Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you are doing business with?
Online laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t protect someone from taking legal action against you.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws has ramifications for several business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, like contextual ads
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list digital products for sale, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed to enroll in many advertising or online merchant networks.
More importantly, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website are subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be advertising online, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress that can help your site become more compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you advertise
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for a minute what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to take place:
- A customer has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care products you promote as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement informing subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you’ll do with the details you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website letting your site users know that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and may receive a financial benefit if visitors purchase it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult-related content and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider now these documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he is now required to give a copy of the judgement to everyone he does 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 does not allow users to scrape 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 independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a business owner can easily be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords User
- Info Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
It’s imperative to ensure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
All of the leading companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your website complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information if using their services or features. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue with your blog using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
And even promoting your products through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell digital products through companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, 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 do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
Many online resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you are planning to develop apps for your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Apps for social networking sites also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, 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 - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Legal Information Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Insured Against Legal Compliance Issues?
If your web site falls short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site will help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and 3rd-party providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above, you may want to look into adding one or more of these compliance pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general content about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets visitors know that you will not be receiving any kind of payment for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Informs your readers that you will be compensated if they purchase through your affiliate links.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets your visitors be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing or writing about.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you were compensated in some way 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Content To Your Website
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all your pages …
(It’s important to display legal pages to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:
Using Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable website forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
More info:
Another option is to download a package of website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates were written 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 business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines 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 website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.
Go here for more details:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using templates, another option is to use plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you many headaches.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like any WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your dashboard area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)
You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)
Choose from several built-in legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured 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 the benefits of using this powerful plugin, visit this site:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 & Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
For more details, go here:
If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a legal expert.
We want your site to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) provided by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
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, please note that we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice here. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law regarding your specific business.
Additional Legal Information
Here is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what your website may require to remain compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- BBB – 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
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
- 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 the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com