Is your website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to 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 (US based) Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws has ramifications for various online business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, like contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages (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 will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in most advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains the importance of having a compliant website and presents simple resources and solutions to help make your website or blog legally compliant.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice about your website or business. As stated previously, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you recommend on your website or blog
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a heart attack after using your online fitness program.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly informed them what you will do with their details.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your website making your site visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing that you may earn a sales commission if visitors buy it.
- You have not spelled out the terms of your refund and return policies.
- A visitor claims your testimonials are false and tries to sue you because of it.
- You haven’t disclosed that you were given a free copy in your product review.
- Your site contains adult-related content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider too the following documented examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he was also ordered 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 Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of 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% 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 notices 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 a business owner can easily be exposed to the risk of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog is fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your site users know that your website complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue with your sites with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
And even promoting your products through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell products online with merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to sell online with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies 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 does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
Many business resource sites provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you plan to develop social networking applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything online via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
What Legal Information Pages Does My Website Need To Be Compliant?
If you suspect that your web site lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help you keep out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and external providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above, you may want to consider implementing any of the following pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general advice about financial areas or income opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding correct web content disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets site users know that you’re not receiving any type of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies visitors that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs site users that you were 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.
Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage 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 legals directory on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder via FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors can access the information from all pages …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Visit this website to learn more:
Another option is to purchase a set of cut and paste website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
These legal pages were written 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 pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC guidelines that came into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described previously.
More information:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can 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 editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog 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 check box and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks when users agree to your terms.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your navigation menu section …
(WP Legal Pages – Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)
Select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Built-In 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 handy plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin
complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …
Learn more about the plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 – 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
Go here to learn more:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a lawyer.
We want your site to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal forms, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates 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 engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your specific business.
Legal Resources And References
Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to comply and meet its legal obligations:
- 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 – 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
- United States Copyright Office
And …
- 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using simple and inexpensive solutions.
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