Is your website legal? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you are using or promoting?
As the digital way of life continues to grow at such a rapid pace and rules constantly change, it’s absolutely essential to stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your website remains legal, especially if your online presence is an integral part of your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Search online for information about “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 introduction of these new laws affect various online business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, including contextual ads
- 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, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote a range of advertising or online merchant networks.
In addition, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
This article explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and shows you simple methods that will help make your WordPress website or blog legally compliant quickly and easily.
Is Your Site Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. As stated previously, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you promote
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Consider what would happen to your business if the following scenarios were to take place:
- A customer has a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you’ll do with it.
- Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may receive a sales commission if visitors buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you because of it.
- You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your website contains adult information and you have not taken sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider also these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information 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, resulting 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% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least 2 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 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 a target of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords User
- Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s imperative to ensure that your digital presence is fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
All the big online companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You are expected to let your visitors know that your business complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you do business with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display legal information when using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your WordPress blogs using Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information-based products through merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute 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 any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the additional 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 laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you are planning to create applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products online using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies)
Common Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should help your website keep out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to consider including any of these pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general financial information)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors be aware that you are not being paid for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to your visitors that you will benefit financially if they purchase through your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets readers be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re writing about by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Informs users that you were 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 Legal Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers 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 creating a legal directory in your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can add these to your sidebar (or the footer section of your site) so that users have access to the information from every page …
(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer in WordPress using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
To learn more, go here:
Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut & paste website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations brought into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website 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 the pages to your server as described previously.
Visit this site for more information:
Plugins – Legal Pages
As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple using plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider using WP Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Includes 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 around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- 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 website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When a user agrees to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your navigation section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate sites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Type of Site drop down menu)
You can also select from several built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – Built-In 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
For more information about using this great plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
total website compliance & disclaimer solution …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 powered site. You can have legal pages 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 sites (even sites that you decide to sell).
More information:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a legal firm.
We want your website to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal templates, or a WordPress plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you do business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your website or blog must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of sites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to remain compliant 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
- Better Business Bureau Website
- 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
- US Copyright Office
In Addition …
- 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
We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your site using simple and inexpensive solutions.
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