Tag: Make WordPress Site Legally Compliant

Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you sell or promote?

Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person 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 prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites 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 departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

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

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

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

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t approve your digital products for sale, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote most advertising and online merchant networks.

If your digital presence is not compliant, you could face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This guide explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and provides inexpensive ways that will make your WordPress site compliant.

Is Your Website Legally Compliant?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law regarding your specific business.

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to occur:

• A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you will do with their details.
• Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog telling your site visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you will get paid financial benefits if they purchase it.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are false and tries to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy in your product review.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider also the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped 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 UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk 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 randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had broken 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 breach of at least 3 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 whose policies with the violation, 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 non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly accessible to your site visitors.

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

Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.

You are expected to let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you engage with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

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

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Generating revenue online with your site using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information-based products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add various legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements product vendors selling via ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your website complies with FTC guidelines and regulations.

A number of sites provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references and links to resources at the end of this article …

(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Apps - Don’t Forget These

If you plan to create apps that integrate with 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 whether you may be 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 products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

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

What Legal Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Safe From Legal Compliance Issues?

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

Adding the following legal pages to your website should help your business keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

As well as the above, you may want to consider including any of these pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general advice about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs users that you will not receive any type of compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors be aware that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Informs site users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs readers that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will consult your lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Site

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

We recommend creating a legal directory in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

You can then add links to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that visitors have access to the information from all your pages …

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress using widgets here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets On Your Sidebar

Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

More information:

• Find Legal Forms – Legal forms

Another option is to purchase a package of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

For more details, go here:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using copy & paste legal templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.

Here are some WordPress plugins that you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

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

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

Some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages are:

• Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your main dashboard menu section …

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

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

With WP Legal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche sites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Choose 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

To learn more this plugin, visit this website:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites that includes over twenty customizable legal pages for your digital presence …

For more details, visit the plugin site 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 Use
• 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your business to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic 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 make money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or selling online. Your website or blog must comply with various regulations, some 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 are not providing legal advice. 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.

Legal Resources And References

Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to remain compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB
• 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

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 add legal pages to your site using simple methods and resources.

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