Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, rules or regulations, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you do business with?
As digital business continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vitally important to try and stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, 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 to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
The introduction of new laws has ramifications for various online business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could shut down your account, Facebook could reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in a range of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be offering on your site, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your websites become compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever you do business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Is your business at risk? Consider what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- Someone suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people an adverse reaction.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement that lets subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t clearly informed them what you plan to do with the details you’ve collected.
- Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own website.
- You have not divulged to your visitors that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you may earn a commission if visitors purchase using your link.
- You didn’t spell out the terms of your refund policies.
- A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you.
- You have not disclosed that you were given a free copy of the product you are reviewing.
- Your site includes adult content and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to give a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- 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 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program they had violated, 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:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business has the right legal pages and information accessible to site visitors.
Complying With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Complying with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.
You must let your site users know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.
For example:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Monetizing your WordPress blog using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your site via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products with companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their network …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for product sellers)
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of selling 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 ensuring that your site complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
You can find many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you plan to create social networking applications for your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Social networking apps also require compliance)
- If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting services or products on your site using affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, 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 their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
- If you have 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 magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
Basic Legal Pages To Add To Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If your web site falls short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website should help keep you out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Additionally, you may want to look into including one or more of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides money-making information)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your website. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through your affiliate link.
- Review/Sample Copy – Disclosure that informs your readers that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Informs visitors that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets readers know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Site
Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this prepared, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers 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 creating a legals directory on your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)
Where To Display 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 insert these into the WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all your pages …
(Display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar or footer here:
Legal Templates
You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable internet forms and agreements by searching online, or by visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
To learn more, visit this website:
Another option is to download a package of cut & paste legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates 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 add your own details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page 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 the pages to your server as described previously.
For more details, go here:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple using a plugin.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users that you may be interested in using:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you a great deal of time and effort.
Some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content 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 page on your site.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear inside your main dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)
With WP Legal Pages, you can create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, niche websites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)
Choose from several pre-written legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Pre-configured 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
Go here to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over twenty customizable compliance templates for your site …
Learn more about the plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro)
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 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 less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
For more information, go here:
If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance from a legal firm.
We want your business to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal forms, or a WordPress legal pages plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site complies with government laws and regulations and any terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party services and products that you may decide to promote or offer online. Your internet presence 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, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements in your country or region.
Additional Legal Information
Below is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet its legal obligations:
- 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 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
- US Patent and Trademark Office
- US Copyright Office
See Also …
- Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website using simple and cost-effective methods and solutions.
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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