How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

If you plan to grow a successful business online, you do not want to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

As the cybersphere continues growing at an overwhelming speed and rules constantly change, it’s vital to try and stay on top of what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legal, especially if having an online presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the US-based 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.

(Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect several online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

If you do not display certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in many advertising or online merchant networks.

If you are not compliant, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your site are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be offering on your site, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress that can help your website become compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. As stated previously, the aim of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws that govern business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you offer

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Is your business at risk? Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be if these situations were to occur:

• A customer has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
• You’ve informed your subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you’ll do with their personal details.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own website.
• You have not divulged to your site visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate and could receive a commission if visitors end up buying using your affiliate link.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are fake and decides to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site includes adult content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider also the real examples of costly compliance breaches listed below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped 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 UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars 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 breaking 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 notices or lose access to the Google program they had infringed, 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 through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

it’s important to make sure that your website has the right legal pages and clearly displayed to your site users.

Compliance With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

All of the leading websites and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will interact with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires you to display legal information if using many of their products or features. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue with your sites with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

And even promoting your site via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell products online via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to display clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New 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 sites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already 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 do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.

There are many business resource sites that can 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 …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance

If you are planning to develop apps for your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to various 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 organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, 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 terminated.
• If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their policies)

What Legal Information Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Legally Compliant?

If you suspect that your website is falling short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your site keep out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above, you may want to look into including any of these compliance pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides information about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right disclosures to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you may be compensated if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to site users that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your readers that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Site

Ideally, you will have your 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 the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend creating a legals directory in your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors can access legal information from all of your pages …

(It’s important to display legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)

For a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar or footer using widgets, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Blog

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

For more details, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut and paste legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described previously.

Visit this website for more details:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things using plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-driven sites that you may be interested in using:

WP Legal Pages

(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 instead …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you loads of headaches.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your website or blog 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 page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks when users agree to your terms.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear in your main dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page type drop down menu)

Choose from various pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Visit the plugin site to learn more about this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable legal pages for your website …

Learn We’ve written a detailed article about this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(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 & Conditions
• 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 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. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

To learn more, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider at least implementing some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a lawyer.

We want your business to be safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documents, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

***

As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines of third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or recommend online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of laws and regulatory guidelines, 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet 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 Website
• 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

Also …

• 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
• 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 why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site.

***