How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a business owner is to break the law.

As the digital way of life continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important to try and stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence is an integral part of your overall business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these new laws has implications for several online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in most advertising or online marketing networks.

If your online business is not compliant, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website(s) are subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be using on your website, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress site owners that can help your website become fully compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.

Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations in your country or region.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to occur:

• A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate gives someone 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 the information you have collected.
• Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your site making your site visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are recommending and may receive financial benefits if visitors purchase it.
• You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose that you were given a free copy in a product review.
• Your site publishes adult-related content and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider also these real 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 a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $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 copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details 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 independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had breached 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 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 cautions 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 a business owner can easily become exposed to the risk of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You are required to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you interact with.

For example:

Google requires you to display legal information if using their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue online with your online properties using Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell products online through merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add various 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 include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially if you plan to sell products and services with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners 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. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.

Various sites provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to 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 create apps that integrate with your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to 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 on your site via affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Legal Pages Should You Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?

If your website falls short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your website should help your website keep out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

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

In addition to the above, you may want to look into implementing any of these legal pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct type of web content disclosure is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets visitors know that you will not receive for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets site users know that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Explains to readers that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets visitors know that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will have a 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

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages via FTP)

You can then easily add links to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert these into your WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that users will be able to access legal information from every page …

(Display legal pages to users on all of your website’s pages)

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To Your Sidebar Menu

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms)

Visit this website to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

Cut & Paste website templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & 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 for every legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.

Go here to learn more:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress websites worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WP Legal Pages)

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

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you time.

Some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like every other page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. 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 new menu item will appear in your main WP dashboard menu section …

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site drop down menu)

You can also choose from several pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – 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 this useful plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over twenty customizable legal templates for your website …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

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 Service
• 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. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring legal experts to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.

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 attorney-drafted legal forms, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements and any guidelines and terms of service required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or offering online. Your internet presence must comply with various 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 are not providing legal advice here. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a time-saving list of sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to comply and meet its legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau – 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
• AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.

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