Is your WordPress website legal? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
Online laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect someone from taking legal action against your business.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The introduction of these new laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, including text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed into a number of advertising and online merchant networks.
Plus, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website(s) may be required to comply with various legalities according to laws that govern businesses online, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be offering online, and that there are easy solutions that can help your site become fully compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business practices online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you use
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A person suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
- The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone an adverse reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you will do with it.
- Someone copies your content and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your website or blog making your site visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you are endorsing and will derive an affiliate commission if they purchase via your link.
- You don’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decide to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy of the product in your review.
- Your site contains adult information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider also the documented examples of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping 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 randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two 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 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 litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords User
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies
Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you do business with online.
For example:
Google requires websites to display legal information if using their services. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your blogs with Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell digital products via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add a number of legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their network …
(Policy requirements digital product vendors selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type 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 interests by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.
You can find many online resources that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you plan to develop social networking applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with access to your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or use 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 display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
What Legal Information Pages Should I Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?
If your website lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider including any of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general content about financial areas or income opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets your readers know that you’re not receiving any type of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to site users that you have received a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to your readers that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets readers know 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.
How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this, 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 web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal folder on your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then add links to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can add these to your sidebar menu (or the footer of your site) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar using widgets, see this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
Visit this website to learn more:
Another option is to download a set of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (ToS) & 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 to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as previously described.
Go here for more info:
Legal Pages – Plugins
As well as using copy & paste templates, another option is to use a plugin.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you many headaches.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by 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.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog 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 page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your navigation menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)
Choose from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – 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 about the benefits of using this powerful plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
total website compliance & disclaimer solution …
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 Plugin – 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. 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 sites (even sites that you decide to sell).
To learn more, go here:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some kind of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford a solicitor.
We want your website to be safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documentation, or a plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you are making money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed 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 offer no legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Legal Information
Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet 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 – 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Also …
- 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
- Google 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 legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.
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