Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you do business with?
As the cybersphere continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important to try and stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if your online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)
The introduction of these new laws has legal consequences for various online business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products for sale, PayPal could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in a number of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, you could end up facing a number 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 explains simple methods that will help make your WordPress site legally compliant in minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As stated earlier, the aim of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you recommend
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider for a minute what would happen to your business if any of the following situations were to occur:
- A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone allergic reactions.
- You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you plan to do with the details you’ve collected.
- Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog informing your visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you are selling and could earn a sales commission if visitors end up purchasing via your affiliate link.
- You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Your visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and decide to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed that you received a free copy in your product review.
- Your website publishes adult information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now the following 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 (including credit card information to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’re now required to give a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping 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 independent 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 infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 risk becoming targeted for litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to make sure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With 3rd-Party Companies Terms And Policies
Complying with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are required to let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with.
For example:
Google requires you to display certain information if using their services and features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your website using Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
And even promoting your site via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell digital products via places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank digital product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type 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. it’s best to protect your business interests by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the references and 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 Applications Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to create apps for your website users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not 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 anything online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, 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 to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies)
What Legal Information Should I Add To My Website To Be Protected From Legal Compliance Issues?
If you suspect that your website lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your site stay out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above, you may want to look into including any of the following pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general advice about financial areas or income opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to downloadable videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding correct disclosure information to your website is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs users that you will not receive for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets site users know that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets users know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
- 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.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory in your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that users have access to legal information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress here:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find attorney-drafted downloadable internet forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
More information:
Another option is to download a package of website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms)
These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC guidelines that came into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (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 WordPress page for every legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your web server as previously described.
More information:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things using plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of creating legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you a great deal of time and effort.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When a user agrees to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your navigation area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)
With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal page types)
Select from several built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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
Visit this site for more information about this great plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your website …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(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 Use
- 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
Go here for more info:
If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your site to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
***
As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online, you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online and any terms of service and guidelines for 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
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, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.
Resources
Here is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to comply 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
- 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
Additionally …
- 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
***
"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