Is your website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you promote or advertise?
Internet laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.
New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory 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)
The new laws has consequences for several online business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, including contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t let you list digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook could reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a range of advertising or online merchant networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
This article explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and presents simple and cost-effective ways that will make your website or blog legally compliant quickly and easily.
Is Your Site Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice about your website or business. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws wherever you do business.
Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what could happen to your business if any of these situations were to take place:
- A user has a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
- Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate and may get paid financial benefits if visitors buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials are misleading and tries to sue you because of it.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website contains adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider now the real examples of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $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 copped 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 using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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 websites chosen at random, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 cautions 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 risk being a target of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and information displayed to all you site visitors.
Complying With Third-Party Companies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your website complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their services. This includes using features like Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your blogs using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
Or promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell digital products with merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your website complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.
There are many resources sites for businesses that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the additional references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you plan to create applications that integrate with your website, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others will require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website
If your website falls short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and 3rd-party service 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 look into adding one or more of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general advice about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Media Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding correct disclosure information to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets site users know that you will benefit financially if they purchase through your affiliate link.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets readers be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to site users that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets users 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.
How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should consult your lawyer and ask them to 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
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 legal directory in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can insert these into your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your site) so that visitors will be able to access legal information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your site’s pages)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More information:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut and paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)
These legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as described previously.
For more details, go here:
WordPress Legal Plugins
As well as using templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some great legal WordPress plugins that you may be interested in using:
WordPress Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.
Some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- 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 published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when the user agrees to your legal terms.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear in your main navigation area …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Type of Site menu)
You can also choose from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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
To learn more about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over twenty customizable legal page templates for your website …
For more details go here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)
Legal Suite Pro 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 – 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. You can have legal pages 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 this plugin on all of your websites.
More info:
If using the services of lawyers to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal documentation, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you do any type of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your website or blog must comply with a whole set of regulations, 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your business.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to comply and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission 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
- US 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum