How to Add a Terms and Conditions to Your WordPress Forms

Do you want to add a terms and conditions service agreement to your WordPress forms? Giving people a way to agree to your legal terms of service is the best way to protect yourself without sacrificing the user experience.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add a terms of service agreement to your WordPress forms.

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If you prefer reading instructions, we’ve written out this tutorial below.

Step 1: Create a New WordPress Form

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see this step by step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Next, go to WPForms » Add New to create a new form.

On the setup screen name your form and select the template you want to use, depending on the type of form you’re creating.

For our example, we’ll choose the Newsletter Signup Form template.

WPForms works with several email marketing services so that you can easily create subscribe forms using your preferred email provider.

For our example, we’ll create a subscribe form using Mailchimp. For help with this step, check out our tutorial on how to create a Mailchimp subscribe form.

Step 2: Add a Terms of Service Agreement to Your Form

Once you’ve customized your signup form, you can add a WordPress terms and conditions agreement checkbox.

To do this, drag the Checkboxes form field to your WordPress form. Then, click on this field to make changes.

Now you’ll need to customize your checkbox form field. To start, change the label to say whatever you want it to.

For our example, we’ll label our checkbox Terms of Service.

We’ll also click on the minus buttons to get rid of any extra checkboxes that are on our form.

If you want to hide the Label on your form, open the Advanced Options section and click the Hide Label checkbox.

Next, we’ll customize the text within the checkbox to say something like “I have read and agree to the Terms of Service Agreement listed below.”

Now you can customize the Description section of your checkbox. This is where you’ll add your terms of service using regular text or HTML, whichever you prefer.

Make sure to click the Required checkbox to require site visitors to agree to your terms of service before submitting your form.

Step 3: Format the Terms of Service Checkbox

Here at WPForms, we know that sometimes your terms of service agreement will be a long string of text.

So, in an effort to make your website’s form look nicer, we’ve added a way to format the terms of service text to look more professional and organized.

To do this, open up the Advanced Options section in the Form Editor. Click Enable Disclaimer/Terms of Service Display.

You’ll notice that your terms of service checkbox is now in a specially formatted box with a vertical scroll bar.

When everything looks the way you want it to, click Save.

Step 4: Configure Your Form’s Settings

Once you’ve customized your WordPress terms and conditions form to your liking, you need to configure your form’s settings. Then you’ll be ready to add your form on your website for everyone to see.

To start, go to Settings » General. Here you can customize your form’s general settings.

Change things like the form name, description, and “Submit” button copy. In addition, enable the anti-spam feature to prevent spam form submissions and create a more GDPR compliant form using the GDPR enhancements that come with WPForms.

For more help with this step, check out this article on how to better comply with GDPR requirements.

Notifications are a great way to send an email whenever a form is submitted on your website.

In fact, unless you disable this feature, whenever someone submits a form on your site, you’ll get a notification about the submission.

For help with this step, check out our documentation on how to set up form notifications in WordPress.

Form confirmations are messages that display to site visitors once they submit a form on your website. They let people know that their form has been processed. Plus they offer you the chance to let them know what the next steps are.

For help with WPForms’ three confirmation types – message, show page, and go to URL (redirect) – see our documentation on setting up form confirmations.

Optional: Include Terms & Conditions in Your Email Notification

If you want to include the terms and conditions in the email notification, there’s an easy way to do that.

First, you’ll need to download and install the free WPCode plugin. After you’ve done that, navigate to WPForms » Tools.

Once on the Tools page, click on Code Snippets in the top menu. Note that this option won’t appear unless you have WPCode installed and activated.

On the next page, scroll down until you locate the code snippet called Include Field Descriptions Inside Email Notifications and activate it.

Now you’re ready to add your form to your website. There are several places you can add your form:

• Posts or pages
• Sidebar widgets
• Footer section

If you need help, check out our article on how to add your form to a WordPress post or page.

And that’s it! Now you know how to add a terms of service checkbox to any form.

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FAQ

What Is a Terms of Service Agreement?

A terms of service agreement is a set of conditions users must agree to in order to use a service you’re providing.

For instance, if you’re letting people fill out your request a quote form, order products and services using your simple order form, or are just looking to get people to sign up for your email list, you might want to require them to manually agree to the terms you have in place.

In addition, sometimes a terms of service agreement on a WordPress form is just a disclaimer limiting your liability.

Though an official terms of service agreement on your WordPress forms doesn’t mean you’ll never face legal action, they can help protect your best interests.

Why Have Terms and Conditions in WordPress?

Whether you want to include a separate web page on your site outlining your terms of service, or want to include your legal disclaimer directly on your WordPress forms, there are several good reasons to have one.

Check it out:

• Prevent Abuse. If people sign up using your user registration form to submit blog posts on your website, adding a terms of service agreements helps prevent things like spam and defamatory content from being published.
• Take Ownership. If you want to be explicit that you own all content on your website, and that none of it can be used by site visitors without consent, add a terms of service agreement to your signup forms so they understand this from the start.
• Warn People. Sometimes you’ll need to cancel people’s registration on your website because they violate your terms and conditions. The only way people will know this will happen, and the only way you can technically enforce this, is by adding a terms of service agreement outlining the rules.
• Add a Disclaimer. Displaying terms and conditions on your form is ideal if you want to add a coupon disclaimer or other important information on a payment or order form.
• Limit Liability. It’s important you let people know when they’re subscribing to your site that if they find any errors in the information you’re providing, whether on your site directly or in email marketing materials, that you will not be held liable. This is especially helpful if you publish legal or health content.

As you can see, making people agree to your terms before they continue to use your site or submit their forms is really helpful for protecting you from any liability and gives you control over how your website will run.

How Do I Make Sure My Visitors Have Read the Entire Agreement?

You can adapt the behavior of the terms of service field so that the checkbox only appears when your visitor scrolls to the end. Check out our developer doc on how to enable the terms and conditions checkbox after reading a disclaimer.

And there you have it! You now know how to add a required terms of service agreement to your WordPress forms.

Next, Add a Signature Field to Your Forms

Adding a signature field can give you additional peace of mind when you’re presenting contracts or agreements to your visitors. Check out how to add a digital signature to your forms in WordPress.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today.

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