A dog groomer has a flyer ready to print, with a spring offer and a QR code. She has no website for the code to open. Does she need a website or a landing page?
So, landing page or website for a small business? Ask where the visitors will come from. Our rule: traffic you send, from an advert, an email or a QR code, needs a page to land on. Traffic you earn, from a search or someone typing your name, needs a site to find. Her flyer sends traffic, so a landing page can come first. UK law still reaches that one page.
Checked against the regulations and the ICO's guidance on 5 October 2026. WebAsk is a web agency, not a law firm. This is not legal advice.
WebAsk builds websites in code, so we are not neutral on builder or code. We are new, with no client sites, pages or results to report.
TL;DR
A landing page does one job for visitors you sent; a website serves anyone who finds you. Build the page for a campaign and the site for search, page first if you need both. Either way, one page can still need your business details, a VAT position for any price, and consent before advertising tags store or read anything on a visitor's device.
Landing page or website: our rule
Someone who tapped an advert for a boiler service wants that service. Someone searching "plumber near me" might want a call-out, a quote, a review or your hours.
The last two columns are ours; what the law can ask of a page in any row follows below.
| Where the visitor comes from | What they came for (our reading) | Build (our rule) |
|---|---|---|
| An advert you paid for, in search or on social media | The offer in the advert | A landing page |
| An email or a text to people on your list | The offer in the message | A landing page |
| A QR code on a van, a flyer or a window | What the code promised | A landing page |
| A search for what you do | A choice: services, reviews, prices, hours | A website |
| Someone typing your business name | That you are real, and how to reach you | A website; a one-page site can do it |
| Either, when the page takes a booking or a deposit from a consumer | To book or to pay | Page or site |
What a landing page is for
As we use the term, a landing page for a small business in the UK does one job: a campaign, an offer, a booking or a download. It makes one ask and has no menu, by design. Our advice: decide before launch the one number it is judged on, such as calls or bookings, and what happens to the page after the campaign.
What a website is for
Our web development page says: "A small business website has three jobs: to be found, to open properly on a phone, and to make getting in touch the obvious next step." In our view, a website is built to outlast any campaign. One page about one offer has little to say to a search for anything else.
One-page website or landing page?
Same length, different jobs. A one-page website answers earned traffic: who you are, what you do, where, when and how to reach you. A landing page answers one offer. In our view, if people find you by name, a one-page site may be enough for now.
Landing page vs website: a decision table
| Your situation | Build first (our rule) |
|---|---|
| You are about to run one campaign and have no website | The landing page, with your details on it; then the site, if people will search for you |
| People search for what you do, you have no site and no campaign is due | The website |
| Your website can host a new page in time | A page inside the site: one platform, one footer, one set of cookie choices |
| Your website cannot host a page in time for the campaign | A separate page, with the same details and the same cookie choices as the site |
| Work comes by referral and people check you by name | A small site or a one-page site, with your details, hours and a way to get in touch |
| The offer needs service pages, an about page and reviews to be believed | The website, with the offer as a page inside it |
| You are still testing the idea, or the budget is under about £1,500 | A site builder or a UK freelancer: "the better buy" here, in our web development page's words |
What UK law still asks of a single page
No menu does not mean fewer duties. Our UK website legal checklist has the full list; these rules bite on one page.
Your details, on the page itself
On our reading, a page with no menu should carry your name, geographic address and email in its own footer. Regulation 6(1) of the E-Commerce Regulations 2002 asks "a person providing an information society service" for "the name of the service provider", "the geographic address at which the service provider is established", an email address and more. They must be "easily, directly and permanently accessible".
Company details on a campaign page
"Every company shall disclose its registered name on its websites."
That is regulation 24(2) of the 2015 trading disclosure rules; regulation 25 adds the part of the UK it is registered in, its registered number and its registered office address. Does one campaign page count? Regulation 29(d) says:
"in relation to a company, a reference to 'its websites' includes a reference to any part of a website relating to that company which that company has caused or authorised to appear."
Our reading: a campaign page a company puts up, or authorises, is caught. Regulation 20 says the details "must be in characters that can be read with the naked eye".
Prices and VAT
On our reading, an offer page that shows a price but leaves the VAT position to the booking form would fall short of regulation 6(2):
"Where a person providing an information society service refers to prices, these shall be indicated clearly and unambiguously and, in particular, shall indicate whether they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs."
