One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets 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.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. 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)
These laws has implications for several online business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, including PPC advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a range of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website or blog are required to comply with legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern business practices online, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be offering online, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress that can help your website become fully compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.
Is Your Website Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you promote
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider for one minute what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A person suffers a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you plan to do with their personal details.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their own site.
- You have not divulged to visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and may earn a commission if they purchase using your affiliate link.
- You did not spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- A visitor claims your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you as a result.
- You have not disclosed that you were given a free copy in a product review.
- Your website publishes adult-related content and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider also the real examples 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 an offer they were promoting. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he is now required to give everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk 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 randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least two 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 cautions or lose access entirely to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a website owner can easily become exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords User
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to make sure that your online business remains legally compliant.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
All of the big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You are obligated to let your site users know that your business complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you will engage with online.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Monetizing your WordPress blog with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your business via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
New 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 is already the case, this typically 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 kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
You can find many business resource sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you are planning to create social networking applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required 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 protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
What Legal Pages Should I Add To My Website To Be Protected From Legal Compliance Issues?
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to consider implementing any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general money-making advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the correct type of disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets users know that you will not receive for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you will benefit financially if they purchase through your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors know that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets users be aware 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 comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in typical web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal folder in your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website) so that visitors will be able to access legal information from all pages …
(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer using widgets, see this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
More info:
Another option is to download a package of cut and paste legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website 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 server as described previously.
More information:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use plugins.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WP Legal Pages instead …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the job 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 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 basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks when the user agrees to your terms.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your main navigation section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, niche sites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Choose from several built-in legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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 this plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable legal pages for your website …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 And Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers 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 the plugin on all of your websites.
More info:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your website to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal page templates, or a WordPress plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you do business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website is compliant with all regulations and any terms of service and guidelines required by third-party sites that you may be promoting or offering online. Your internet presence must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not be aware of.
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, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your specific business.
Additional Resources
Here is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:
- FTC 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress site.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)