Tag: Make WordPress Site Legally Compliant

If you plan to grow a successful business online, the last thing you want is to suddenly find out that you have broken rules or regulations.

Online laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t protect someone from taking legal action against your business.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “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, including contextual ads
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t approve digital products on their network, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will reject web applications, and you will not be allowed to enroll in many advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website or blog are subject to certain legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be using on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice in this article. As previously stated, the purpose 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 that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you recommend

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• Someone has a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t clearly informed them what you will do with their details.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their site.
• There is no statement on your website making your site visitors aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you could get paid a commission if visitors purchase it.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund or return policies.
• Your visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and try to sue you because of it.
• You did not disclose that you have received a free copy of a product you are reviewing.
• Your site includes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• 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 details.
• 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 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% were in breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 entirely 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 easy it is to risk being exposed to non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to make sure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies

Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will engage with.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information if using many of their products and features. This includes using features like Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your WordPress sites with Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell information products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their network …

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

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

If you do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your website complies with FTC regulations.

A number of business resources provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

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

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to develop social networking applications for your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, 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 terminated.
• If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your business keep out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and external providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into adding any of the following pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides advice about financial areas or income opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets users be aware that you are not being paid for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
• Sample/Review Copy – Disclosure that informs your readers that you have received a review or sample copy of the product you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs users that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs your 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.

Adding Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Site

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

Upload Legal Pages Manually

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

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

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar menu, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In The Website

Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

For more details, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

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

The legal templates 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, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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 these to your server as described previously.

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

As well as using copy & paste templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress sites that you may be interested in checking out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages …

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

Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages are:

• Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your main navigation menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

With WPLegal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate/review sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Choose from several built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Go here to learn more about this great plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your online presence …

For a detailed review of this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(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 – 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your site to be safe!

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 forms, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or recommending online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.

Being non-compliant 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 are not providing legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:

• Federal Trade Commission 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 – 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

And …

• 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
• 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 compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site using simple and cost-effective solutions.

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