How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.

Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect someone from taking legal action against you.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “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)

The new laws affect several business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If you do not display certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook could reject your applications, and you won’t be accepted into most advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

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

In this article, we discuss why it’s important to have a legally compliant website and provide inexpensive methods and solutions that will make your website legally compliant.

Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As previously stated, the purpose of this article is only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you use on your website

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what would happen to your business if any of the following were to happen:

• A customer suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness program.
• The skin care lotion you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you plan to do with their personal details.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
• You haven’t informed your visitors that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you could derive a financial benefit if visitors decide to purchase through your affiliate link.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Your visitors claim the testimonials on your site are all fake and try to sue you because of it.
• You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your site contains adult content and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.

Consider now the actual examples of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue 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 without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them 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% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 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 non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords Advertiser
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s imperative to ensure that your digital presence is fully compliant with the law.

Compliance With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

Big companies 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 business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you do business with.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information when using many of their products. This includes using services such as Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue online with your website using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)

And even promoting your site through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information-based products with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank digital product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to sell or promote products online using product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies 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 ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies 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 is not physically located in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations.

You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to develop apps that integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to various legal pages …

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, 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 to avoid having your accounts terminated.
• If you’ve been wondering whether “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, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Compliance Information Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Compliant?

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party service providers, and even help to avoid possible legal issues):

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

Additionally, you may want to consider implementing one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides money-making information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets readers be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs site users that you may benefit financially if they purchase through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample/Review Copy – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs readers that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
• 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.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will 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.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site

If someone prepares the legal content 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 folder in your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

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

(WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from every web page …

(Display legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)

We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress here:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In Your WordPress Blog Sidebar Menu

Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find attorney-prepared downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

For more details, go here:

• Find Legal Forms – Legal forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut & paste legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your web 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
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

Go here for more info:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using plugins.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users that you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

If manually creating legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages …

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

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

• Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like every other WP page.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress 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 check box and delete and manage these like any other WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your dashboard area …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, review websites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page type drop down menu)

You can also choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WordPress 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

To learn more about this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your online business …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

Legal Suite Pro 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 And Conditions
• 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress 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 this plugin on all of your websites.

For more information, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a lawyer.

We want your site to be protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal documents, or a WordPress plugin as described in the 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.

***

As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines for third-party sites that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law regarding your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• BBB – 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
• 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 why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website.

***