One of the worst situations a website owner can find themselves in is to break the law.
As the digital way of life continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vital to try and stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence plays a significant part in your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for material gain, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, 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 for more details.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
The new laws has consequences for various business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, including Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
More importantly, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your site are required to comply with certain legalities in accordance with the laws that govern online business practices, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be recommending on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your website become fully compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As previously stated, the aim of this article is only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you promote on your website or blog
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement that lets subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you’ll do with it.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are selling and will get paid financial benefits if they decide to purchase through your affiliate link.
- You haven’t spelled out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Someone claims the testimonials on your site are false and decides to sue you as a result.
- You didn’t disclose that you received a free copy in a product review.
- Your site publishes adult information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider also these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independent 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 breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming a target of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords User
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to your site users.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies
Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You are required to let your site users know that your business complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your blogs using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your products through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale in their network …
(Policy requirements for selling products via ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites 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 for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
Various online resources provide guidelines on how to structure 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 …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you are planning to develop applications for your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Apps for 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 you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered 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 policies)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website
If your website or blog falls short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website will help your website keep out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and 3rd-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider adding any of these pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general advice about health or medical areas)
- 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)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you are not being paid for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your readers know that you may be compensated if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets readers be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually 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 them for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages via FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website) so that visitors have access to the information from all pages …
(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your site’s pages)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about adding links to pages on your WP sidebar using widgets, see this tutorial:
Templates
You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More info:
Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates)
Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: with 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 added 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 info:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-driven websites worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you a great deal of time.
Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very 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. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other WP page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. 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 lockdown. When the user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your main dashboard menu section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)
You have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)
You can also choose from several built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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
To learn more this plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
For a detailed article about this plugin go here:
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 And Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
To learn more, go here:
If hiring legal experts to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some form of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a lawyer.
We want your website to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal templates, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, 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 plan to), it’s important that your website complies with government laws and regulations and any terms of service and guidelines provided by third-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumers, 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Legal Resources & References
Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:
- 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 – BBB
- 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
Plus …
- 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
- 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress site.
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