How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

One of the worst things that can happen to you as a business owner is to break the law.

Internet laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes goods or 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 your business.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws affect various online business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, like text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may shut down your account, Facebook will reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in a number of advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

More importantly, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

In this article, we discuss why it’s important to have a compliant website and show you simple resources and solutions to make your WordPress website compliant.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws in your country or region.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Are you at risk? Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be if the situations below were to occur:

• A person has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you will do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone steals content from your site and puts it up on their own site.
• You haven’t advised visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling and may derive an affiliate commission if visitors purchase through your link.
• You did not spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and tries to sue you as a result.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider now these actual case studies 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. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• 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 details.
• 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, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least two 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 notices or lose access to the Google program 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 a target of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Compliance With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

Complying with third-party companies terms and policies is important.

You are required to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you engage with online.

For example:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue online with your blog with Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information-based products using companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been 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 do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site complies with FTC regulations.

Various online resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to resources at the end of this article …

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you plan to create applications for your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about various legal pages …

(Apps that interface with social networking sites like Facebook also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether or not 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 plan to promote services or products online using affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads 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 - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve 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, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Compliance Information Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Legally Compliant?

If you suspect that your website or blog is lacking in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues):

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

Additionally, you may want to look into implementing any of these pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• 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)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add correct disclosures to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs readers that you are not being paid for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets site users be aware that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample Or review Copy – Lets users be aware that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs your readers that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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 Content To Your WordPress Website

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

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

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 creating a legals directory in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then add links to these pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) so that users will be able to access the information from all pages …

(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your website’s pages)

If you need help displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets, see this tutorial:

• Using Widgets In WordPress

Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-prepared internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

For more details, go here:

• Find Legal Forms – Attorney-drafted legal forms

Another option is to purchase a set of website legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These legal templates were created by an attorney and 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 templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: includes 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 web server as described previously.

Go here for more info:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using copy & paste templates, you can keep things really simple by using a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.

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

• Built-in Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when user agrees to your terms.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your main navigation area …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate sites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)

You can also choose from several built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

More info:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

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 of Use
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro – 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. You can have legal pages 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.

We want your site to be legally protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and the guidelines and terms of service of third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• BBB – 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

See 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
• 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 compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your site using inexpensive legal resources and plugins.

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