One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of breaking the law.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring significant financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this post, we look at a simple and inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your site legally compliant just minutes.
Is Your Site Legally Compliant?
As the digital realm continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules are constantly changing, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website remains legal, especially if your online presence is a fundamental part of your business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and other social sites could suspend your applications, and you won’t be accepted into a number of leading advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
If your business online is not in compliance, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if your business online is not compliant, visitors may lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with mandatory laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may probably not even be aware of),
- The importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be promoting or endorsing on your website, and
- There are solutions that can help your website become compliant, such as the solution that we discuss below.
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress users that provides a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence.
Introducing …
Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a simple plugin for WordPress sites with over 20 customizable legal page templates for your website …
For more details go here: Compliance Bar
Benefits Of Using Compliance Bar
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar to make your website or blog instantly legally compliant:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Compliance Bar installs just like every other WP plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Editable Templates
Easily edit the pre-built legal page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu with the WordPress WYSIWYG editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides dedicated 24/7 plugin support to assist you.
Additional benefits include:
- Customized Compliance Pages: Compliance Bar will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use and a full library of training videos is provided if users need assistance.
- Use Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the legal page templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever your business is located.
- Can Be Used For Any Website Purpose: If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Just select the templates you want to add to your site and ignore irrelevant pages.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features
Compliance Bar provides a number of great features to WP users. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Display Visually Appealing Icons – Display links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be positioned on different locations in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Restricted Content – If you plan to display content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), you can display pop-ups that force users to accept your terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you are based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies visitors and protects your business from non-compliance.
- Records & Stores IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar can record your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcode Driven – The plugin uses shortcodes that populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (including the popups).
- Compatible With Mobile Devices – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on visitor mobile browsers.
Using The Plugin
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” area gets added to your WP dashboard.
Let’s go through these settings briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this screen where you can enter your business information into input (e.g. “Business Name,” “Registered Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Support Email,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Image source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses shortcodes to insert and display the information you have entered into your User Profile into your legal page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the user profile fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section contains all of the plugin’s legal pages …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the plugin website, there were over 22 legal templates made available:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure Statement
- Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Contact Us
- Copyright/DCMA Notice
- Disclaimer
- Double Dart Cookies
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- FTC Statement
- Legal Disclaimer
- Linking Policy
- Medical Disclaimer
- Privacy Policy
- Returns/Refund Policy
- Support
- Terms
- Terms & Conditions
- Testimonial Disclosure
- Adult Content Disclosure
You can create legal pages for your website quite easily simply by selecting check boxes and clicking ”Save” on the “Compliance Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons can be changed. You can purchase an additional set of icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your theme …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can easily modify and delete the legal templates from the “Compliance Pages” section, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin will notify you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. compliance pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin settings area provides various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, specifying which pages should be included in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your home page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different icons on different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website.
- The plugin allows you to display the Compliance Bar on the home page of your website, even if you are using a specific WordPress theme framework (like Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile device screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have configured your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your legal using a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance bar to display …
PopUps
If your website publishes content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), you can display pop-ups that blocks access to visitors who do not accept your terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create multiple Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses in different sections of your website …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent Pop Ups from displaying immediately, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time interval, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Screen: IP Log Details – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you do business in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
Compliance Bar lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” section …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” tab, lists all of your compliance templates and shortcodes, and lets you edit their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
User Feedback
Below are just a few of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have provided for Compliance Bar:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
***
”I wanted to reach out & say Compliance Bar is a truly amazing product for keeping my online marketing efforts on the right side of the internet laws. Not only does it look fantastic on my sites, it is also intuitive and robustly powerful. It is packed full of features to allow me the flexibility to control exactly what my visitors need to see and know” Patrick Mauchant – PT Enviromate Technology
Compliance Bar Plugin – Useful Tips
Below are some useful ways to use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protection against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before purchase.
- If your website published content for adult readers, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Product Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated support team to help you with anything you need. You also get access to a complete set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your copy of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hours (M – F), the plugin developers will refund double the purchase price.
Product Pricing
- Single Edition – Can be installed on 1 domain that you own. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Can be installed on 25 of your own sites. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Licensing – Install the plugin on multiple as many of your own sites as you like. Install the plugin on all client sites as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: The price of the Compliance Bar Plugin product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was current at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Info
Legal Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get professional advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your own peace of mind.
For a demo video of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
The Bottom Line
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress websites. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Important: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
***