Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are doing business with?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for commercial gain, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
These laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, including pay-per-click advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your website does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to enroll in various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not compliant, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and shows you simple and cost-effective resources and solutions to help make your website or blog legally compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve informed your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you will do with their details.
- Someone steals content from your site and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your website telling your site visitors that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may get paid a sales commission if they buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you as a result.
- You didn’t disclose that you received a free copy of a product you are reviewing.
- Your site publishes adult information and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider now the actual examples of costly compliance breaches listed below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete his offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’re now required to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risks of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
it’s important to ensure that your digital presence is legally compliant.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display legal information when using their services and product features. This includes using features such as 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 via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell digital products with merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for selling digital products via ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is 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 ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, 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 do any kind of money-making activity 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 website is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
There are many business resource sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources to some of these at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create apps that will integrate with your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites 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 using affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- 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, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Site
If your website is lacking in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and third-party service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to look into implementing any of the following pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general content about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you are not being paid for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to readers that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to include them in 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 site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legals folder in your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then add links to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(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 clearly visible to all visitors. You can add these to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from every page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress using widgets here:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
Go here for more info:
Another option is to purchase a package of website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your legal pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages 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: 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 site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described earlier.
More info:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins you should check out:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. 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 when the user agrees to your legal terms.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item is added to your navigation menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)
Select from several 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 this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that contains over twenty customizable compliance pages for your digital presence …
For more details go here:
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 – 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 site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
For more information, go here:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some kind of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford a solicitor.
We want your site 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 ready-made legal content, or a legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service required by third-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.
References And Legal Resources
Here 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 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
- US Copyright Office
In Addition …
- 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 and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website.
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