Category: WordPress Plugins

As a business owner, you do not want to suddenly discover that you have broken laws, rules or regulations.

As digital business continues growing at breakneck speed and rules keep changing, it’s absolutely essential to try and stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having a digital presence plays a significant role in your overall business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (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 – Better Business Bureau)

The introduction of these new laws has legal implications for various online business activities, including:

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

If there are no legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial 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 close down your account, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in most advertising or affiliate 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!

This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website using simple and inexpensive methods and solutions.

Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As previously stated, the aim of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you endorse

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be if any of the scenarios below were to occur:

• A person has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness program.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives people an allergic reaction.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you plan to do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re selling and will get paid a financial benefit if they end up purchasing through your link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund/return policies.
• A visitor claims your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you because of it.
• You have not disclosed that you received a free copy in a product review.
• Your website publishes adult information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider too the following actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to provide everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a whopping $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 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 randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking 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 notices or lose access to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risk of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords Advertiser
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

You need to make sure that your online business stays legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Services

Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You are expected to let your site visitors know that your business complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will engage with.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their services and product features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your site using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell products online using places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will be required to add legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often prompts 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 business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your website is compliant with FTC regulations.

A number of business resource sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of 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 the law)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to create apps that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to your legal pages …

(Apps that integrate with social networking sites also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue 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 display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk 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, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies)

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

If you suspect that your website or blog falls short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website will keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

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

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides information about financial areas or income opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you are not being paid for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your readers that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample/Review Copy – Informs visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Website

Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal content 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 creating a legals folder on your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

You can then add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or the footer of your website) so that users have access to legal information from every page …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer here:

• Using Widgets

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

For more information, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your 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 reflects FTC regulations brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as previously described.

For more details, go here:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using cut & paste legal templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.

Here are some great legal WordPress plugins you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If manually setting up legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported 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 WordPress Legal Pages plugin:

• Built-in Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your dashboard menu …

(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)

You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)

Select from several pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress 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

For more details about using this plugin, visit the plugin site:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs containing over twenty customizable legal templates for your online presence …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 Use
• 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).

For more details, visit this website:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your site to be legally safe!

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

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to ensure that your site complies with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service of third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of regulations, many of which you may not even be aware of.

Being non-compliant 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, we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• 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
• United States 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
• 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 compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress site.

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