How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

As a business owner, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

As digital business continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important that you try to stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your website remains legal, especially if your online presence plays an important role in your business strategy.

Recent 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 profit, 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 BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect various business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, including Google AdWords
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your website does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in most advertising or online marketing networks.

If you are not in compliance, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.

Does Your Website Comply With The Law?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws and regulations wherever your business is based in.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A customer suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you will do with the information you have collected.
• Someone steals content from your site and publishes it on their site.
• There is no statement on your site making your site visitors aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you could earn a commission if they purchase it using your link.
• You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you received a free copy of a product you are reviewing.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider also the following documented examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 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 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how a website owner can easily become exposed to the risks of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business has the right legal pages and information displayed to all site visitors.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services

Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information when using their services and features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue online with your online properties using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information-based products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add certain legal pages before your products are approved for sale in their networks …

(Policy requirements for selling products through ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

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 flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC regulations.

You can find many resources sites for businesses that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to resources at the end of this article …

(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to create apps for your website users, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products online via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, 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 suspended.
• If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Essential Legal Pages To Add To Your Website

If your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to look into adding any of these compliance pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general money-making advice)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct 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 – Disclosure that informs readers that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample Or review Copy – Lets your visitors know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to your readers that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users 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 Content To Your Website

Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then easily add links to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) so that visitors have access to the information from every page …

(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:

• Using WordPress Widgets

Use Store-Bought Templates

You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More information:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to purchase a set of cut & paste legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• 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 website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described previously.

For more details, go here:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

As well as using cut & paste legal templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress users you may be interested in using:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages instead …

This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time.

Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when user agrees to your terms.
• New 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 main dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)

This lets you view, create and edit legal pages from your admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)

Select from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages – 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

To learn more about this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your website …

More info:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

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 & Conditions
• 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 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 or flip).

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring legal experts to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.

We want your website to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate basic 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 commercial activity online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or selling online. Your digital presence must comply with various 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, 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 a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau
• 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 …

• 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog using inexpensive resources and solutions.

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