Tag: WordPress Legal Pages

Is your website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are recommending or using?

As the digital realm continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules constantly change, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains compliant, especially if your web presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then 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. 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 has implications for various online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in a number of advertising and online merchant networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website(s) may be subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be offering on your site, and that there are solutions for WordPress users that can help your site become compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.

Is Your Site Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your business.

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for a moment what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to take place:

• A user has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness program.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users an adverse reaction.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you plan to do with the details you have collected.
• Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website making your site users aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and could earn an affiliate commission if they purchase through your link.
• You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund and return policies.
• Online visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and try 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 contains adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider now these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’re now required to give a copy of the judgement to everyone he does 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 private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars 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% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how you could be exposed to the risks of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s vitally important to ensure that your website complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

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

All of the big online companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you interact with online.

For example:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your sites using Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information products via merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their network …

(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically ends up with 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 do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations and guidelines.

You can find many business resource sites that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(You must 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 website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide information about your legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all 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 act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

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

Essential Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help your website keep out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above, you may want to look into including one or more of the following pages where applicable:

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

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets visitors be aware that you are not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to your visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to your visitors that you have been compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets readers 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 online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in standard 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 folder to your 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 add links to your pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access legal information from every page …

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

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In WordPress

Use Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More info:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut and paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

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

These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• ToS & Conditions of Use: with 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 to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your web server as previously described.

Visit this website to learn more:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

In addition to using copy & paste templates, another option is to use plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other page on your website.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when users agree to your legal terms.
• 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 navigation menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, niche sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Choose from various built-in legal templates …

(WP 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

To learn more about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

total website compliance & disclaimer solution …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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 Use
• 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 flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

To learn more, visit this website:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.

We want your site to be protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal documents, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you make money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and the guidelines and terms of service for 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or recommending online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.

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, please note that we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your business.

References And Resources

Here is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau Website
• 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

Also …

• 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
• 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 why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website.

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