If you do any kind of business online, the last thing you want to do is to learn the hard way that you are doing something illegal.
Online laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes goods or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t excuse someone from taking legal action against your business.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites 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 agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also referred to as 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)
These laws affect various business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many 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 shut down your account, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in many advertising and online marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
This article explains the importance of having a compliant website and describes simple methods to make your WordPress website legally compliant quickly and easily.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. As stated above, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose services or products you endorse
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider what could happen to your business in the following scenarios:
- A user suffers a heart attack after using your online fitness program.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not defined what you’ll do with it.
- Someone steals your content and publishes it on their site.
- There is no statement on your site making visitors aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may derive financial benefits if visitors purchase it through your link.
- You have not spelled out the conditions of your return policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are false and tries to sue you.
- You didn’t disclose that you have received a free copy in a product review.
- Your site includes adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider now the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches below:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- 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 information.
- 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 independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach 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 to the Google program whose policies they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could become exposed to the risk of non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to ensure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
Complying with third-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are required to let your visitors know that your website complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires you to display certain information when using many of their products or features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Earning revenue with your WordPress site using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)
Or promoting your products through Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell products online with places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will be required to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale …
(ClickBank – policy requirements for product sellers)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute 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 any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your website is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.
A number of resources online provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to develop social networking applications that integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you plan to promote products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, 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 to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, 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)
Basic Legal Pages To Add To Your Website
If your website lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website should help you stay out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into adding any of these pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general financial advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Audio/Video Terms (e.g. 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 – Lets users know that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you will receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
- Sample Or review Copy – Lets your readers know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re writing about.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users 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.
How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content 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 legal folder on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) to ensure that users have access to legal information from all of your site’s pages …
(Display links to your legal pages to visitors on all of your website’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar here:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find downloadable attorney-prepared forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)
More info:
Alternatively, you can download a set of cut & paste website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be 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
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- 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 each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your server as previously described.
Go here for more info:
Legal Pages – Plugins
In addition to using templates, you can simplify things by using WordPress plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages …
This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When a user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your navigation area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)
You can also choose from several 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
To learn more about this handy plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance pages for your website …
Learn We have written an in-depth review of this plugin here:
Legal Suite Pro
(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 & 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).
More info:
If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some type of legal protection on your site until you can afford legal services.
We want your site to be legally safe!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or plugins as described in the section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumer rights, 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice here. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
References And Legal Resources
Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to remain compliant and meet its 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 – 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
And …
- 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 the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive resources and WordPress plugins.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)