Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you are doing business with?
As digital business continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s absolutely essential to try and stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having a digital presence is a fundamental part of your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online “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 has ramifications for several business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. contextual ads
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If you do not include certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising and online merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not compliant, you could face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this article, we look at the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site.
Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Consider for a minute what could happen to your business if any of these situations were to happen:
- Someone has a heart attack after using your online workout program.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you will do with the information you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website telling your visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and will derive a sales commission if visitors purchase through your link.
- You did not spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you as a result.
- You didn’t disclose that you have received a free copy in your product review.
- Your website includes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider now these documented examples 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 info to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he is now required to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a website owner can easily be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords Advertiser
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s imperative to ensure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to site users.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services
All the leading companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your site users know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
For example:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their services or features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue with your site with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell products online with companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting 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 chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.
There are many business resources that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to develop apps that integrate with your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Apps that interface with social networking sites like Facebook 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 companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services online using affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your website with 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 have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your web site falls short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should help your site keep out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider including any of these pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (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 run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you will not receive for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets site users know that you may receive compensation if they buy through an affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets users know that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets your readers know that you have been compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website
Ideally, you should consult your lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal folder to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from all of your pages …
(Display links to legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu using widgets here:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
More information:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use: includes 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 every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.
For more details, go here:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can keep things really simple using a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users that you may be interested in checking out:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – 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. 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 or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your terms.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear inside your dashboard section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
Select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WordPress 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 plugin, visit this website:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin that contains over 20 customizable compliance pages for your site …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)
Legal Suite Pro 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 & 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 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 the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
More info:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or a WordPress legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you are making money online, it’s important that your website is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and the terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your website must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, 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 are not offering legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.
Additional Legal Information
Here is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB
- 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
In Addition …
- Google 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website using simple and cost-effective solutions.
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"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)