Is your WordPress site legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose services or products you do business with?
Online laws and regulations were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products and services online. Every website owner 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 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)
The new laws has legal implications for several business categories, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. contextual ads
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Bloggers
- etc.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you won’t be accepted into a number of advertising and online merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
This article explains the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive legal resources and WordPress plugins.
Is Your Website Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for a minute what would happen to your business if any of these situations were to happen:
- Someone has a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement that lets subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you plan to do with their details.
- Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your site visitors know that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re promoting and could earn a financial benefit if they purchase it.
- You didn’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
- Visitors claim your testimonials 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 publishes adult information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.
Consider too these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $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 received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. 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 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% were in breach 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program with the infringement, 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 Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate 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
You need to ensure that your online business is fully compliant with the law.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.
Big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.
You must let your visitors know that your business complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you will engage with online.
For example:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their products or features. This includes using Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Generating revenue online with your websites using Google AdSense display advertising …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
Or promoting your site through Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell products online using places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add a number of legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for selling via their marketplace …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically results in 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 plan to do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
Many business resource sites provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(You must 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 social networking applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with access to various legal pages …
(Facebook apps also require compliance)
- If you are unsure as to 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 are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to 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)
Essential Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If your website is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site should keep your business out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and even help to avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to look into implementing one or more of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general financial information)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right type of web content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets site users be aware that you are not receiving any form of compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to site users that you will derive some form of financial or similar form of benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Informs visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Informs site users that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- 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 online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Content To Your Website
Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site
If someone prepares 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 these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …
(WordPress Menu)
Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert these into the WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that users will be able to access the information from all your site’s pages …
(It’s important to display links to legal information on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets, see this tutorial:
Using Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
Go here for more information:
Alternatively, you can purchase a package of legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)
Cut & Paste website 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 insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.
Go here for more details:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-driven websites and blogs you should check out:
WordPress Legal Pages
(WP Legal Pages Plugin)
If manually creating legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing 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 help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time.
Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages plugin:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information is then 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 every other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when users agree to your terms.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your WP dashboard menu section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view your legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)
You have the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)
You can also choose from a number of pre-configured 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
For more details about using this plugin, visit this website:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over twenty customizable legal page templates for your web presence …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(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 Use
- 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 the plugin on all of your sites.
More info:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire the services of a solicitor.
We want your website to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal content, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) for 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. Your website must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not be aware of.
Non-compliance 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 offer no legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply 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
- 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
Also …
- Google 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
We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website.
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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)