Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you use or promote?
Internet laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent 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, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has ramifications for various business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not approve digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you will not be allowed into various advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
If your business online is not compliant, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your site are subject to certain legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be recommending online, and that there are solutions that can help your sites become compliant, such as the tools that we discuss further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party companies whose products or services you recommend
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for a moment what would happen to your business if these scenarios were to take place:
- Someone suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness program.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
- You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you will do with their details.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your site making your site visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are marketing that you will get paid a commission if visitors decide to purchase via your affiliate link.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and decide to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site includes adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider also the following actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer received 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 does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 easy it is to be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords User
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies
Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your business complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you will interact with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your website with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell digital products with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages before your products are approved for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, 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 is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations.
A number of online resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create apps for your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to various legal pages …
(Social networking 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., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything online as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, 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 are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to 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)
What Compliance Information Pages Should I Add To My 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 legal pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider including any of the following pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides money-making information)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the correct type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets site users be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors know that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate link.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors know that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs site users that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legals directory on your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors have access to legal information from every page …
(Display legal information to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer menu using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
To learn more, visit this site:
Another option is to purchase a package of legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your legal web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms 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: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.
You can either create a new page on your website 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 these to your server as described earlier.
Visit this website to learn more:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, another option is to use a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress-powered sites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Templates – 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 the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks when the user agrees to your terms.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)
You can also choose from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – Built-In 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 about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites and blogs with over 20 customizable compliance pages for your site …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
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 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 less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
Visit this site for more information:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.
We want your business to be legally protected!
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 page templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, 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 business online, you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your internet presence must comply with numerous regulations, 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?
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 fully complies with the law in your country or region.
Additional Information
Below is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:
- FTC 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
- 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
- US Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog using simple solutions.
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