Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you advertise or endorse?
As the internet continues to grow at such a rapid pace and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important that you try to stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your website remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence is a fundamental factor in your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
The new laws affect various business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If you do not include certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products for sale, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you will not be allowed to promote many advertising and online merchant networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
In this article, we look at the importance of having a compliant website and describe simple and inexpensive resources and solutions to make your WordPress website or blog compliant quickly and easily.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. As previously stated, the aim of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you endorse
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider for one moment what would happen to your business if these situations were to happen:
- A user suffers a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve informed subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you’ll do with it.
- Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and will get paid an affiliate commission if visitors purchase it.
- You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
- Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are all fake and try to sue you.
- You did not disclose that you were given a free copy in a product review.
- Your website contains adult-related content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.
Consider now the real examples of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to provide everyone they do 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 children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars 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 broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation 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 infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords Advertiser
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and information accessible to all you site users.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies
Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You are expected to let your site users know that your website complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.
For example:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their services. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your WordPress site using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
And even promoting your site using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information products using merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you are required to add various legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC guidelines.
You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These
If you plan to create social networking applications for your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others require you to provide access to your legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products online using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Compliance Information Does Your Website Need To Be Legally Compliant?
If your website or blog is falling short in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will help your site keep out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into including any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides financial content)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the correct type of content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you are not being paid for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you will benefit financially if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to users that you have received a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Informs your visitors that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors 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 online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Compliance Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals folder to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then easily add links to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
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 WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website) so that users have access to the information from all your pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar here:
Legal Templates
You can easily find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
More information:
Another option is to purchase a package of cut & paste legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your legal 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
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as described previously.
Go here for more information:
Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can keep things really simple by using plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress sites that you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you time.
Some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages plugin are:
- Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by 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 – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like any other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks when the user agrees to your terms.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear inside your main WordPress dashboard section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
You can create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page type dropdown menu)
Select from several pre-configured legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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 about the benefits of using this handy plugin:
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital business …
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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. Your legal pages can be 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 websites.
Go here for more details:
If hiring lawyers to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal firm.
We want your site to be safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documents, or a WordPress plugin as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate essential 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 engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service of third-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of 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 provide no 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 fully complies with the law regarding your specific business.
Additional Legal Information
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Additionally …
- Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- Google 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 compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your website using simple solutions.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)