One of the worst predicaments a website owner can find themselves in is to be on the wrong side of the law.
As the digital way of life continues to grow at such a fast pace and rules keep changing, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having an online presence is an important factor in your business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in a number of advertising and online marketing networks.
If your web presence is not compliant, you could end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
This guide explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws and regulations wherever your business operates in.
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Consider for one moment what could happen to your business if these scenarios were to happen:
- Someone suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online workout program.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their website.
- You did not tell your site users that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate that you may get paid an affiliate commission if visitors purchase it.
- You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and decide to sue you.
- You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy in a product review.
- Your site contains adult content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider too 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 details to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to give everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received a massive $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 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 dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Niche Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
You need to make sure that your digital presence complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you interact with online.
For example:
Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue online with your website with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products using companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling products through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of money-making activity 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 by making sure that your website complies with all FTC regulations.
A number of business resources provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references at the end of this article …
(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 develop apps that integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything on your site using affiliate marketing, or making money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include 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, 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 services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Basic Legal Pages To Add To Your Website
If you suspect that your website or blog falls short in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and external providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” 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 consider adding any of the following pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides money-making information)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets users be aware that you are not being paid for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to your visitors that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users be aware that you have been compensated in some way to write the article.
- 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you should consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in standard web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)
You can then add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can add these to your sidebar menu (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from all your pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
To learn more about displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar or footer, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-drafted website forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
Go here for more info:
Another option is to download a set of website legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates)
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 templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.
You can either create a new WordPress page for every legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your server as described earlier.
More information:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
As well as using templates, you can keep things very simple by using plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you many headaches.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any page on your site.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your dashboard menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, niche sites, medical sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)
Select from several 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
To learn more about using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your site …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro)
Legal Suite Pro 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 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.
Visit this website to learn more:
If using the services of legal experts to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a solicitor.
We want your business to be safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal templates, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any kind of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service for third-party services and products that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.
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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to comply and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- 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
- 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
Plus …
- 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 and easily add legal pages to your site.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)