One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a business owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
As the digital realm continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and rules constantly change, it’s absolutely vital to stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence is a fundamental factor in your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines 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.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The introduction of new laws has legal consequences for various business categories, including:
- Any type of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your website does not display certain 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 allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in most advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
In addition, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
This article explains the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website or blog.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As stated above, 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 your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party companies whose products or services you advertise on your website or blog
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what could happen to your business if these scenarios were to take place:
- A user has a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement informing prospective subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you will do with the details you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
- You haven’t advised your site visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re recommending that you may receive an affiliate commission if visitors decide to purchase using your link.
- You haven’t spelled out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Someone claims the testimonials on your site are all fake and tries to sue you as a result.
- You have not disclosed that you received a free copy in a product review.
- Your website publishes adult content and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged persons.
Consider now the actual examples of costly compliance breaches described:
- 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. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to give everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 cautions 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 risk being targeted for non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services
All the leading websites and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your website complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you interact with online.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information if using many of their services or product features. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Generating revenue with your blogs with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information products via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages before your products are approved for selling via their networks …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell online using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
There are many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create social networking applications that integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with access to your legal pages …
(Apps for social networking sites like Facebook also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or using Google AdWords 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 all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering if “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 terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help your site stay out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and external providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general health or medical advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you may derive some form of financial or similar form of benefit if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets site users be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website
Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares and delivers 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 adding a legal folder to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that users have access to the information from every page …
(Display legal pages to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)
Go here for more details:
Another option is to download a package of cut and paste website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
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 details, then pasted into your legal web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC 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 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 server as described earlier.
Go here to learn more:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
As well as using copy & paste legal templates, you can keep things very simple using a plugin.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered sites that you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you many headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like any WP page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature is added to your main WordPress dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
Select from various built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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 plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that includes over 20 customizable legal templates for your site …
Learn more about the plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro)
Legal Suite Pro 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 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 flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
Visit this site for more information:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.
We want your website to be protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal page templates, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate basic 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 are making money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines provided by third-party sites that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your website must comply with a whole range of 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.
Legal Resources And References
Here is a useful list of additional sites 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Also …
- 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your site using inexpensive methods and resources.
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