If you plan to grow a successful business online, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.
Internet laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not prevent someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, 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, also known as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has ramifications for several business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, e.g. text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not let you list digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising and online marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website.
Is Your Website Breaking The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Is your business at risk? Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement informing prospective subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you will do with it.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your site making visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you will derive a sales commission if visitors buy using your link.
- You don’t spell out the terms of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are false and tries to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy of the product you reviewed.
- Your website contains adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details 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 dollars in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 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 being exposed to non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
It’s vitally important to ensure that your online business is fully compliant with the law.
Complying With Third-Party Companies
Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with online.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information when using many of their services and features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue with your blogs using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your products or services through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information-based products through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
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 flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of selling 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 making sure that your site complies with FTC regulations.
There are many business resource sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references to some of these at the end of this article …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you plan to create applications for your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to your 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., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate 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 are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
What Legal Information Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?
If you suspect that your website is falling short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to look into including any of these compliance pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right disclosure information to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs your visitors that you will not receive compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs readers that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Explains to visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets visitors know that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors 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.
Adding Compliance Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory in your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or the footer of your website) so that visitors can access legal information from all pages …
(Display legal information to users on all of your site’s pages)
To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer using widgets, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
To learn more, visit this site:
Another option is to download a set of cut and paste website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.
More information:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
In addition to using templates, you can simplify things by using WordPress plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When the user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your main dashboard section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal page types)
Choose from various built-in 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 this plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your digital business …
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 Service
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress – 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 this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
More info:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your site to be protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumer rights, 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, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your specific business.
References And Resources
Below is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to remain compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
Plus …
- Google 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress site.
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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