Is your website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you promote or sell?
Online laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
These laws has legal consequences for various business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. pay-per-click advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
This guide explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and shows you simple resources and solutions that will make your WordPress website legally compliant.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. As stated previously, 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 governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party companies whose services or products you advertise on your website
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Consider for a moment what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives people an adverse reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with their details.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website telling your visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you could receive financial benefits if they buy through your link.
- You did not spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
- Someone claims that your testimonials are all fake and tries to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy in a product review.
- Your website publishes adult-related information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider too these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with 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 does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached 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 notices or lose access to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a website owner can easily be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to ensure that your digital presence complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With Third-Party Companies
Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You are obligated to let your site users know that your website complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you will engage with.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information when using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue online with your WordPress blog using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically 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 do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.
A number of online resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the references and useful 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 Apps
If you plan to develop applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about 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 companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything online as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- 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 avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general advice about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets users know that you’re not receiving any kind of compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Informs users that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets site users know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to your readers that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Site
Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage 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 adding a legal folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add links to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your site) so that users have access to the information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
If you need help displaying links to pages on your WordPress sidebar or footer, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More info:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of website legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages)
These legal 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 Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations that came into effect on March 2012)
- 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 on your website for every legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as previously described.
For more details, go here:
Legal Pages – Plugins
As well as using templates, another option is to use plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress websites and blogs worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks only when users agree to your terms.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your main navigation section …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche websites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page type dropdown menu)
Select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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
For more information about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin website:
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …
For more details, visit the plugin site 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 Service
- 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 less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).
Visit this site to learn more:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your site to be safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documents, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential 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 engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines provided by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or selling online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, 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 in this article. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what your website may require to comply and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau
- 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
We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum