Tag: Legal Pages

As a website owner, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

Online laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, 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 – BBB)

These laws has legal ramifications for several online business categories, including:

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

If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like 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, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed into various advertising and online merchant networks.

Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

In this article, we discuss why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and show you inexpensive methods and solutions to make your WordPress website or blog compliant quickly and easily.

Is Your Site Compliant?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever you do business.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone an adverse reaction.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with their details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their website.
• There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you could earn financial benefits if they purchase products using your link.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and decide to sue you.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website contains adult-related information and you have not taken appropriate 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 personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $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 whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers took a risk 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 broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 whose policies they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how you could easily be exposed to the risks of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to your site users.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services

All of the big websites and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information if using their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your website with Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your site using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information products via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages before your products are approved for sale in their marketplace …

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site 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 business are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.

There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid 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 interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website

If your web site is falling short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your website stay out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and external providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to look into including one or more of these pages if applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides information about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you’re not receiving any form of compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors be aware that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Informs users that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to users that you have been 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Compliance Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to 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 site, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legal folder to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then easily add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website) to ensure that users can access legal information from all pages …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar using widgets here:

• Configuring Widgets On Your WordPress Sidebar

Use Store-Bought Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms

Another option is to download a package of cut and paste website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)

These templates 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 templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

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

Go here for more details:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can simplify things using plugins.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users you should check out:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …

WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium 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 benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Built-in 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 legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like any other page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your main dashboard menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Type of Site dropdown menu)

You can also select from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Visit this website for more details about this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin

The Compliance Bar WordPress Plugin is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your online business …

For an in-depth review of this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

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 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. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of lawyers to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a legal expert.

We want your website to be legally safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential 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 do business online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines provided by third-party sites that you may decide to promote or recommend online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, 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 on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

Legal Information

Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant 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
• 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
• United States 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 legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

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