Building a lovely looking website is only half the job. Getting it legally compliant is what marks you out as a professional business owner rather than a hobbyist, and it protects both you and your clients. Here is exactly what UK law expects your VA website to have on it, spelled out plainly.

If you have not sorted the practical side of your website yet, domain, hosting, proper email and so on, start with our companion post, VA Website Essentials: What Every Virtual Assistant Needs, and come back here once that is in place.

Your business address

Under the Electronic Commerce Regulations, you must provide a geographic address where your business is established, so people know you are contactable. If you work from home, you do not have to put your front door on the internet. Plenty of VAs use a virtual office address or a registered office service instead. This keeps your home address private while still meeting your legal obligation to be contactable.

A privacy policy

If your site has a contact form, a newsletter sign up, or even just cookies tracking visitors, you are collecting personal data. Under UK GDPR, you need a dedicated privacy policy page that sets out what data you collect (names, emails, IP addresses and so on), how you use it, where you store it and for how long, and how someone can ask you to delete it.

Cookie notice and consent

A simple “we use cookies” banner is not enough. Visitors need a genuine choice to accept or decline non-essential cookies, such as those used for Google Analytics or Facebook tracking, before those cookies are switched on. Most modern website builders have a plug and play tool for this, so it is not a big job to sort out.

Website terms of use

This is different from your terms of business, which is the contract your clients sign with you. Your website terms of use is a separate page covering your website itself, including copyright (making clear the text and images on your site belong to you) and liability (making clear you are not responsible for errors in a blog post or for where an external link takes someone).

ICO registration

As a VA, you are a data controller in your own business, and very likely a data processor in your clients’ businesses too. That means you need to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office and pay the annual data protection fee. Once you are registered, it is well worth putting your ICO registration number in your website footer. For clients who take data security seriously, that is a genuine trust signal, and it sets you apart from VAs who have not bothered. One thing to note: you are not permitted to use the ICO’s own logo on your site, registration does not give you that right.

A route for data complaints

From June 2026, new ICO rules mean you cannot simply say “email us if there’s a problem.” Your website needs to set out how someone can raise a data protection complaint, and you need to acknowledge that complaint within 30 days and then deal with it and respond without undue delay, keeping the person updated as you go. It is good practice to name a contact for this (even if that contact is just you) and to link to the ICO’s own “make a complaint” page, so people know they can escalate if they are not happy with your response. Having this clearly set out on your site tells a corporate or legal client that you take their data seriously and that you are on top of current UK law, which most “cowboy” VAs will not have bothered to do.

Limited Company v Sole Trader: what your website legally needs to show

This trips a lot of VAs (and web developers) up, so let’s be clear about it.

If you are a Limited Company, the law (the Companies Act 2006 and the trading disclosure regulations) says your website must show, usually in your footer:

• Your full registered company name, exactly as it appears at Companies House, including “Limited” or “Ltd”
• Your company registration number
• The part of the UK your company is registered in, for example England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland
• Your registered office address
• Your VAT registration number, if you are VAT registered

A word of warning: if you list one director’s name on your site, you are required to list them all. So either name none of them or name all of them.

If you are a Sole Trader, the rules depend on what name you trade under.

If you trade under your own name, for example “Jane Smith”, there is no extra disclosure requirement beyond your normal legal policies.

If you trade under a business name that is not your own name, for example “Jane Smith VA Services” or anything that does not include your surname, you must show on your website:

• Your full real name (the proprietor’s name)
• An address in the UK where you can be contacted and where legal documents can be formally served on you

Whichever structure you trade under, if you are VAT registered, UK law requires your VAT registration number to be shown clearly, usually alongside your other business details. This confirms your business status and keeps things transparent for your clients and for HMRC.

This is not red tape for the sake of it. Being upfront about who you are and how to reach you builds trust, and it keeps you on the right side of the law. If you are not sure which category you fall into or exactly what your business needs to display, it is worth a quick check with an accountant.

Why this is worth getting right

Most VAs who cut corners here do it because they do not know the rules exist, not because they are trying to dodge them. Now you know. A compliant, clearly labelled website tells a client, especially a corporate or legal one, that they are dealing with someone who takes their business seriously and can be trusted with sensitive information. That is exactly the kind of client you want, and getting this right is a quiet but powerful way to attract them.