Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you endorse or offer?
Online laws are designed to protect the rights of 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 the law will not prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
New 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 profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The introduction of new laws affect several business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, 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 for sale, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could reject your applications, and you will not be accepted into most advertising or online merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not compliant, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This article explains the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site using simple legal resources and plugins.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice about your website or business. As previously stated, the aim of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws that govern business online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you endorse on your website
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A user has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you will do with it.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you will receive a commission if they buy it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
- Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you as a result.
- You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy of a product you reviewed.
- Your website includes adult-related content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider now the real case studies of costly compliance breaches listed below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with 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 prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting 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 violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a website owner can easily become exposed to the risks of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
it’s important to make sure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and information accessible to site visitors.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are obligated to let your site users know that your website complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display legal information if using their services and features. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue with your WordPress blogs using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
And even promoting your products using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell digital products with companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages before your products can be approved for selling via their networks …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations.
A number of business resource sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide references and links to useful resources to some of these at the end of this article …
(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to create applications that integrate with your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others require you to provide access to your legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site
If you suspect that your website is falling short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website will keep your business out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to look into implementing any of these pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs readers that you are not being paid for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to visitors that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Discloses to visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers be aware that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your web 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 a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your site) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from every page …
(Display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets here:
Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
Visit this website to learn more:
Another option is to purchase a set of website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
- 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 WordPress page for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as previously described.
Go here for more information:
Plugins – Legal Pages
As well as using legal templates, another option is to use a plugin.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users you may be interested in using:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information is then 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 WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your WP dashboard menu section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)
With WPLegal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal page types)
You can also select from several pre-written legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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 about this plugin, visit this website:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your website …
Learn more about the plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 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 site. Your legal pages can be 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:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire the services of a legal form or lawyer.
We want your website to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal documentation, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate 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 make money online, you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines provided by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or recommending online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law regarding your specific business.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to remain compliant and meet its 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
- Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program
- 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
And …
- 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website or blog using simple and inexpensive resources and plugins.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum