Ethical Considerations for Your WordPress Website

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When publishing content on the internet via a WordPress website, it's important to think about how that content affects other people.

Before we discuss the ethical considerations you should keep in mind when publishing with WordPress, I first want to identify the difference between ethical, moral, and legal considerations.

What are ethics?

When we talk about ethics, we are talking about standards are usually enforced by human principles involving right and wrong behavior. Ethics asks people to think about what they do before they act. These are typically external rules that many people agree upon, but can vary between environments and circumstances. Ethics are typically influenced by profession, field, organization, etc. and tend to be pretty uniform.

Ethics in website development is all about putting the user first. You want to prioritize their experience, protect their privacy, and respect their rights and intelligence. It's also about avoiding using unethical practices that rely on manipulation, malicious disregard for their safety, or outright lying.

What are morals?

When we talk about morals, we are talking about personal or individual standards that have to do with conduct. These types of things regulate social life and relationships. Morality tends to ask people to examine their actions after the fact. Morals tend to be established by society, culture, religion, family, etc. and can vary wildly around the world.

Ethics and morals are often confused and interwoven. But they do stand apart. It is possible to make a decision that is moral, but not ethical, or vice versa. For example, a student in school may share their homework answers with another student who is falling behind, believing that they are being generous and therefore morally correct. But if their university prohibits sharing work and counts it as cheating, they are making an unethical decision.

What is legality?

When we talk about legal decisions, it's a little easier than trying to pick apart ethics and morality. Law governs society as a whole and doesn't take personal preference, culture, or religion into account. If there is a law - follow it! Laws can be specific to states or countries and are written and passed down from those in charge. Some choices can be unethical and immoral, but not illegal.

When designing and building for the web, it's extremely important to be aware of what legalities affect you, as well as what is ethical and moral to do.

Why not discuss moral and legal considerations here, too?

Today, we are talking about the ethical considerations you should keep in mind when creating a WordPress website. While there can be some overlap, I am not going to write about moral and legal considerations here. This is because moral considerations need to come directly from you. Chances are, your site will reflect your morals whether it's intentional or not. And I won't be talking much about legality because a) I'm not a lawyer and b) your legal considerations will change based on your location, the locations of your visitors, and your industry. So I highly encourage you to seek out additional resources having to do with building a website that is legally compliant.

Before we truly get started, I would like to implore you to be ethical in your time on the web, even when others are not. This post is not meant to expose, bring down, or insult anyone for not following every single one of these practices. All we can ever do is our best. If you are not following all these recommendations, that's okay. If you notice someone else isn't, please do not attack or condemn them. My intent is for you to use this information to build more ethical experiences and improve your own work.

So, let's dive into some ethical considerations for a WordPress website

1. Accessibility

Making sure your website is accessible and inclusive to all visitors is one of the most ethical things you can do as a website builder. Accessibility doesn't just mean optimizing for screen readers. It means optimizing for screen readers and everyone else, regardless of their ability or proficiency.

Accessibility is a huge topic and not just a thing to do once or automate and walk away from. If you're serious about building ethical websites, start by familiarizing yourself with basics and best practices of accessibility and go from there. I truly believe that once you learn about website accessibility, it's potential, and it's guidelines, everything else in this post will be second nature.

So here are some of my favorite accessibility brands and places to learn about accessible WordPress websites. (If I'm missing your favorite, please send it to me!)

• Accessibility Coding Standards
• Equalize Digital
• WordPress Accessibility Day
• Joe Dolson and WP Accessibility

(Please also keep in mind that WordPress is not the most accessible tool for website building that exists out of the box. It's power and customization is incredible, but it has a very, very far way to go.)

2. Use properly sourced assets

When building things online, you should be aware of where you're getting certain assets. Assets in this case can include:

• Images and graphics
• Video
• Font
• Links, quotes, and other text
• Code, frameworks, and libraries
• Plugins
• Themes
• Extensions and add-ons

Make sure that wherever you're getting these things from, if you aren't creating them yourself, you are paying the full cost for them and/or crediting the original creator. For example, in WordPress, you can use the description section or caption section of the media library to add credit.

You should always be using properly licensed fonts rather than resold ones. You should vet code and developers before using their code. And you should always pay for and download plugins, themes, and extensions from proper channels. There are many sites that resell out of date or unsupported WordPress software at a fraction of the cost. Avoid those sites!

3. Be consistent with updates and security

WordPress is fantastic because it is open source, I think we can all agree on that. But by using open source software, you're also taking on some of the responsibility for making sure it works well on the web and is safe for people to interact with.

If you direct traffic to sites that are out of date and insecure, you are exposing your visitors to potential threats. If not properly maintained, your WordPress site could potentially contain malicious code, viruses, or have be hacked to steal visitors data. This can happen with or without your knowledge. Make sure that you are aware of vulnerabilities with the plugins you use and have systems in place to perform updates right away if necessary. WordFence publishes known vulnerabilities on a regular basis.

Prevent risks to your visitors by:

• using vetted code
• hosting with a reliable provider
• preventing and removing spam comments
• updating your plugins and themes regularly
• using malware scanners and other tools

4. Understand the tools you're using

When you are looking for a plugin or theme for your WordPress site, choose them ethically. What does that mean?

As previously mentioned, do not acquire free or severely discounted bundles from sites that re-sell unlicensed software. Always buy or download directly from the original developer or WordPress library. Why? It's ethical to make sure that the original developer gets the money and credit. And it's safer for your site, as well as your website visitors, to have up to date and supported code.

Also, take the time to look into the ethical practices of the companies you support. Just because WordPress is an open and ethically-minded community of people, it doesn't mean every company functions in a way that is purely ethical all the time. There are plenty of WordPress product companies that use shady business tactics and marketing schemes. A truly ethical site is one you have built while knowing you are supporting other ethical companies. Do your own research and make up your own mind.

