Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you endorse or use?
Internet laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for material gain, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. 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)
These laws has consequences for various business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a range of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If you are not compliant, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
In this article, we look at why it’s important to have a compliant website and explain simple and cost-effective methods and solutions that will help make your website or blog compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice about your website or business. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider what could happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to occur:
- A person has a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate gives someone an allergic reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with the information you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website making visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may receive a commission if they purchase using your affiliate link.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund or return policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you because of it.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider also these documented examples 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 information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to give a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, 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 infringed 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 infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming exposed to litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords User
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
You need to ensure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly accessible to site visitors.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your business complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you engage with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their products and features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your blogs with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)
Or promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell digital products via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be 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 still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your site complies with FTC guidelines.
You can find many business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See our 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)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to develop applications that will integrate with your site, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Apps that interface with social networks also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote services or products online via affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need 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 ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
What Compliance Information Should You Add To Your Website To Be Legally Compliant?
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 compliance pages to your site should help keep your business out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to look into implementing one or more of these legal pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website provides health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right disclosure information to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs users that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Informs your readers that you will benefit financially if they purchase through an affiliate link.
- Sample/Review Copy – Informs visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets users know that you have been compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors know 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Compliance Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal content for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then easily add links to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your site) to ensure that visitors can access the information from all your pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal pages to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu, refer to this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted website forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms)
For more information, go here:
Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & 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 WordPress page for each legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described earlier.
To learn more, go here:
Legal Page 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 that you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the work 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 WP Legal Pages:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When a user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your main WordPress dashboard menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal page types)
You can also choose from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages – 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 this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over twenty customizable legal page templates for your online business …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress powered 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 this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
More info:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation 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 website to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal templates, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with all government legal requirements and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may be promoting or using online. Your website or blog must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not be aware of.
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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.
Resources
Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- Federal Trade Commission 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Additionally …
- 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 you have found this article useful and that it 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.
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