Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any third-party companies whose services or products you use or promote?
As digital business continues to grow at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vital that you try to stay informed about what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence plays an important part in your overall business strategy.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
These laws affect several business activities, including:
- Any type of advertising, e.g. display advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
More importantly, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
In this guide, we look at the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress site using inexpensive methods and resources.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all laws wherever you do business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be if any of the following were to happen:
- A person suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
- The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you will do with their details.
- Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your site telling your site users that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing and will derive a financial benefit if visitors buy it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are false and decides to sue you as a result.
- You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider too these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been 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 was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had infringed 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 infringed 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 violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risks of litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords User
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
It’s imperative to make sure that your digital presence is legally compliant.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies
Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You must let your visitors know that your business complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you will do business with online.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires you to display certain information if using their products and features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Making money online with your WordPress blogs with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell products online via merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations.
You can find many business resource sites that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …
(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to develop apps that will integrate with your site, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide information about various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
- If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If you suspect that your website is lacking in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following legal pages to your site should help your website keep out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and external service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to consider including any of these legal pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides information about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets visitors know that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to your visitors that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your readers be aware that you were compensated in some way to write the post.
- 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Content To Your Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
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 site, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend creating a legal directory on your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)
You can then add a link to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that visitors will be able to access the information from all your pages …
(Display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar using widgets here:
Using Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting websites like the ones shown below:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
For more information, go here:
Alternatively, you can download a package of website legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
Cut & Paste website legal templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & 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 added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.
For more details, go here:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things by using plugins.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing 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 help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you many headaches.
Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:
- Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When the user agrees to your legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will be added to your main dashboard menu section …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate websites, medical sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
Choose from various built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages – 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
To learn more this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin website:
Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that contains over twenty customizable legal page templates for your online presence …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
Legal Suite Pro 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 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 powered site. Your legal pages can be 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 websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
Go here to learn more:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be legally safe!
Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal documents, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you make money online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and any guidelines and terms of service for 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or selling online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumer rights, 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?
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on our website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
References And Resources
Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to remain compliant 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
- Better Business Bureau – 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Also …
- 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site.
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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