Templates cover the four most common regulations, but sooner or later you’ll need a notice that doesn’t fit a template – a state-specific disclosure, a notice that only applies to one custom post type, or wording your legal counsel wrote themselves. That’s what the Rule Builder is for: a condition-and-action screen that appends any notice you write to any content that matches.
This guide assumes you’re comfortable with the WordPress admin and covers building a rule completely from scratch. If you just want a GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, or ADA starting point, see Starting a rule from a GDPR/CCPA/COPPA/ADA template instead – it’s faster and you can still edit the result by hand afterward.
What You’ll Learn
- How a compliance rule’s condition and action actually work under the hood
- How to create a new rule and target it to a specific post type or warning
- What the notice text field can and can’t contain
- Why a rule has to be published, not just saved as a draft, to take effect
How a Rule Works
Every compliance rule is made of three parts:
- Applies to post type – the content type the rule checks, or “Any” to match every public post type
- Applies when flagged with warning – a Compliance Warnings term the post must carry, or “Any” to skip this check entirely
- Notice to append – the plain text shown to visitors when both conditions above are satisfied
Both conditions have to match at the same time – there’s no “or” between rules, and a single rule can’t target multiple post types or multiple warnings at once. If you need a notice on both posts and a custom post type, create two rules with the same notice text rather than trying to combine them into one.
A rule only does anything once it’s published. Draft and pending rules are ignored completely, which makes drafting a good way to write and review a rule before it goes live on the site.
Creating a Rule From Scratch
- In your WordPress dashboard, click Rule Builder in the main menu.
- Click Add New Rule.
- Give the rule an internal name in the title field – visitors never see this, it’s just so you can find the rule again later (e.g. “Gambling warning for blog posts”).
- In the Condition & Action box, set Applies to post type to the content type you want to target, or leave it on “Any.”
- Set Applies when flagged with warning to a Compliance Warnings term if the rule should only fire on content already flagged with that warning, or leave it on “Any” to apply the rule regardless of jurisdiction warnings.
- Write your notice in the Notice to append box.
- Click Publish. The notice now appears at the end of every matching post or page.
Writing Effective Notice Text
The notice field is a plain textarea, not a WYSIWYG editor – any HTML you type is displayed as literal text rather than rendered, so keep the wording plain and self-contained. If you need bold text, links, or custom colors on a notice, that’s what the Design tab’s disclosure, disclaimer, and warning fields are for; see Customizing notice text and colors in the Design tab.
A few things worth keeping in mind while you write:
- Say what the notice is disclosing, not just that “this content is regulated” – vague notices don’t satisfy most disclosure requirements
- Keep it short enough to read in a few seconds – a wall of legal text at the bottom of every post gets ignored
- This is placeholder guidance, not legal advice – have your own notice text reviewed by someone qualified for your jurisdiction before you rely on it
Managing and Auditing Your Rules
The Rule Builder screen is the standard WordPress list table – sort, search, and bulk-trash rules from there the same way you would posts. A few habits worth building:
- Trash or unpublish rules for regulations that no longer apply to your content instead of leaving stale notices live
- Give every rule a specific, descriptive internal name – “Rule” and “Rule (2)” are impossible to tell apart six months later
- Check the Compliance Audit report periodically – it flags open accessibility and freshness issues site-wide, which is a good prompt to review whether your rules still match your current content
Related Resources
- Full text of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – Office of the Attorney General
- ADA.gov – Americans with Disabilities Act information and technical assistance
Building rules by hand takes a bit more thought than starting from a template, but it’s the only way to cover the notices that are specific to your content. For everything else Compliance Copilot Pro can automate, see the full Compliance Copilot Pro feature set.