How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.

Online laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory 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.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)

The new laws affect several online business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

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

In addition, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.

In this article, we look at why it’s important to have a compliant website and explain simple solutions that will help make your WordPress website compliant.

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As previously stated, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern business online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose products or services you recommend

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A customer has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you will do with it.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own site.
• You have not divulged to your site users that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you will get paid a sales commission if visitors end up buying using your link.
• You didn’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Visitors claim the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult-related information and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider too these real examples 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 was slapped with a massive $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 UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 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 cautions 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 litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to make sure that your website or blog is legally compliant.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.

You are required to let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will do business with.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires your site to display legal information when using their products or service. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your blogs with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell digital products via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages to your website before your products are approved for selling via their networks …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to sell or promote products online with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often 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 does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations.

You can find many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

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

Social Media Apps - Don’t Forget These

If you are planning to develop apps that will integrate with your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Apps that integrate with social networks also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you may be 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 services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads 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 all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve been wondering if “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 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Legal Information Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will keep your business out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and external providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider implementing any of these legal pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides information about financial areas or income opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms (if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right disclosures to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs site users that you’re not being paid for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Notifies your visitors that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample/Review Copy – Disclosure that informs visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets visitors be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• 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.

Adding Legal Content To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Site

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, 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 folder (e.g. via FTP) …

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

You can then easily add a link to these pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar (or place them in the footer of your site) to ensure that visitors will be able to access the information from all of your pages …

(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your website’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar using widgets here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Site

Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can download a set of website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

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 the pages to your web server as described earlier.

Go here for more information:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress users you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like any WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When a user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear inside your navigation section …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)

You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

You can also select from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Pre-configured 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:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your online presence …

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

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 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 powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of legal experts to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your website to be protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or a WordPress plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online, you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service required by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range 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, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.

Additional Legal Information

Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau – 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

In Addition …

• 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
• 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 provided above to quickly add legal pages to your site using inexpensive methods and resources.

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