Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you use or promote?
As the digital era continues to grow at such a rapid pace and rules constantly change, it’s important to stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence plays a significant part in your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) BBB, or Better Business Bureau. 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 – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws affect various business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in most advertising and online marketing networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this guide, we look at why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website using inexpensive solutions.
Is Your Website Breaking The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for a minute what could happen to your business if these situations were to happen:
- A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
- The skin care products you promote as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you’ll do with their personal details.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making your site users aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are endorsing and may get paid financial benefits if they decide to buy through your affiliate link.
- You have not spelled out the terms of your return policies.
- A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are false and tries to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website includes adult-related information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider too these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ 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, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation 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 cautions or lose access entirely to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could become exposed to the risk of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business has the right legal pages and information displayed to your site users.
Complying With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your website complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their services and product features. This includes using features like Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue online with your sites with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
Or promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
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 already been the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
There are many business resources that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide links to resources to some of these at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to develop apps for your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure 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 plan to promote products or services on your site using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your website falls short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following legal pages to your website should help your website keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to consider implementing any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general financial advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms (if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not be receiving any form of payment for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Informs visitors that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Informs visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to site users that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
- 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 website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legals folder in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add links to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors will be able to access the information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar here:
Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More info:
Another option is to download a package of website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations and guidelines that came into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for every 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 server as described earlier.
For more details, go here:
WordPress Legal Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress-driven websites that you may be interested in using:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you many headaches.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your website.
- 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 published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When a user agrees to your legal terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear in your main navigation menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review sites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page type menu)
Select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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 the benefits of using this handy plugin:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered sites that includes over twenty customizable legal page templates for your online business …
For a detailed review of this plugin go here:
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. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).
More information:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some kind of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a legal expert.
We want your site to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any kind of business online, you need to make sure that your website complies with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your digital presence must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not 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 do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.
References And Resources
Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now