Tag: Make WordPress Site Legally Compliant

If you do any kind of business online, you do not want to find yourself breaking any rules or regulations.

As the digital way of life continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your website remains legal, especially if having an online presence plays an important role in your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these laws has ramifications for several business categories, including:

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

If there are no legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed into a number of advertising and online merchant networks.

If your online business is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website(s) may be subject to legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be endorsing on your website, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your websites become more compliant, such as the plugins that we list further below.

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. As previously stated, the purpose 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 and regulations governing online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you promote on your website

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Is your business at risk? Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A person suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly informed them what you’ll do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are recommending and could derive a financial benefit if they end up purchasing using your link.
• You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are fake and decides to sue you because of it.
• You did not disclose that you have received a free copy in your product review.
• Your website publishes adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now the actual examples 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 (including credit card 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 private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet 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 websites picked at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached 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 notices or lose access to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being a target of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business stays legally compliant.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

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

You are expected to let your site users know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you do business with online.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using many of their services. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your online properties using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your business through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell products online with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you are required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling digital products via ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many sites are still 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 website owners 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 any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines.

There are many resources websites for businesses that can 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 to a number of these at the end of this article …

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

If you are planning to develop social networking applications that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to 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 anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
• If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)

What Legal Information Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Legally Compliant?

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

Adding the following legal pages to your site should help your site stay out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above, you may want to consider including any of these compliance pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general information about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

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

• No Material Connection – This lets your visitors be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to site users that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to your visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs site users that you were 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 satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

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

(Custom 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 your sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from every web page …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer using widgets here:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In Your WordPress Sidebar

Using Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

More info:

• FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms

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

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms)

Cut & Paste website templates 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 insert your own details, then pasted into your legal 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
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (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 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 web server as previously described.

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things by using WordPress plugins.

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

WordPress Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.

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

• Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WordPress page.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of 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. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional 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 – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site menu)

You can also choose from a number of built-in 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

Go here to learn more about using this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

total website compliance & disclaimer solution …

Learn more here:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

This 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 & Conditions
• 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your business to be protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documents, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

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

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As stated earlier, if you do business online, you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with all regulations and any guidelines and terms of service required by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. Your website must comply with a wide range of regulations, some of which you may not be aware of.

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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements regarding your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:

• 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

Plus …

• 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
• 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 provided above to quickly add legal pages to your site using simple solutions.

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