Is your website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
Internet laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent 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 will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, 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 to learn more.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws affect several online business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in various advertising and online marketing networks.
Additionally, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
This guide explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using simple and cost-effective resources and plugins.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. As stated above, this article is designed only 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 business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you recommend on your website or blog
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Consider for a moment what could happen to your business if any of the scenarios below were to happen:
- A person suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online workout program.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people skin rashes.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you’ll do with it.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog informing your site users that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you may get paid an affiliate commission if they buy via your affiliate link.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and tries to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related information and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underaged 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 (including credit card 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 from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken at least three 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 violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming exposed to litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and clearly accessible to all you site users.
Complying With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You are required to let your visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
For example:
Google requires websites to display legal information when using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your online properties with Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your site via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell products online via merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add a number of legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this will most likely prompt 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 plan to do any kind of selling 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 regulations.
A number of resources online provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide references and links to useful resources 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 plan to develop apps for your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website using 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 to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
Essential Legal Pages To Add To Your Site
If your website lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site will keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and external providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to look into adding any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors know that you will derive some form of financial or similar type of benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets your visitors be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Lets visitors be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add these to your sidebar menu (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access legal information from all of your pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar here:
Use Ready-Made Templates
You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)
Go here to learn more:
Another option is to purchase a package of website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your web 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
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want to add to your website, 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:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using copy & paste legal templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you time.
Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WP page.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your navigation menu section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Choose from various 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
To learn more about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites with over twenty customizable legal page templates for your website …
For more details go here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro 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 of Service
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
Go here to learn more:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a legal expert.
We want your site to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal forms, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
***
As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with all regulations and the terms of service and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your internet presence must comply with various regulations, many of which you may not even 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
Additional Information
Here is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website 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
- 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
Additionally …
- Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- 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 above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website.
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)