Tag: Make WordPress Site Legally Compliant

Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you are selling or promoting?

Online laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of 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 the law will not protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

The introduction of these laws has consequences for various online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. contextual ads
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t approve your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote many advertising and online marketing networks.

In addition, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website are subject to legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern business practices online, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be recommending on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your site become fully compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law wherever you do business.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what could happen to your business if the following were to take place:

• Someone suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement informing subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with their personal details.
• Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their website.
• There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are marketing that you could get paid a financial benefit if visitors purchase via your link.
• You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are fake and tries to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you were given a free copy of the product you reviewed.
• Your website publishes adult content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider also the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches described:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information (including credit card details to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many marketers took a risk 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 broken 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 becoming targeted for litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords User
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to make sure that your digital presence complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Compliance With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.

You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you interact with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your site with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell products online through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add a number of legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially if you plan to sell or promote products and services online with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of business 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 interests by making sure that your website complies with FTC regulations.

You can find many business resource sites that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide references to some 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 Applications Also Require Compliance

If you are planning to create apps that will integrate with your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide information about various legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then 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 online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you have ever wondered 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, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)

What Legal Information Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Safe From Legal Compliance Issues?

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

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help your site keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

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

As well as the pages above, you may want to look into adding any of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides financial content)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets visitors be aware that you will not receive for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to your readers that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to your visitors that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your WordPress Website

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

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

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

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages via FTP)

You can then easily add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Website

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

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

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

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In Your Blog

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more info:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can download a set of legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates)

These templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new WordPress page for each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described earlier.

More info:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users that you may be interested in checking out:

WP Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing WP Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you time.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to 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 basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of 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 checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your terms.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your main navigation section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Select from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured 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 this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

The Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence …

Go here to learn more:

• 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 & 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. You can have legal pages 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here for more info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some type of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your business to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal templates, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines for 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect the rights of 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to comply and meet its 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
• BBB – 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

See 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

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your website or blog using inexpensive methods and resources.

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