Website Legal Compliance Archives - Free WordPress Tutorials For Non-Techies

As a website owner, the last thing you want is to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

As digital business continues to grow at such a rapid pace and rules constantly change, it’s important to stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is a fundamental part of your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Search online “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)

These laws affect various online business categories, including:

Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords or AdSense
Retarget Marketing
Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
Affiliate Marketers
Product Creation
Blogging
etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

More importantly, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website(s) may be subject to legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of complying with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be recommending on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your website become more compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws wherever your business is based in.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:

A person has a cardiac arrest after they use your online workout program.
The skin cream you promote as an affiliate gives people an allergic reaction.
You’ve informed subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you plan to do with their details.
Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their own site.
You did not tell visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re marketing and will derive a sales commission if visitors buy via your link.
You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund and return policies.
Your visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and try to sue you because of it.
You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
Your site contains adult-related content and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up 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 without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation of 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 with warnings 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 you could easily be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
Network Marketer
Affiliate Product Promoter
AdSense Publisher
Info Product Publisher
Amazon Associate
e-Commerce Store Owner
Publisher Of Adult Content
Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to ensure that your online business is fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Companies

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

You are obligated to let your site users know that your business complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will engage with.

For example:

Google requires you to display legal information if using many of their products. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Generating revenue with your site with Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your services via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell information-based products via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you are required to add legal pages to your site before your products are approved for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies 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. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC guidelines.

There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to develop apps that integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
If you are considering promoting products or services online via affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies)

What Compliance Pages Does My Website Need To Be Compliant?

If you suspect that your website is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues):

About Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Use
Disclaimer Pages
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above, you may want to look into including any of these pages where applicable:

Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
Anti-Spam Policy
Earnings Disclaimer
External Linking Policy
Health Disclaimers (if your website provides health or medical advice)
Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
Media Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the right type of content disclosure is important. For example:

No Material Connection – Lets your readers know that you will not receive compensation for writing the post.
Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs site users that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
Sample/Review Copy – Lets readers know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
Sponsored Post – Lets your visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in standard web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legals folder in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add links to these pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your site) so that visitors will be able to access legal information from every web page …

(It’s important to display links to your legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer menu, see this step-by-step tutorial:

Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Sidebar

Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and internet forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

To learn more, go here:

Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:

Anti-Spam Policy
Copyright Notice
Disclaimer
DMCA Compliance
Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.

More info:

Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple using WordPress plugins.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If the idea of creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will 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 WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

Built-in 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 legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any WordPress page.
Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog 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 WP page.
Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear inside your main navigation section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings)

With WPLegal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, niche websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Choose from several built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Built-In 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 using this useful plugin, visit this site:

WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance pages for your online presence …

Go here to learn more:

Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

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 And Conditions
Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress – 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 license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.

More information:

Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your business to be legally safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documentation, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

***

As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online, you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with government legal requirements and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or advertise online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of regulations, 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 offer legal advice. 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 in your country or region.

Resources

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

Tag: Website Legal Compliance

How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site