Tag: Legal Pages

Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you endorse or advertise?

Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not protect someone from taking legal action against you.

New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate 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 departments, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws has implications for several business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If there are no legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in various advertising or online marketing networks.

If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website are subject to legal requirements, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you may be offering on your site, and that there are solutions that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Site Comply With The Law?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws in your country or region.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Consider for one moment what the implications to your business would be if the scenarios below were to happen:

• Someone suffers a heart attack after using your online workout program.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people an adverse reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not defined what you plan to do with it.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website letting visitors know that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may receive a sales commission if they purchase through your affiliate link.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Someone claims your testimonials are fake and decides to sue you as a result.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult content and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider also these real examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped a massive $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 took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two 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 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 you could be exposed to the risks of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdWords User
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

You need to make sure that your digital presence remains fully compliant with the law.

Compliance With Third-Party Services

Leading online companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You are obligated to let your site users know that your business complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you do business with online.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information if using their services or product features. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your WordPress sites with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your business using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information-based products through places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you are required to add various legal pages before your products can be approved for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC regulations.

You can find many business resource sites that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

If you plan to develop apps for your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with information about various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting products or services on your site using affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If you suspect that your website or blog is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your website stay out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above, you may want to consider implementing one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides health or medical information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you are not receiving any kind of compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
• Review/Sample Copy – Informs users that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Lets your readers be aware that you were 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 website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares 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 legals folder to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …

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

You can then easily add a link to these pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) to ensure that users have access to the information from all your pages …

(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)

To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar using widgets, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets On Your WordPress Blog Sidebar

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

For more information, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to purchase a set of legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• 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 to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your server as previously described.

More information:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress-driven sites worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

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

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When a user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Choose from various built-in legal templates …

(WP 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

To learn more about using this powerful plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites containing over twenty customizable legal templates for your digital presence …

For more details go here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(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 Service
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.

For more information, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring legal experts to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some type of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a lawyer.

We want your site to be legally protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal templates, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, 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 site is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and any guidelines and terms of service for third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

Legal Information

Below is a time-saving list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau Website
• 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
• United States Copyright Office

See Also …

• 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website.

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