Is your website legal? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are using or promoting?
Online laws and regulations are designed to protect 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 someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, 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.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has consequences for various business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, including display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed to promote a range of advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
Additionally, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
In this article, we discuss the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website or blog.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As previously stated, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you advertise
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider for one minute what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online workout program.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you plan to do with it.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling and could derive a sales commission if visitors end up purchasing using your link.
- You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
- Someone claims the testimonials on your site are 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 site contains adult content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now the following documented examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. 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 chosen at random, 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% 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 with warnings or lose access entirely 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 being targeted for litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords User
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to ensure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and information displayed to site visitors.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are required to let your visitors know that your business complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you do business with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires you to display certain information when using their products and features. This includes using services like Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your WordPress sites using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell products online using companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your site before your products can be approved for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of money-making activity 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 by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
Various online business resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the additional references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you are planning to develop applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products online via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need 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 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 website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your website is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and external service providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to consider adding one or more of the following pages:
- 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 or blog provides financial information)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets visitors be aware that you will not be receiving any form of payment for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to visitors that you may derive some form of financial or similar type of benefit if they buy through your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Informs readers that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Lets visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs your 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.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in typical web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal folder in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then add links to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer 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 written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar and footer here:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Visit this site for more details:
Another option is to download a package of website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates)
These legal templates were created 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 business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC 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 for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.
To learn more, visit this site:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages instead …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks only when users agree to your legal terms.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your navigation section …
(WP Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Type of Site menu)
Select from several pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Built-In 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
Go here to learn more about the benefits of using this powerful plugin:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin that contains over 20 customizable legal pages for your digital presence …
For more details go here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 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. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.
Go here for more details:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a lawyer.
We want your site to be legally protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online, you need to make sure that your website complies with government laws and regulations and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for third-party products and services that you may be promoting or using online. Your digital presence must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your specific business.
Resources
Here is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to comply and meet its legal obligations:
- Federal Trade Commission 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Also …
- Google 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your site using simple and inexpensive solutions.
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