Checked for accuracy and updated on August 14, 2026.
Most websites need a disclosure page before ever earning a first dollar from them. The moment an affiliate link goes up, a sponsored post gets accepted, or a free product arrives in exchange for a review, the US Federal Trade Commission requires that connection be made clear to readers. Most site owners know a disclosure is needed but aren’t sure exactly what it should say or where it should go — it doesn’t need to be complicated, just clear.
The Actual Standard Is Stricter Than a Footer Link Alone
Worth being precise here rather than treating a footer page as the whole job: the FTC’s governing document — the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising — requires disclosure to be clear, conspicuous, and made before the point of recommendation, in language consumers reasonably understand. A single footer link, on its own, doesn’t meet that bar for a page containing affiliate links — the disclosure needs to actually appear near the recommendation itself, not just exist somewhere on the site. This isn’t a soft best-practice suggestion: penalties run up to $53,088 per violation (the FTC’s inflation-adjusted 2025 figure, up from $51,744), and each individual non-disclosed post can count as a separate one.
The practical fix is running both layers together: a dedicated disclosure page (the general policy) plus a short, specific line at the top of any individual post containing affiliate links — “This post contains affiliate links; if you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you” — placed before the first affiliate link appears, not buried after it or left to the footer alone.
Setting Up the Page Itself
Under Pages → Add New, title it “Disclosure” or “Affiliate Disclosure,” with a short slug (/disclosure/ or /affiliate-disclosure/) and no parent page nesting. Two to four plain paragraphs cover it: that the site may earn commissions from affiliate links at no extra cost to the reader, that sponsored or gifted content gets identified when it appears, that opinions stay independent of compensation, and how readers can actually reach out with questions. Write it in an actual voice rather than a copied legal template — a disclosure that reads like a person wrote it gets read and trusted more than one that reads like boilerplate.
A workable structure to adapt: “This site contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and services I have used myself or genuinely believe will be useful.” Plus, where relevant: “This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.” Publish it plainly — no featured image, no custom template needed — then add it to the footer menu under Appearance → Menus, so it appears on every page rather than needing to be found.
What a Thorough Page Actually Covers
Affiliate relationships stated clearly; how sponsored or paid collaborations get handled and identified; a statement that compensation doesn’t influence recommendations; a note if free products get received for review; and a real contact route for questions. None of it needs to be exhaustive — the goal is giving readers an honest, complete picture of how the site operates commercially. Linking the disclosure alongside a privacy policy and terms and conditions keeps all the legal pages connected and easier to find together, rather than scattered.
Review the disclosure annually, or whenever an affiliate program or monetisation method changes — an out-of-date disclosure that doesn’t reflect current relationships defeats the purpose. “This site may be compensated” alone is vague enough to give readers little real context; being specific about which kinds of relationships are covered matters more than it might seem. Burying the link in small text, or only referencing it inside a Privacy Policy, doesn’t meet the clear-and-conspicuous bar covered above — a genuinely findable footer page plus in-post disclosure before any affiliate link is the actual expected standard, not an optional extra layer of caution. If affiliate links are already live on the site, confirming both layers of disclosure genuinely exist is worth doing before adding any more.
A disclosure page takes under an hour to write and publish properly. Get it right once, keep it in the footer, revisit it as monetisation evolves, and pair it with the in-post line wherever affiliate links actually appear — that combination is what the FTC’s own standard actually asks for, not just a page that technically exists somewhere on the site. For the full picture of building a WordPress site from the ground up, the step-by-step guide covers where this fits alongside everything else.
Etienne Basson works with website systems, SEO-driven site architecture, and technical implementation. He writes practical guides on building, structuring, and optimizing websites for long-term growth.