Tag: Legal Pages

Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you are doing business with?

Internet laws were designed to protect the rights of 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 won’t excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). 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 – BBB)

The introduction of these laws affect various online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, including Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t approve your digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

This guide 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 are not providing legal advice in this article. 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 and regulations governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you use on your website

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Consider for a minute what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A user has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement that lets subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not defined what you’ll do with it.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your site letting your visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you’re promoting that you may get paid financial benefits if visitors buy the product via your link.
• You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Your visitors claim your testimonials are all fake and decide to sue you as a result.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult-related information and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider also the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches described:

• 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. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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 randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how a business owner can easily be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s vitally important to make sure that your online business remains legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

All the big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you engage with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their services and features. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your blog with Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your business using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell products online using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you are required to add legal pages to your site before your products are approved for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements digital product vendors selling via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially if you plan to sell products and services online with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website 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 unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically 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 type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines and regulations.

Many online business resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See our additional references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you plan to develop applications for your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether 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 anything online using affiliate marketing, 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 are required to include on your site to comply with their 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, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies)

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

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help your business keep out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues):

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

In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider implementing any of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs your visitors that you will not be receiving any type of payment for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets users be aware that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re writing about by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs site users that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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 WordPress Site

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

Uploading Legal Web Pages To Your Website

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

We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

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

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that users have access to legal information from every web page …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your WordPress sidebar or footer here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets On Your WordPress Blog Sidebar

Using Store-Bought Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

To learn more, visit this site:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of website legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your legal pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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

More info:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress websites and blogs you may be interested in checking out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

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

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you time.

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

• Pre-written Legal 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 just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then 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 page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When the user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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 the plugin website to learn more about this handy plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your website …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

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 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 site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

For more details, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your business to be protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal page templates, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service provided by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or advertising online. Your digital presence must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not 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 do not offer legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to comply and meet 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
• US Copyright Office

Additionally …

• Google 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
• 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 compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

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