Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you use or recommend?
As the cybersphere continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if having a digital presence plays an important part in your overall business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for material gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “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 several online business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t let you list digital products for sale, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed into a number of advertising or online merchant networks.
You could 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 legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice about your website or business. As previously stated, the purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you recommend
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider what the implications to your business would be if the scenarios below were to happen:
- A user suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you will do with it.
- Someone steals content from your site and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may receive a financial benefit if visitors decide to purchase via your affiliate link.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund and return policies.
- Someone claims your testimonials are all fake and decides to sue you.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider too these documented 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 (including credit card details to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- 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 $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation of 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program whose policies they had violated, 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:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence is legally compliant.
Complying With Third-Party Companies
Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires your site to display legal information if using their services or features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your website using Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your business through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information-based products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for selling digital products through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, 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 do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
You can find many business resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to develop social networking applications for your site users, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online via affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, 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 litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Site
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your site keep out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider implementing any of these pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides money-making advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs readers that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies visitors that you may benefit financially if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample Or review Copy – Lets readers be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to site users that you have been 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Content To Your Website
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legals directory 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 via FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or the footer section of your website) so that users have access to legal information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar menu and footer in WordPress here:
Legal Templates
You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable website forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
To learn more, visit this site:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste website legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates)
These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & 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 for each legal form you want to add to your site, 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, visit this website:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using copy & paste legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress-driven sites worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time.
Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WP page.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your dashboard menu …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Select from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress 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
For more details about this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
total website compliance and disclaimer solution …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 & Conditions
- 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.
For more details, go here:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal expert.
We want your site to be safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal page templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate 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 stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your business.
Legal Information
Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to comply 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
- 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
- United States Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your website or blog.
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