Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you advertise or endorse?
Internet laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t excuse someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
The introduction of these new laws affect several online business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, e.g. contextual ads
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you won’t be accepted into most advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
If your website is not compliant, you could end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website or blog are required to comply with certain legalities in accordance with the laws that govern online businesses, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you may be using on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your online properties become compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.
Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A person suffers a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness program.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you plan to do with the information you have collected.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their own site.
- You haven’t informed your visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re selling and may earn a commission if visitors buy using your affiliate link.
- You have not spelled out the conditions of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that your testimonials are misleading and tries to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult-related information and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider too these real 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 his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ 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, 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 randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach 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 with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s imperative to ensure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies
Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You are required to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you engage with.
For example:
Google requires you to display legal information when using many of their services and features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Earning revenue with your WordPress blogs with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell products online using places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for selling via their networks …
(Policy requirements for vendors selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often prompts 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 money-making activity 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 ensuring that your website complies with all FTC regulations.
You can find many resources sites for businesses that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create applications that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site
If you suspect that your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help your website stay out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and external service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider implementing one or more of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general information about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of web content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Discloses to your visitors that you’re not receiving any kind of compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you may benefit financially if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Informs users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs users that you have been compensated in some form to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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.
Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert these into the WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) so that visitors will be able to access the information from every web page …
(Display links to your legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar menu using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Using Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms)
More information:
Another option is to download a package of legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission 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 to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your server as described earlier.
Visit this website to learn more:
Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using cut & paste templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other WP page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your navigation section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)
With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site menu)
Choose from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – 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
Visit this site for more details about the benefits of using this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that includes over twenty customizable compliance templates for your web presence …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro 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 of Use
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites.
More information:
If using the services of legal experts to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a solicitor.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documents, or a WordPress legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and any terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your digital presence must comply with a wide range of regulations, some of which you may not even 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.
References And Resources
Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to comply and meet legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- 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
- 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your site.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)