Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you offer or promote?
Internet laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Better Business Bureau)
The new laws affect various business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising and online merchant networks.
If your website is not compliant, you could face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website are subject to certain legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose products or services you may be using online, and that there are plugins for WordPress site owners that can help your site become more compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article. As stated previously, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements 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 3rd-party companies whose services or products you use on your website
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Consider what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A person has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you’ll do with the information you have collected.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
- There is no statement on your website making your visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate and may earn financial benefits if they buy through your affiliate link.
- You don’t spell out the terms of your refund/return policies.
- Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you.
- You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site includes adult-related information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.
Consider now the real case studies of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to provide everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet 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-picked websites, more than 90% were in breach of 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 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 entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being a target of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s imperative to ensure that your online business has the right legal pages and information accessible to all you site visitors.
Complying With 3rd-Party Companies
Compliance with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You are expected to let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you engage with online.
For example:
Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your WordPress blogs with Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you sell information-based products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for digital product vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts 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 plan to 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 interests by making sure that your site is compliant with FTC regulations.
You can find many resources sites for businesses that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create social networking applications for your site users, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide access to various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote anything online as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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 - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “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 and policies)
What Legal Information Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?
If you suspect that your website or blog lacks in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should help keep your business out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into implementing one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides health or medical information)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right type of disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs readers that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your readers that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Review/Sample Copy – Explains to your visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Informs readers that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets readers 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 Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)
You can then add a link to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your site) so that users can access legal information from all pages …
(Display legal pages to visitors on all of your site’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress, see this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable website forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here for more information:
Another option is to download a set of website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)
These legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations brought into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for every legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.
For more information, go here:
WordPress Legal Page Plugins
In addition to using templates, you can keep things really simple by using plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages instead …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages 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 when user agrees to your legal terms.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your WordPress dashboard section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
You have the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)
Select from a number of pre-written legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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
For more information about this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin site:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
The Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your site …
To learn more about the plugin go here:
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 Service
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro 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 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 (even sites that you decide to sell).
More information:
If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford a solicitor.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, 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 stated earlier, if you make money online, it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines provided by third-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website isn’t compliant 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Additional Legal Information
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to comply and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- 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
In Addition …
- 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog 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)