Is your WordPress site legal? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you promote or sell?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website 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 US-based Better Business Bureau (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)
These laws affect several online business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote a number of advertising or online marketing networks.
In addition, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
This article explains why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your website.
Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice in this article. As previously stated, the aim of this article is only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you promote on your website or blog
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A customer has a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement that lets subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you plan to do with the details you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their site.
- You haven’t advised your site users that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you may receive an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
- You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund or return policies.
- Visitors claim that your testimonials are misleading and decide to sue you.
- You didn’t disclose that you have received a free copy in a product review.
- Your site contains adult-related information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.
Consider now the following actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to give everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk 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 randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how a business owner can easily be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords User
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and information accessible to site visitors.
Complying With Third-Party Services
All of the leading companies and government agencies that regulate trade in various countries emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.
You are expected to let your visitors know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display legal information when using their services or product features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your sites using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell digital products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for selling via their networks …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business 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 has already been 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 plan to do any type of selling 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 complies with FTC regulations.
There are many business resource sites that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide references and links to useful resources to some of these at the end of this article …
(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to develop applications for your site users, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Apps for social networks also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, 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 are required to display 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, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website
If you suspect that your website or blog lacks in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to consider including one or more of these pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides financial advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right disclosures to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs your readers that you will not receive any kind of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Disclosure that informs visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Lets your visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets users know 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in typical web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legals folder to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)
You can then add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors have access to legal information from all your pages …
(It’s important to display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer here:
Using Ready-Made Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here for more information:
Alternatively, you can download a set of cut and paste legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates)
These templates were written by an attorney and 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 web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission regulations brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page 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 the pages to your server as described earlier.
For more details, go here:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using templates, another option is to use a plugin.
Here are some legal plugins for WordPress websites and blogs worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using WP Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will be 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 other WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed when user agrees to your legal terms.
- Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your main navigation section …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
With WP Legal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, review sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page type menu)
You can also choose from various built-in legal templates …
(WordPress 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 plugin:
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
total website compliance & disclaimer solution …
For an in-depth review of this plugin go here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
Legal Suite Pro 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 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 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
Visit this website to learn more:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your business 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 ready-made legal documentation, or a plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to easily generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online, it’s important that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices and any terms of service and guidelines of third-party sites that you may be promoting or offering online. Your website or blog must comply with numerous regulations, some of which you may not even 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 offer no legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your specific business.
Legal Resources And References
Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:
- 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
- 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
See 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
- 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 why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site using simple solutions.
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