Is your WordPress website legally compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you are promoting or selling?
As digital business continues to grow at an overwhelming speed and rules keep changing, it’s vitally important to stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having an online presence is an important aspect of your business strategy.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for commercial gain, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the (US based) 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)
The introduction of new laws has consequences for various business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, e.g. inline advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed to enrol in many advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be advertising online, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your websites become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.
Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Legal 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 legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws and regulations concerning your specific business.
Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important
Is your business at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if the following incidents were to occur:
- Someone has a heart attack after they use your online fitness program.
- The skin care products you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users an adverse reaction.
- You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you’ll do with their details.
- Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their site.
- There is no statement on your site making your site visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you are promoting and will receive financial benefits if visitors buy it.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund or return policies.
- Someone claims that your testimonials 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 website publishes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.
Consider also the following real examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to issue 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 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, costing them thousands of dollars 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% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed 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 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?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product
It’s vitally important to make sure that your website or blog is fully compliant with the law.
Complying With 3rd-Party Services
All of the leading websites and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.
You must let your site users know that your business complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you will interact with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information if using their services. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your sites using Google AdSense advertising …
(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)
And even promoting your business via Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell information-based products using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, 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 kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC guidelines and regulations.
There are many online resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. We provide references and links to additional resources to a number of these at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you are planning to develop applications for your site users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether or not you are 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 online using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or using Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
Common Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance
If your website or blog is lacking in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your business keep out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the pages above, you may want to consider adding one or more of the following pages:
- Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general money-making advice)
- 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
Adding the correct type of disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets your visitors know that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Lets your readers be aware that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they purchase through affiliate links on your site.
- Review/Sample Copy – Informs visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing.
- Sponsored Post – Lets readers know that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets users 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Content To Your WordPress Website
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Pages Manually To Your Site
If someone prepares the legal content for you in standard web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website) so that users have access to the information from every page …
(Display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu and footer in WordPress using widgets here:
Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
Visit this website to learn more:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut & paste legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance
- Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
- Terms of Service (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 web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described earlier.
More information:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use a plugin.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress users you should check out:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If the idea of creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you time.
Some of the benefits of using the WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:
- 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 the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and 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 other page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other page on your website.
- Forced Options – Force page lock down. When a user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your dashboard area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view your legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)
With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, review sites, Amazon sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)
Choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress 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
Visit the plugin website to learn more this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
total website compliance and disclaimer solution …
For more details go here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)
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 & Conditions
- 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 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 very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
For more details, go here:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a legal expert.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal templates, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, 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 commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for third-party sites that you may be promoting or endorsing online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole set of regulations, some 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 are not providing legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.
Additional Information
Below is a useful list of sites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC 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
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Plus …
- 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
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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)