One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Your website needs to comply with many laws and regulations, many of which you are probably not even aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of suffering financial costs, but also the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress users that can help make your site legally compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game are constantly changing, it’s vital that you stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence is an integral component of your overall business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your apps, and you won’t be allowed into various advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
If your online presence is not in compliance, you could also face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if your website is not compliant, visitors could lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use!)
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws and regulations that govern your business,
- How important it is to be compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or using online, and
- There are solutions for WordPress site owners that can help your site become more compliant, such as the solution that we discuss in this post.
If you suspect that your website is lacking in areas of compliance, below we discuss a simple plugin for WordPress users that you may be interested in using.
Our WordPress Plugin Of The Month Is …
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your web presence …
Learn more about the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your site instantly legally compliant:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Compliance Bar Plugin is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Editable Legal Page Templates
You can easily make changes to the built-in legal templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the visual content editor.
24/7 Plugin Support
Compliance Bar provides a dedicated team to help users.
Additional benefits include:
- Customized Templates: The Compliance Bar plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - a full library of training videos is available.
- Use Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the legal page templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever your business is located.
- Use For Every Website Purpose: As long as your website is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Select only the types of disclaimers that suit your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and ignore any that are irrelevant.
Compliance Bar Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides a number of features to site owners. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icons – Display links to your legal pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere on your pages. You can also upload your own icons.
- Show Restricted Information – If your website publishes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult content, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you are based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU compliance laws. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying users and covering your business from non-compliance.
- Records & Stores IP Addresses – The plugin can record your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes that populate legal pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (including the pop-ups).
- Compatible With Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices and will display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the web browser being used.
Using Compliance Bar Plugin
After installing and activating the plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” screen will be added to your WordPress backend.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this screen where you can input your business information into input (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Support Email,” “Company Phone Number,” “Refund Duration (Days),” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to insert the information entered into your User Profile into your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the user profile fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section lists all of the pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
When we last checked the Compliance Bar plugin website, there were over 22 legal templates available to plugin users:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure Statement
- Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Contact Us
- Copyright/DCMA Notice
- Disclaimer
- Double Dart Cookies
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- FTC Statement
- Legal Disclaimer
- Linking Policy
- Medical Disclaimer
- Privacy Policy
- Returns/Refund Policy
- Support
- Terms
- Terms & Conditions
- Testimonial Disclosure
- Adult Content Disclosure
You can easily create legal pages for your blog or website simply by selecting checkboxes and clicking ”Save” on the “Create Pages” tab …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a default set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
Icons are customizable. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can modify and delete your compliance pages from the “Compliance Pages” tab, just like any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin will notify you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. compliance pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to display links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, specifying which pages to include an icon for in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your main page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different icons on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in different sections of your site.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using a specific theme (like Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile device screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have specified your Compliance Bar settings, it displays links to your legal through a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance icons to show …
PopUps
If your website includes content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that blocks access to users who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” screen gives you full control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create several customized Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover a range of uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and capture the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you do business in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
Compliance Bar lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” area …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” area, lists all of your compliance page templates and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” area, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials that customers have provided for Compliance Bar Plugin:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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”You wouldn’t drive a car around without insurance…so don’t RISK your online business by neglecting a simple, but important detail: website compliance. Grab your copy of Compliance Bar & protect yourself today!” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Here are a few extra ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before purchase.
- If you have content for adults only on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Compliance Bar Plugin Support
Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated support to help you with anything you need. You also have access to an entire library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (Monday to Friday), your money will be refunded in double.
Software Cost
- Single Site Licensing – Install the plugin on 1 of your own sites. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Can be installed on up to 25 of your own sites. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Licensing – Install the plugin on multiple of your own sites. Can be installed on all client sites as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Please Note: Pricing for Compliance Bar Plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was correct when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price: Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal page templates have been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your peace of mind.
For ”how to” videos showing plugin usage, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Get The Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven sites. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
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 about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
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