Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you sell or recommend?
As the digital economy continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important to try and stay on top of what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your digital presence is a significant factor in your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also known as 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 – Better Business Bureau)
The new laws affect various business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, like display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in most advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
This guide explains the importance of having a compliant website and lists inexpensive ways to help make your site compliant quickly and easily.
Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider what could happen to your business if the scenarios below were to occur:
- Someone has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone an allergic reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you plan to do with their details.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting visitors know that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you will derive a financial benefit if visitors purchase it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund or return policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials are all fake and decides to sue you.
- You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site includes adult content and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged persons.
Consider now these real examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $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 took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 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 be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s imperative to ensure that your website or blog stays fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You are obligated to let your visitors know that your website complies will all 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 online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires you to display legal information if using their services or product features. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Earning revenue with your site with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you are planning to create applications for your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Site
If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider including any of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right disclosures to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets site users be aware that you are not receiving any kind of compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets users know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users know that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets users know 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.
Adding Legal Content To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legal folder in your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from every web page …
(Display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu here:
Using Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
To learn more, visit this site:
Another option is to purchase a set of cut & paste legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates FTC guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
- 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 your legal pages to your web server as described previously.
More info:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written 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 a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature is added to your WP dashboard menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)
With WP Legal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, review sites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site drop down menu)
You can also choose from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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 WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable compliance pages for your online business …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 of Service
- 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress powered site. Your legal pages can be 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
More info:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.
We want your site to be 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 legal content, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) for third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or recommend online. Your website must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not even 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, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
Legal Resources
Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:
- FTC 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Also …
- 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your website or blog.
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