Tag: Make WordPress Site Legally Compliant

As a business owner, the last thing you want to do is to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

As the digital era continues to grow at such a fast pace and rules keep changing, it’s vital to try and stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your site remains compliant, especially if your digital presence is important in the success of your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The new laws has legal implications for several business activities, including:

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

Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed into various advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

If your online business is not compliant, you could face a number 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 site are subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be selling on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your website become more compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.

Is Your Site Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever you do business.

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for one moment what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A person suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you’ll do with the information you’ve collected.
• Someone copies content from your site and publishes it on their site.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site users know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate and could receive a financial benefit if they purchase via your link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund or return policies.
• Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy in your product review.
• Your site contains adult content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.

Consider now the real examples 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 to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he is now required to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 entirely to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords User
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

it’s important to make sure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and clearly accessible to site visitors.

Complying With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You are expected to let your site users know that your website complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you will interact with online.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using their products. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your blog with Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

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

(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many sites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you 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. you should protect your business by making sure that your site complies with FTC guidelines.

A number of business resource sites provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

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

Social Media Apps - Don’t Forget These

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

(Apps that integrate with social networks also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, 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 suspended.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and 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 terms of use)

What Compliance Information Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Compliant?

If you suspect that your website or blog lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and external providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to consider adding one or more of the following pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides money-making advice)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms (if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

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

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you will not receive for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you may receive compensation if they purchase through your affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Explains to users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets visitors know that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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 Legal Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legals folder in your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …

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

You can then add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Site

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) so that users will be able to access the information from all of your pages …

(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

We have written a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar here:

• Using Widgets In WordPress

Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More information:

• Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut and paste legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

These 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 pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC 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 on your website for each legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using cut & paste legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

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

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you many headaches.

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

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then 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 page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks only when users agree to your legal terms.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

You can easily create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, niche websites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

You can also choose from various built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Built-In 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 the benefits of using this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

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

More info:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro 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 And Conditions
• 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 powered 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 websites.

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your website to be safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or a plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate basic 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 are making money online, you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with all government legal requirements and any guidelines and terms of service of 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, 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 cannot provide legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

Legal Information

Below is a time-saving list of websites 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
• 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

Additionally …

• 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
• AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your site.

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