How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you are doing business with?

As the digital era continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vitally important that you stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if your digital presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

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

These laws has implications for various online business categories, including:

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

If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising or online marketing networks.

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

In this article, we look at why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and describe inexpensive ways that will help make your WordPress website compliant in minutes.

Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. As stated above, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you advertise on your website or blog

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Is your business at risk? Consider for a moment what could happen to your business if these situations were to take place:

• A customer suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users an allergic reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their site.
• There is no statement on your website making your site visitors aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and may derive a commission if they buy it through your affiliate link.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your return policies.
• Visitors claim your testimonials are fake and try to sue you as a result.
• You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site contains adult-related information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider now these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• 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, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 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 two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being exposed to non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords Advertiser
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

it’s important to ensure that your website complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using their services and features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your sites with Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information-based products with merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank digital product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, 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 business 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 interests by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC regulations.

Various business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Apps - Don’t Forget These

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

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include 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 if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies)

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

If you suspect that your website or blog falls short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should help your business keep out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to consider adding any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general information about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the right disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Discloses to visitors that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors 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 Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend adding a legal folder to 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 easily add links to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your site) so that visitors will be able to access legal information from all of your pages …

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar and footer here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Website

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

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

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & 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 web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (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 each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described previously.

For more information, go here:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

As well as using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use a plugin.

Here are some legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

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

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

Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like every other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks when the user agrees to your terms.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your navigation menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page type menu)

Select from various built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Built-In 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

Visit this site to learn more about this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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 – 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 flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

Go here for more details:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your business to be 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 ready-made legal templates, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

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

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any kind of business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with all regulations and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumer rights, 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 on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.

Resources

Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to comply and meet 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 Website
• 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

And …

• Google 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

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.

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