Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you do business with?
Internet laws and regulations are designed to protect 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 prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)
The new laws has legal implications for several online business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, including inline advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
Additionally, you may 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 required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be recommending online, and that there are plugins for WordPress that can help your website become more compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Is Your Website Breaking The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice about your website or business. 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 all legal requirements in your country or region.
Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these scenarios were to take place:
- A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you will do with their details.
- Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re recommending that you will earn a financial benefit if they decide to purchase through your link.
- You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
- Your visitors claim the testimonials on your site are false and decide to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer received a whopping $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 marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them 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% had broken 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 entirely to the Google program whose policies 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 targeted for litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdWords Advertiser
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
it’s important to make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies
Big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you do business with.
For example:
Google requires websites to display legal information if using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your WordPress sites with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell digital products through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your site before your products can be approved for selling via their networks …
(Policy requirements digital product vendors selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting 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 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 website complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.
There are many business resources that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to develop apps for your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Common Legal Pages To Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your web site lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website will keep you out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to consider adding one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Media Terms (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right disclosures to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs users that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs readers that you may benefit financially if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample Or review Copy – Disclosure that informs site users that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your readers know that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, 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 formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legals folder in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that users have access to legal information from all pages …
(Display links to your legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)
Go here for more info:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new Federal Trade Commission guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.
More info:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using WP Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog 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 WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks when user agrees to your legal terms.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your main WP dashboard menu section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)
Select from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Pre-configured 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 this plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over 20 customizable legal templates for your digital business …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(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 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
For more details, go here:
If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing some kind of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.
We want your website to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or a legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you 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 do any type of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website doesn’t comply 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. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant 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 – 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
In Addition …
- 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
- 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 compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
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