If you do any kind of business online, the last thing you want to do is to suddenly discover that you have been operating on the wrong side of the law.
As the digital realm continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules keep changing, it’s important that you try to stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence plays a significant part in your overall business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has legal ramifications for several business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in a number of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If your online business is not compliant, you could end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your site may be subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you may be using on your site, and that there are easy solutions that can help your site become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.
Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice about your website or business. As previously stated, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you use
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be if any of the following were to happen:
- A person suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link an allergic reaction.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement that lets subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you will do with their details.
- Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website making your site users aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and could derive a financial benefit if they decide to buy via your link.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- Visitors claim your testimonials are false and try to sue you.
- You have not disclosed that you have received a free copy in your product review.
- Your website contains adult information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider also 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. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped 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 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s imperative to ensure that your website or blog has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to your site visitors.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Complying with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You are expected to let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will do business with.
For example:
Google requires your site to display legal information if using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your WordPress blogs using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
Or promoting your products through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially if you plan to sell or promote products using product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners 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 chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC regulations.
You can find many online resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether 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 plan to promote anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Legal Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?
If your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should keep you out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and 3rd-party providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to consider implementing one or more of these compliance pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general advice about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add correct disclosures to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Discloses to your visitors that you will not receive any form of compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Informs users that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Lets your visitors know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers be aware 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 website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from all of your pages …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More information:
Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described previously.
More information:
WordPress Legal Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress-driven websites and blogs that you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …
This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just 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 – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like every other WordPress page.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When the user agrees to the 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 inside your dashboard section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)
Select from several pre-written legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Built-In 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
Go here to learn more this useful plugin:
Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin
The Compliance Bar Plugin For WordPress is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your site …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
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 Service
- 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 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 sites (even sites that you decide to sell).
More info:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.
We want your business to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal content, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to easily generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of third-party products and services that you may be promoting or using online. Your website 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, we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice in this article. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
Additional Legal Information
Below is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to comply and meet its legal obligations:
- Federal Trade Commission 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
And …
- 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using simple resources and solutions.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)