Is your WordPress site compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you are endorsing or using?
As the internet continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules constantly change, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your site remains compliant, especially if your online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you need to 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. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has ramifications for several business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could reject your applications, and you will not be accepted into a range of advertising or online marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
In this guide, we discuss why it’s important to have a compliant website and provide inexpensive solutions to help make your site compliant quickly and easily.
Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws in your country or region.
Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant
Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a heart attack after using your online fitness program.
- The skin care products you promote as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement that lets subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you will do with their details.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their website.
- You did not tell your site users that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing and could receive a financial benefit if they purchase it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
- Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you.
- You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult information and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider now 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 their personal information (including credit card information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
- 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 independent 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% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 to the Google program 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 exposed to litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence stays fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you will engage with online.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using their services or product features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Generating revenue online with your websites with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell products online via companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for selling via their network …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your website complies with all FTC guidelines.
You can find many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you plan to develop applications that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, 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 need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Compliance Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Compliant?
If you suspect that your website falls short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and external service providers, and avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to look into adding any of the pages listed below if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides money-making information)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the correct type of content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs users that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies readers that you will be compensated if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Discloses to visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs readers that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with 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 will have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every web page …
(Display links to your legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer menu here:
Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
Visit this site to learn more:
Another option is to purchase a set of website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
These templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (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 these to your web server as described earlier.
For more details, go here:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple by using a plugin.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.
Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:
- Built-in Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of 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 clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and 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 just like every other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed when user agrees to your legal terms.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature is added to your main dashboard menu …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)
You can also select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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
Visit the plugin website to learn more this plugin:
Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs containing over twenty customizable compliance pages for your site …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 of Use
- 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell).
More info:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some type of basic legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your site 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 plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and any guidelines and terms of service required by third-party sites that you may be promoting or selling online. If your website isn’t compliant 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 in this article. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to comply and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- BBB – 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
Plus …
- Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- 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 why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your site.
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