One of the worst predicaments a website owner can find themselves in is to break the law.
As digital business continues to grow at such a fast pace and the rules constantly change, it’s absolutely vital that you try to stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your site remains legal, especially if your web presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, 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 (BBB). 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 affect several business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, like inline ads, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in most advertising and online merchant networks.
In addition, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be required to comply with legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern your business, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be selling on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your online properties become compliant, such as the tools that we discuss further below.
Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements in your country or region.
Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Is your business at risk? Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone suffers a heart attack after using your online workout program.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you’ll do with the information you’ve collected.
- Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your website letting your site users know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate and will receive an affiliate commission if they decide to buy via your affiliate link.
- You haven’t spelled out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you because of it.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult-related content and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider now these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- 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, 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 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% were breaking 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 they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming exposed to non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business is legally compliant.
Complying With Third-Party Companies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You must let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you will interact with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their services. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your WordPress blogs with Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your products or services through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information-based products via places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling products via ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you 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. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
There are many sites that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you plan to develop social networking applications for your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others will require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Apps that integrate with social networks also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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 to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site
If your website or blog is lacking in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will keep you out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to look into adding any of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. 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 (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the correct type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets visitors be aware that you will not receive any form of compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies visitors that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Review/Sample Copy – Discloses to visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets readers know that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets your 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal 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 web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add these to your sidebar (or the footer of your site) so that users have access to legal information from all pages …
(It’s important to display legal pages to users on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer, see this tutorial:
Use Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting sites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here for more details:
Another option is to purchase a set of website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service & 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 to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described earlier.
More information:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
In addition to using templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some great legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- 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. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will be added to your main dashboard section …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)
You can also select from various pre-written legal templates …
(WP 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
To learn more about the benefits of using this powerful plugin, visit this site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your web presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)
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 And Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites.
More information:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.
We want your website 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 attorney-drafted legal content, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator 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 stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website stays compliant with government regulations and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your website or blog must comply with a number of regulations, 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.
Legal Resources
Here is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau
- 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
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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
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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