Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t protect someone from taking legal action against you.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau)
These laws has ramifications for several online business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, including contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not approve digital products on their network, PayPal may shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote many advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
If your digital presence is not compliant, you could also face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website or blog are required to comply with legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern online businesses, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be using on your site, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice in this article. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws governing business practices online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party companies whose services or products you promote
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link an allergic reaction.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement letting subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you’ll do with the information you’ve collected.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their website.
- There is no statement on your website making visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you are endorsing and may receive a sales commission if they buy it.
- You have not spelled out the terms of your refund/return policies.
- Online visitors claim that your testimonials are fake and decide to sue you because of it.
- You did not disclose that you have received a free copy in your product review.
- Your website contains adult content and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider also these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 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 non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your site users know that your business complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you interact with.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their products or features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue online with your WordPress sites using Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your business through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell digital products via places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before your products are approved for sale in their networks …
(Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, 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 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 interests by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations.
Various business resource sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to create applications that will integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or making money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay 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 all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Common Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your website or blog is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site will keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to look into adding one or more of the following pages if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general health or medical content)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets visitors be aware that you will not be receiving any form of payment for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Informs readers that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate links.
- Sample Or review Copy – Explains to readers that you have received a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about.
- Sponsored Post – Informs visitors that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Content To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content 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 directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then easily add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every page …
(Display links to your legal information to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
For a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your WordPress sidebar using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
More info:
Another option is to download a package of cut & paste website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google, DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page for every legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as previously described.
Go here to learn more:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some great legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like every other page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks when users agree to your terms.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item is added to your main navigation menu section …
(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
With WP Legal Pages, you can create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)
Select from a number of pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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 details about this WordPress plugin, visit this site:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin containing over twenty customizable compliance pages for your digital presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(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 Use
- 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 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
For more details, go here:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal page templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines provided by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your website or blog must comply with a number of regulations, some of which you may not even be aware of.
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 are not providing legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your business.
Additional Information
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet 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 – 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
And …
- 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 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 methods and resources.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum