Is your website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you recommend or offer?
As the digital realm continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules keep changing, it’s vital that you stay informed about what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your digital presence plays a significant role in your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site 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 Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
The introduction of these new laws has legal consequences for various online business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, e.g. PPC advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
The purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your site are subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be recommending online, and that there are solutions that can help your online properties become compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice about your website or business. As previously stated, the aim of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you offer
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness program.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate gives someone allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you’ll do with their personal details.
- Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website letting visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you are recommending and will earn an affiliate commission if they purchase through your link.
- You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and tries to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy in your product review.
- Your website publishes adult content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider also the following documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to give everyone they do 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 private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping 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 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached 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 to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming a target of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
For example:
Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their products. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your sites using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell digital products with places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially if you plan to sell or promote products or services online using product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site 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 unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, 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 plan to do any kind 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 by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
Many online business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the 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 Applications
If you are planning to create social networking applications for your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products online via affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
Common Legal Pages To Include In Your Site
If your website or blog is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above, you may want to consider including one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general information about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to downloadable media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs your readers that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Informs users that you may benefit financially if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your readers that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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 Website
Ideally, you will consult a lawyer 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.
Upload Legal Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert these into your WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that users have access to legal information from all your pages …
(Display links to your legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Visit this website for more details:
Another option is to download a package of cut & paste legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website templates 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 legal pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described previously.
For more information, go here:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple using WordPress plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins you should check out:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – 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 editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your main navigation area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
You can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche websites, medical sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Select from various built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – 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 information about this plugin:
Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your online business …
Go here to learn more:
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 of Use
- 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. 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:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.
We want your business to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal page templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service required by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or recommend online. Your internet presence must comply with a number of regulations, many of which you may not even 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 offering legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.
Additional Information
Below is a time-saving list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau
- 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
In Addition …
- Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- 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 why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress site using simple legal resources and solutions.
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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