Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you endorse or use?
As the digital economy continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s absolutely essential to try and stay informed about what’s going on and make sure that your website or blog remains compliant, especially if your web presence is an essential part of your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws affect various online business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like PPC advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in many advertising and online marketing networks.
If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this article, we look at the importance of having a compliant website and explain simple resources and solutions to make your website or blog legally compliant.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice about your website or business. As previously stated, the aim of this article is only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws governing business online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you offer on your website
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what would happen to your business if the scenarios below were to happen:
- A person has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with it.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their site.
- You haven’t informed your site visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you are recommending that you will get paid a sales commission if visitors purchase it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that your testimonials are false and tries to sue you as a result.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related information and you did not take sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider also the documented examples of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete his 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 does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 to the Google program they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being a target of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and clearly accessible to site visitors.
Complying With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You are obligated to let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their products or service. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Generating revenue with your WordPress sites using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
And even promoting your products or services via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell products online through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide references and links to additional resources to a number of these at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Apps - Don’t Forget These
If you are planning to create applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Apps that interface with social networks also require compliance)
- 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., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online via affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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 terminated.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies)
Basic Legal Pages To Include In Your Site
If your website is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your site stay out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into implementing any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general health or medical advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you will not receive any type of payment for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your readers know that you may derive some form of financial or similar kind of benefit if they buy through your affiliate links.
- Sample Or review Copy – Lets your readers be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your readers that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
- 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 online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site
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 creating a legal directory on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder via FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors have access to the information from every page …
(It’s important to display legal information to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar here:
Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
More info:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website templates 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 forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page 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 your legal pages to your web server as previously described.
For more details, go here:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using copy & paste legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal WordPress plugins you should check out:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your website feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you many headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When the user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional 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 navigation menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)
You can also select from several pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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
To learn more this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites containing over twenty customizable legal templates for your online business …
For a detailed review of this plugin go here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 of Use
- 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.
More information:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional legal services.
We want your business to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documents, or a plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and the terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your website must comply with a whole range of regulations, 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your specific business.
Legal Resources And References
Here is a useful list of sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau – 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
And …
- 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website using inexpensive 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)