One of the worst situations a website owner can find themselves in is to break the law.
Online laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect 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 promote anything on your website for profit, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau)
The new laws has legal consequences for various online business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. PPC advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not approve digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website(s) may be required to comply with legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be using on your site, and that there are easy solutions that can help your sites become more compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all laws wherever you do business.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider for a minute what could happen to your business if any of the following were to occur:
- A customer has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness program.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement informing prospective subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you will do with the details you have collected.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own website.
- There is no statement on your site letting your site visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you are recommending and may receive a financial benefit if they buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
- Online visitors claim your testimonials are all fake and try to sue you as a result.
- You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider now the following documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape 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 randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, 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 through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s imperative to make sure that your digital presence complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies Terms And Policies
Big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You are expected to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using their services or product features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your online properties with Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products with companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you are required to add legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
New 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 will easily reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC guidelines.
There are many sites that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to develop apps that will integrate with your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Apps that interface with social networking sites like Facebook 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 products or services online using affiliate marketing, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
Basic Legal Pages To Add To Your Site
If you suspect that your website or blog falls short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should help your site stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider adding one or more of these compliance pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (if your website provides health or medical information)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the correct type of web content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets your readers be aware that you are not receiving any type of compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies visitors that you may benefit financially if they buy through your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or the footer of your website or blog) so that users have access to the information from every page …
(Display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar using widgets, refer to this tutorial:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
More info:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut & paste legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (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 web pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.
More information:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will help make the work 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 WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Fully 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 WP page.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when user agrees to your legal terms.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your dashboard section …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, niche websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page type dropdown menu)
Choose from several built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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
Go here to learn more this powerful plugin:
Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your site …
Learn more here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)
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 powered site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).
Go here to learn more:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documentation, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you do any kind of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or advertising online. Your website must comply with a wide range of regulations, some of which you may not be aware of.
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, we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your specific business.
Resources
Below is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to comply and meet legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC 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
- US Copyright Office
Also …
- 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
- 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 compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com