Tag: WordPress Legal Pages

One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to break the law.

As digital business continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws affect various online business activities, 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 legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

This article explains the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website or blog.

Is Your Site Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your specific business.

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be if these situations were to happen:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone an adverse reaction.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly informed them what you’ll do with their personal details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog telling your visitors that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may get paid a sales commission if they purchase it.
• You haven’t spelled out the conditions of your return policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and decide to sue you as a result.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website contains adult information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now these documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• 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 prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached 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 notices or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how a business owner can easily be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

it’s important to ensure that your website is fully compliant with the law.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.

You must let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you will do business with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display legal information if using their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Earning revenue online with your websites with Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell digital products through places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially if you plan to sell online with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines 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 will reveal that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners for breaches of regulation 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 is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.

Many business resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to develop applications that will integrate with your website, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others will require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Apps for social networking sites like Facebook also require compliance)

• If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site using affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you’ve been wondering whether “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, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Compliance Information Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If you suspect that your web site falls short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your business stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

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

In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider including one or more of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general financial advice)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not receive any kind of compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to your visitors that you may be compensated if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets your visitors be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your visitors be aware 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 comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

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

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend creating a legal folder in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via 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 …

(WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) so that visitors have access to the information from all pages …

(Display links to your legal information on all of your site’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress using widgets here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Blog

Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

Go here for more info:

• Find Legal Forms

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

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page for each 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 previously described.

More information:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your site seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Built-in Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to your legal 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 main navigation section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)

Select from a number of built-in 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

Visit this site to learn more this powerful plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over twenty customizable legal templates for your site …

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.

We want your website to be legally 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 documents, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate basic 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 do any type of business online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed 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 do not provide legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

Resources

Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website 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
• 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
• United States 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
• 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 provided above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog using inexpensive methods, resources and plugins.

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