How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Learn how to make your WordPress site or blog legally compliant and how to shortcut the process using legal page creation plugins …

Making Your Website The Importance Of Having A Legally Compliant Website - Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

If you do any kind of business online, you do not want to find yourself breaking any laws, rules or regulations.

Internet laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection 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.

Better Business Bureau Website

(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws has legal implications for various business categories, including:

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

If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed into various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

If your web presence is not compliant, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your site(s) may be subject to legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be using online, and that there are easy solutions that can help your sites become more compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Info

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements in your country or region.

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for one moment what the implications to your business would be if the following scenarios were to occur:

  • A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
  • The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone allergic reactions.
  • You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you will do with the details you’ve collected.
  • Someone copies content from your site and publishes it on their site.
  • There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you could earn a commission if visitors buy it.
  • You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
  • Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you as a result.
  • You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
  • Your website publishes adult information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider too the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches listed below:

  • A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
  • A social networking app developer was slapped with 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 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 randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had broken 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% 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 cautions or lose access entirely 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 become exposed to the risks of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

  • CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
  • Multilevel Marketer
  • Affiliate Promoter
  • AdSense Publisher
  • Info Product Publisher
  • Amazon Associate
  • e-Commerce Store Owner
  • 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 online business stays legally compliant.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

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

You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your website complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you interact with.

For example:

Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their products or features. This includes Google Analytics

Policy requirements for using Google Analytics

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue with your website with Google AdSense advertising

Google AdSense policy requirements

(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your products using Google AdWords

Google AdWords - Policy Requirements

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell digital products via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …

Policy requirements digital product vendors using ClickBank

(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies on your website, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

Federal Trade Commission - consumer guidelines and regulations

(FTC – consumer policies 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. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already 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 selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

You can find many online resources that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create social networking applications that integrate with your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide access to your legal pages …

Facebook developer app - policy requirements

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

Tip

  • If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
  • If you are considering promoting services or products on your site using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue 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 all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
  • If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies

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

What Legal Pages Should I Add To My Site To Be Covered Against Legal Compliance Issues?

If your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following legal pages to your website should help 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. “take down” notices):

In addition to the above pages, you may want to look into implementing one or more of the following pages:

  • Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
  • Anti-Spam Policy
  • Earnings Disclaimer
  • External Links Policy
  • Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general financial information)
  • Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
  • Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct type of web content disclosure is important. For example:

  • No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not be receiving any type of payment for writing the content.
  • Affiliate Links – Informs users that you will derive some form of financial or similar type of benefit if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate links.
  • Review Or Sample Copy – Lets site users know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product by the author or product developer.
  • Sponsored Post – Lets visitors be aware that you were compensated in some way to write the post.
  • Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Site

If someone prepares the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend adding a legals folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …

Create a 'legals' folder in your server and upload pages via FTP

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add a link to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …

WordPress Menu

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that visitors will be able to access the information from all your pages …

Display links to your legal pages on all of your website's pages

(It’s important to display links to legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:

Using Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

FindLegalForms.com

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

More info:

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

Scott Talbert's Website Legal Templates

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:

  • Anti-Spam Policy
  • Copyright Notice
  • Disclaimer
  • DMCA Compliance
  • Federal Trade Commission Compliance
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

More info:

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can keep things very simple by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some great WordPress plugins you may be interested in using:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

WordPress Plugin - WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If creating legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:

  • Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
  • Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
  • Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
  • Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WP page.
  • Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
  • Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
  • Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
  • New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your main dashboard menu …

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin - Menu

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

WP Legal Pages - Settings Screen

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin - Page Type

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

Select from a number of pre-written legal templates …

WP Legal Pages Plugin - Pre-configured Legal Templates

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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

To learn more about this WordPress plugin, go here:

Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin - WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites and blogs that includes over 20 customizable legal templates for your online business …

Compliance Bar - Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Learn more here:

Legal Suite Pro

Legal Suite Pro For WordPress

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 of Use
  • Earnings Disclaimer

Legal Suite Pro Plugin - Professionally-written legal forms

(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 site. Your legal pages can be 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.

More info:

Important

If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then at least consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your site to be legally protected!

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

Legal Pages Generator

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service of third-party services and products that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, 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?

Important

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

Additional Resources

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your site may require to comply and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

See Also …

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.

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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum