How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Learn how to make your WordPress site or blog legally compliant and how to shortcut the process using legal page creation plugins …

Is Your Website Compliant? What Legal Pages To Add To Your WordPress Site

One of the worst predicaments a business owner can find themselves in is to break the law.

Internet laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)

The new laws affect several business activities, including:

  • Any form of advertising, including pay-per-click advertising
  • Retarget Marketing
  • Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Product Creators
  • Blogging
  • etc.

If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising and online merchant networks.

You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website(s) are subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern online business practices, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be recommending on your website, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your website become more compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Website Comply With The Law?

Is Your Site Legally Compliant?

Note

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Is your business at risk? Consider for a minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

  • Someone has a heart attack after using your online workout program.
  • The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone an adverse reaction.
  • You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with their details.
  • Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own website.
  • There is no statement on your website or blog letting visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you are selling and may get paid financial benefits if visitors buy it.
  • You didn’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
  • A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are misleading and tries to sue you.
  • You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
  • Your site contains adult-related content and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.

Consider too the actual examples of costly compliance breaches listed below:

  • A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to provide 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 private information about children.
  • Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them 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% were in violation of 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% were in violation of 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 entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, 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 Marketer
  • Network Marketer
  • Affiliate Promoter
  • AdWords Advertiser
  • Product Publisher
  • Amazon Affiliate
  • EBay Seller
  • Adult Content Publisher
  • Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
  • Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s imperative to ensure that your online business remains fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Services

Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.

You are obligated to let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you will do business with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

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

Policy requirements for using Google Analytics

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your WordPress site using Google AdSense advertising

Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements

(Google AdSense online advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your site using Google AdWords

Google AdWords - Policy Requirements

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information-based products with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add a number of legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …

Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank

(Policy requirements for ClickBank digital product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …

FTC - consumer guidelines and regulations

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) 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 do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.

Many sites provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the references and useful 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

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to create apps that will integrate with your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

Facebook developer app - policy requirements

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

Tip

  • If you are unsure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
  • If you plan to promote products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
  • If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

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

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Legal Information Does My Website Need To Be Insured Against Legal Compliance Issues?

If your website is lacking in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your site keep out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider including one or more of these legal pages:

  • Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
  • Anti-Spam Policy
  • Earnings Disclaimer
  • External Linking Policy
  • Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general money-making advice)
  • Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
  • Audio/Video Terms Of Use (if you provide users with access to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add correct disclosures to your site. For example:

  • No Material Connection – Lets users know that you are not being paid for writing the article.
  • Affiliate Links – Discloses to site users that you will be compensated if they purchase through your affiliate link.
  • Review Or Sample Copy – Disclosure that informs your readers that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
  • Sponsored Post – Lets your readers be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
  • Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal 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 them for you.

We recommend creating a legals folder on your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. using FTP) …

Upload legal pages to your server via FTP

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then easily add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

Custom WordPress Menu Feature

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors will be able to access the information from every page …

It's important to display links to your legal pages to users on all of your site's pages

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu using widgets here:

Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

Visit this site to learn more:

Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages - Legal Templates

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

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

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Templates include:

  • Anti-Spam Policy
  • Copyright Notice
  • Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
  • DMCA Compliance
  • FTC Compliance
  • Privacy Policy
  • ToS & 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 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 your legal pages to your web server as described previously.

More information:

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple using plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress websites and blogs worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If setting up legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you loads of headaches.

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

  • Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
  • Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
  • Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
  • Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any other WordPress page.
  • Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
  • Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
  • Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks only when users agree to your terms.
  • Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear in your main navigation section …

WordPress Legal Pages - Menu

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

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

WP Legal Pages Plugin - Settings Screen

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Area)

You can create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin - Page Type

(WP Legal Pages – Type of Site menu)

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

WP Legal Pages - Pre-configured Templates

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Go here to learn more this plugin:

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar - Total Website Compliance And Disclaimer Solution

complete website compliance and disclaimer solution …

Compliance Bar - WP Compliance Plugin

Go here to learn more:

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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 of Service
  • Earnings Disclaimer

Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress - Professionally-written legal forms

(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 license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

More info:

Important

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing some basic 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 software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or plugins as described in the section below.

Legal Pages Generator

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online, it’s important that your website is found to comply with government legal requirements and the guidelines and terms of service required by 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or offering online. Your website must comply with a wide range of laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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?

Useful Information

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. You must 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.

Additional Legal Information

Below is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:

And …

We hope this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog using simple and cost-effective methods and resources.

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"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya

Originally published as How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site.