Tag: WordPress Legal Pages

One of the worst predicaments a website owner can find themselves in is to be on the wrong side of the law.

Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t excuse someone from taking legal action against you.

New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)

The introduction of these laws has legal ramifications for various online business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, like inline ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you won’t be accepted into various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and explains inexpensive resources and solutions that will help make your site compliant in minutes.

Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws in your country or region.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Are you at risk? Consider what would happen to your business if any of the scenarios below were to take place:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you will do with their personal details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website telling your site visitors that you are marketing a product as an affiliate and could derive a commission if they purchase it.
• You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider now the following 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 information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to provide everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• 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 private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 entirely to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being exposed to litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

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

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will do business with online.

For example:

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

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue online with your WordPress sites using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell digital products through places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add a number of legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC guidelines.

There are many online resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to develop apps for your website users, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about your legal pages …

(Apps for social networking sites also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products online using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include 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 act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Basic Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Site

If your web site is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should keep you out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

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

Additionally, you may want to look into implementing any of these pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides financial information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the right disclosure information to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs visitors that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors be aware that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Informs your visitors that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users know that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this, 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 them for you.

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

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add a link to your 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 these to the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your site) so that visitors will be able to access legal information from all your pages …

(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your site’s pages)

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

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Blog

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

Go here to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates)

Cut & Paste website legal pages were created by an attorney and 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 details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
• Terms of Service & 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 web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.

More info:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms

Legal Pages – Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some WordPress plugins that you should check out:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time.

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

• Built-in Templates – 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 your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will 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 lock down. Page unlocks only when user agrees to your legal terms.
• Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature is added to your main navigation menu …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate websites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages – Page Type)

Choose from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Pre-configured 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

For more details about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin website:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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. 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 the plugin on all of your websites.

For more details, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your website to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), 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 Software)

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

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As stated earlier, if you do any type of business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and any guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole range of regulations, many 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

Legal Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB
• 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
• US Copyright Office

See Also …

• Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• Google 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 legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website using simple and cost-effective legal resources and solutions.

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