How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are advertising or recommending?

As the digital era continues growing at an overwhelming speed and rules keep changing, it’s absolutely vital that you try to stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence plays a significant part in your overall business strategy.

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 profit, then you need to 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. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)

These laws has legal ramifications for various online business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, like pay-per-click advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook will reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising and online merchant networks.

Additionally, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

This guide explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site.

Is Your Website Breaking The Law?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As stated above, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you use

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A user has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives someone allergic reactions.
• You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website letting visitors know that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may get paid an affiliate commission if visitors buy using your link.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your refund/return policies.
• Someone claims your testimonials are all fake and tries to sue you as a result.
• You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related content and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now the following documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete his offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered 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 massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ 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 gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 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 breaking 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 becoming exposed to litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdWords User
• Niche 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 make sure that your website or blog is legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

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

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

For example:

Google requires you to display legal information when using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue with your online properties using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell information-based products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages before your products can be approved for selling via their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies on your website, especially if you plan to sell products online with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.

A number of business resources provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to develop applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with access to various legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are not sure whether or not you are 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 are considering promoting services or products online via affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

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

What Compliance Information Pages Does My Website Need To Be Compliant?

If your website or blog falls short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us Page
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general financial information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right disclosure information to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your visitors know that you will not be receiving any form of payment for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through your affiliate link.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Discloses to site users that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• 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.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal content for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legals folder to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

You can then add links to your pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …

(WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

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

(Display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)

To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Use WordPress Widgets

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

For more information, go here:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can download a set of legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

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 name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

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 pages and publish or upload these to your server as previously described.

More information:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms

Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using legal templates, you can keep things very simple by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider installing WP Legal Pages …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you loads of headaches.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to 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 your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature is added to your navigation menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages – Create different legal page types)

Choose from several 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

Go here to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(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 Service
• 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

For more details, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.

We want your business to be legally protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal templates, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumer rights, 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your specific business.

References And Resources

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission 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 …

• Google 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 legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your site using simple and cost-effective methods and resources.

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