Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you promote or offer?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not prevent someone from taking legal action against your business.
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 website for commercial gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also known as 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 – BBB)
The introduction of these new laws affect several business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you will not be accepted into a number of advertising or online marketing networks.
If your online presence is not compliant, you could face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains the importance of having a compliant website and presents simple and inexpensive solutions that will make your website or blog compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice about your website or business. As stated previously, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws that govern business practices online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you use on your website or blog
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what would happen to your business if the following were to take place:
- A user suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness program.
- The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you plan to do with it.
- Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website informing your visitors that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and may receive a sales commission if they end up buying through your link.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- Someone claims that your testimonials are misleading and tries to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider now the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information to complete his offer. 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 children’s private information.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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 picked at random, more than 90% were in violation 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risks of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s vitally important to ensure that your online business has the right legal pages and information displayed to all site users.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Complying with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You are obligated to let your site users know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you do business with.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using many of their products. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue with your website with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell products online with companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for selling via their network …
(Policy requirements for selling products through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this will most likely prompt 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 type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your site complies with all FTC guidelines.
You can find many business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you are planning to develop social networking applications for your site users, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services online using affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, 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 - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website
If your website lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides money-making advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets visitors know that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Informs your visitors that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets users be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets users know that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
- 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares the legal content for you in standard web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your site) so that users have access to the information from all your pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer here:
Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More information:
Another option is to purchase a package of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.
For more information, go here:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress-driven websites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)
If the idea of setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you a great deal of time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress 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 basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When a user agrees to your legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your dashboard menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
With WP Legal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page Type)
Choose from various built-in 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
To learn more about the benefits of using this useful plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over twenty customizable legal pages for your digital business …
For more details go here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
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 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 this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).
To learn more, go here:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then at least consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a legal expert.
We want your business to be 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 documentation, or a WordPress plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any kind of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website remains compliant with all government regulations and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party products and services that you may be promoting or recommending online. If your website isn’t compliant 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.
Additional Information
Below is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- 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
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
- 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress site using simple and cost-effective solutions.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now