How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Is your WordPress website legal? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose products or services you sell or recommend?

Internet laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against your business.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws affect various business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, e.g. Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

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

In this guide, we look at the importance of having a legally compliant website and explain simple ways that will help make your WordPress site compliant.

Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws wherever you do business.

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these scenarios were to happen:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you will do with their personal details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own website.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making your site users aware that you are an affiliate for the product you are recommending and may earn a sales commission if they decide to purchase via your affiliate link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and decide to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy in your product review.
• Your site publishes adult information and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now these actual 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 copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. 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 independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two 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 cautions 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 risk being a target of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords User
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to all site users.

Complying With Third-Party Companies

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

You are required to let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with online.

For example:

Google requires your site to display certain information when using many of their services or features. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your online properties using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)

Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell digital products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling products via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often 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 kind of money-making activity 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 by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations.

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

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create apps for your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others will require you to provide information about your 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 organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
• If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Compliance Information Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?

If you suspect that your website lacks in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your business stay out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and third-party service providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above pages, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the following pages where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

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

• No Material Connection – Lets readers be aware that you are not receiving compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to users that you may receive compensation if they buy through an affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Discloses to users that you have received a sample or review copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Lets users know that you have been 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 online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Site

Ideally, you will consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

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

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

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

(WordPress Menu)

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

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

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To The Sidebar

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find attorney-prepared downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

For more information, go here:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut and paste legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new WordPress page for each legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.

More info:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple using a plugin.

Here are some legal WordPress plugins that you may be interested in using:

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you many headaches.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – 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 editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When the user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will display inside your main navigation area …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, niche sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page type menu)

Select from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Pre-configured 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

For more details about using this handy plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your online business …

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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 of Use
• 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 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 one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a solicitor.

We want your site to be legally 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 documentation, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumers, 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.

Additional Information

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• 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 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
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• US Copyright Office

See 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive solutions.

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