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5. Use clear and concise marketing practices

Speaking of shady business tactics, do not fall prey to using them on your own site. Popular types of marketing that can be considered unethical include, but are not limited to, the following:

• False advertising: This is when you overstate or over embellish the benefits of a product or service with the intention of increasing sales. If you misrepresent what you're selling, your client or customer is bound to be let down or unhappy with that they receive.
• Manipulative pricing: This can include price gouging (upping the price around certain circumstances like natural disasters or emergencies), artificially inflating prices (for example, increasing your price before offering a discount to get people to pay what you wanted in the first place), or lying about discounts and scarcity. For example, if you list a product or service is discounted all the time, it's not discounted. And if you say that you only have a certain amount or number of units left when you don't, you're driving scarcity unethically.
• Hidden fees: You should never list a price without clearly including and indicating associated fees. Sometimes sales tax may not be listed until the end of the buying process, but people usually expect that. Be clear and open about any other fees, or bake them directly into the advertised price.
• Targeting vulnerable audiences: You may offer products or services that are already based around vulnerable audiences, such as children, the elderly, or the disabled. Some sellers exploit these groups using manipulative techniques which make it harder for the website visitor to know what they're paying for or what they're getting.
• False endorsements: Using testimonials and reviews is a powerful way to increase sales and build trust. However, it's become possible to falsify these reviews, using fake names and companies. When you do this, you're lying to website visitors and manipulating them based on the trust they already have in you.
• Black Hat SEO: Thankfully, Google tends to be good these days at identifying black hat SEO and not ranking sites that use it. Black hat SEO is basically manipulating the rules of SEO to get rankings for minimal work. Risky black hat SEO techniques to avoid include keyword stuffing, duplicate content, hidden text, manipulative links, and misleading redirects.

6. Prioritize environmental considerations

When developing websites, you need to be aware of the environmental impact that site can have. It' shard to think of websites having environmental impacts since they are virtual, and in the minds of many, virtual things do not really affect the real world. But every time someone opens up a website on their computer or device, that site can emit between 20 milligrams and 300 milligrams of CO2 per second. Think of how many websites you may have open in an 8 hour work day, or across all the tabs you currently have open!

Development best practices and sustainability methods can help reduce these numbers significantly.

When building a site, keep these things in mind:

• Make sure to optimize images as much as possible in order to reduce their file size.
• Use videos that are hosted elsewhere, like on YouTube, rather than re-uploading the video to WordPress all over again.
• Have web caching set up at the server level to save on resources and reduce the amount of energy used to load a website.
• Use a green web host! Many WordPress hosting providers partner with Google Cloud Platform, which Google matches 100% of their energy consumed with renewable energy and maintains a commitment to carbon neutrality.

7. Publish the necessary contact information, policies, terms, and disclaimers

This is where we get into some legal requirements and considerations. I highly recommend learning from the team at Termaggedon* if you want to know more about website privacy law and compliance. (Again, I am not a lawyer so please do not take anything I say as legal advice!)

You may notice certain links on sites you visit that bring you to pages such as a Privacy Policy or Terms and Conditions. These pages are ethical ways of maintaining openness and transparency with website visitors. They communicate a ton of important data with users and protect you as well.

Privacy policies explain how a website collects, uses, and protects personal data collected from visitors. Many international laws, like the GDPR and CPPA, require you to have a Privacy Policy. A Terms and Conditions page is not as much of a legal requirement, but it can help protect your business and website in various ways from legal consequences and repercussions.

You should also make sure to clearly publish accurate and up to date contact information on your website. This way users can get in touch with you if they have questions, problems, or complaints.

Finally, if you are using any AI created content on your website, the ethical way to go is to disclose that. While there are not currently laws or regulations around AI, the responsible thing to do is to share with visitors when and how they are engaging with AI content, where that AI content came from, and to credit the tool used to create this. This habit helps create a more open and transparent web for all. Here is an example I wrote of an AI disclaimer that I'm pretty proud of. If you've seen any good ones out there, please send them my way!

8. Ask before collecting data from visitors

It is unethical to assume that a website visitor is perfectly find with you collecting information about them that you don't ask for. If they fill out a form with their name and email, they are volunteering this data. But if you're tracking their usage of your site (when they visited, where they visited from, the device they used, how long they stayed on your site, etc.) you need to ask their permission to do so.

This is where cookie consent notices come in handy. They do also help you comply with data privacy laws I mentioned earlier. There are plugins you can use with WordPress to set up a cookie consent notice fairly easily. It's a simple task and most people these days are accustomed to choosing "yes" when prompted anyway.

9. Encourage user feedback and iteration

If you don't know better, you can't do better. A lot of ethical website building is about learning from the people who use your site and creating a better experience for them using what you've learned.

Implement a feedback form on your site that you check regularly, or at the very least make sure that website visitors can easily get in touch with you. Take user feedback to hear and have processes in place to create changes. If a user does not feel something on your site is clear or easy enough to use, take that feedback seriously. As I said at the start, ethics in website development is all about putting the user first. Work to merge your expertise with the users real and unique viewpoint to create an amazing experience.

Did I miss anything important? What ethical website design practices do you follow? Please leave a respectful comment sharing your thoughts. I would like this post to be a living document, updated as I myself learn more about these practices and ideas.

Sources I used in my research for this newsletter:

https://capacityinteractive.com/blog/the-principles-of-ethical-web-design/

https://medium.com/theymakedesign/ethical-website-design-ee4bec179e28

https://www.semrush.com/blog/black-hat-seo

https://wpengine.com/resources/create-sustainable-websites-best-practices