exposed to litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords User
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You are expected to let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires you to display legal information when using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue online with your WordPress site with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your business through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information-based products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add various legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell or promote products and services with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply
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 flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, 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 plan to do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your website complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
Many sites provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to develop apps that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others will require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services on your site via 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 include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you’ve been wondering 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 websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Legal Information Does Your Website Need To Be Covered Against Legal Compliance Issues?
If you suspect that your web site falls short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your business keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider including one or more of these pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides money-making advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add correct disclosures to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets readers know that you will not receive any type of compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to readers that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample/Review Copy – Informs visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets users be aware that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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 Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares the legal content for you in typical web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legals directory in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access the information from all your pages …
(Display links to your legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar here:
Use Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
For more details, go here:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages were created 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 details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- 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 page for every legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your server as described earlier.
More information:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use a plugin.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. 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 feature will be added to your dashboard menu section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)
With WP Legal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal page types)
Choose from a number of pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages – 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
To learn more this great plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs that contains over 20 customizable compliance pages for your digital presence …
Learn more 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 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
To learn more, visit this website:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a legal form or lawyer.
We want your site to be legally protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
***
As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with all government laws and regulations and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your website or blog must comply with a whole range of laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not be aware of.
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 provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.
Additional Information
Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau Website
- 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
- United States Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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 above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie