How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

One of the worst things that can happen to a business owner is to break the law.

Internet laws and regulations are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes goods or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau (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 – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws has consequences for various online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. inline ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

If your website does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed into many advertising and online marketing networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website or blog are required to comply with legal requirements according to laws that govern your business, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be using on your site, and that there are solutions for WordPress users that can help your websites become fully compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based in.

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for a minute what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to occur:

• A person suffers a heart attack after using your online workout program.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link skin rashes.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you will do with it.
• Someone steals content from your site and puts it up on their website.
• You did not tell your visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you are selling that you may receive an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
• You did not spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and decide to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult-related content and you have not taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider too the real examples of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in violation of at least three 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 with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming targeted for non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

it’s important to make sure that your online business remains fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

All of the big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary 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 engage with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display legal information if using their products. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your websites using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your products using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell digital products through merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will be required to add a number of legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale in their network …

(Policy requirements for selling products via ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially when concerning the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site 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 happened in the past, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

You can find many online resources that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references at the end of this article …

(It’s important to structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Apps - Don’t Forget These

If you plan to create applications that will integrate with your website, 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 are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

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

Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your website or blog is falling short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides health or medical advice)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to download videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your visitors be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Informs users that you may receive compensation if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to site users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to visitors that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

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

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

If you need help displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar using widgets, see this tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Sidebar Section

Legal Templates

You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable internet forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more details:

• Find Legal Forms – Legal forms

Another option is to download a package of website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal templates 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 regulations brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new WordPress page for each 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 web server as described previously.

More information:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages

Legal Pages – Plugins

As well as using templates, another option is to use plugins.

Here are some legal WordPress plugins you should check out:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages …

WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like any page on your website.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when user agrees to your terms.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will be added to your main dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Select from various built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – 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 this website to learn more about this great plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

For more details go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro 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 of Service
• 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 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites.

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing some basic form 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 choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As stated earlier, if you do any kind of business online, it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your website or blog must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even be aware of.

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 here. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

Additional Legal Information

Below is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your website may require to remain compliant 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
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – 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

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 and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website using inexpensive methods and resources.

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