Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you do business with?
As the cybersphere continues growing at such a rapid pace and the rules keep changing, it’s vital that you try to stay on top of what’s happening and make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence is an essential factor in your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has legal consequences for several business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, including Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t approve digital products on their network, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will reject web applications, and you will not be allowed into a range of advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not compliant, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and lists simple and cost-effective methods and solutions to make your WordPress website or blog compliant quickly and easily.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. As stated above, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern business practices online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you recommend
Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if the situations below were to happen:
- A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you will do with the details you’ve collected.
- Someone copies content from your site and publishes it on their site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re marketing and could get paid a financial benefit if visitors purchase products using your link.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials 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 have not taken appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to give everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received 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 users from scraping UIDs. Many internet 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 independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 easy it is to risk becoming exposed to litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence is fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies Terms And Policies
Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You are expected to let your site users know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires you to display certain information when using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue with your WordPress blog with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
And even promoting your products via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information-based products via merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for product sellers)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by ensuring that your website is compliant with FTC guidelines.
There are many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide references 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)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to create social networking applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Apps that interface with social networking sites also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your site 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 terminated.
- If you have ever wondered 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, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies)
What Legal Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Covered Against Legal Compliance Issues?
If your web site is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your business stay out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to look into adding one or more of the pages listed below where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides money-making information)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right disclosure information to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets visitors know that you’re not being paid for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets visitors be aware that you will be compensated if they buy through an affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you were compensated in some way 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 website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content 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 directory in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or the footer of your site) so that visitors can access the information from all your pages …
(Display links to legal information on all of your website’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
To learn more, visit this website:
Another option is to download a set of website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page 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 web server as described previously.
More information:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using cut & paste templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use a plugin.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs worth looking into:
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 using WordPress Legal Pages …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- 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 all legal pages just like any WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When the user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your main dashboard menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, medical sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page type menu)
You can also choose from various pre-written 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 this great plugin, visit the plugin website:
Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin
complete website compliance and disclaimer solution …
For more details 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 Use
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
More info:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.
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 attorney-prepared legal documentation, or a plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any kind of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of third-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
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 provide legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.
References And Resources
Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website.
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