Bookings and deposits
A page taking a booking or payment from a consumer may form a "distance contract" under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Before the consumer is bound, regulation 13 says the trader "must give or make available" the Schedule 2 information "in a clear and comprehensible manner", and a cancellation form "if a right to cancel exists".
Clinic adverts and the page they open
For clinics, the CAP Code, the advertising code the Advertising Standards Authority applies, adds a point. CAP's advice on prescription-only medicine (POM), dated 30 September 2026, says:
"Even if a digital ad does not include content which promotes a POM to the public, if that ad links directly to website content which does, it still might be considered to breach the Code."
More in our clinic website checklist.
Cookies on a campaign page
Regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) says a person "must not store information, or gain access to information stored" on a visitor's device, subject to Schedule A1. Schedule A1, added by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and in force since 5 February 2026, sets out consent and the exceptions.
Advertising tags wait for consent
For an advert's page, this line in the guidance on the exceptions of the Information Commission (the ICO), last updated 29 April 2026, matters most:
"If your service uses storage or access technologies for the purposes of online advertising, you must get consent. You cannot rely on any of the exceptions."
Its list of advertising purposes includes "ad measurement and performance". On our reading, an ad platform's tag on that page must wait for consent if it stores or reads anything on the visitor's device.
Statistics and appearance
Two exceptions need no consent if every condition is met (Schedule A1, paragraphs 5 and 6). The "sole purpose" must be statistics to improve the site, or adapting how it "appears or functions" to the visitor's preferences, or otherwise enhancing it. Of the statistics exception, the ICO says you "must provide the user or subscriber with clear and comprehensive information about the purpose, and a 'simple and free' means to object", and it says the same of the appearance exception. If someone does object, "you must stop storing or accessing information on their device". The statistics exception "does not allow you to monitor or track individual visitors to your service", the ICO says. We do not assess any analytics product.
Refusing as easily as accepting
The ICO's rule is that people can refuse storage and access for non-exempt purposes "as easily as they can accept".
Builder or code: what really differs
Our post on UK Chrome data reports that, on UK phones in August 2026, 91.0% of Wix sites and 85.1% of Squarespace sites had good Core Web Vitals. For sites built with Next.js, which WebAsk uses, it was 49.0%. That post says "the data shows which sites passed, not why", and each figure "covers a whole site, not one page". Its line for anyone on a hosted platform: "These averages give no speed reason to leave it." So we make no speed case for code.
What does differ, in our view unless a source is named:
- Scripts. The ICO says "you are responsible for understanding the behaviour of any software components the service includes" that can store or read information on a device, which is "particularly important" for "third-party code". A builder page includes the platform's code; a coded page, the developer's choices. Ask for a list either way.
- Ownership. Ask whose name is on the hosting account and the domain, and where form enquiries go.
- Editing and terms. A coded page needs a developer for changes, unless an editor is added. A builder page lives under the platform's terms; check what happens if you stop paying.
- Cost and time. You can set up a builder page yourself; a coded page needs a developer's time.
Builder, copy, length: what moves the cost
In our view, four things move the cost of a page: builder or code; copy written or edited; one page or a short sequence; and what it connects to, such as a booking calendar.
For a website, our web development page says: "From £3,500 as a fixed fee, excl. VAT, agreed before work starts." We make no promise about results.
If you need both: the order of operations
- Agree whose name is on the domain, the hosting and the page's account.
- Build the page, and check items 4 to 7 of the checklist below before it goes live.
- Run the campaign, and measure the one number you chose.
- Build the site, sending the page's enquiries to the same place and keeping the campaign tags' names.
- When the site can carry the offer, retire the page or move it inside. Keep the address a printed QR code opens working, or redirect it.
A checklist before you commission either
- Will visitors be sent or earned? One job, or many?
- Builder or code: whose account, whose scripts, who edits?
- Who owns the domain, the page and the form data? (Our view: you do, or walk away.)
- Are your name, geographic address and email on the page, plus a company's registered details?
- Does every price say whether it includes VAT and any delivery costs?
- Taking bookings or deposits from consumers? Is the pre-contract information there?
- Do advertising tags wait for consent, is refusing as easy as accepting, and does any statistics or appearance storage come with clear information and a simple, free way to object?
- What one number is it judged on, and what happens when the campaign ends?
Where to start
- Sending traffic first? Start with the page. Our UK website legal checklist sets out what a UK website must show and do.
- If people will search for you, you need a website. Our web development service builds "a custom website that helps customers find your business and get in touch", and its page says when something else fits better.
- Get in touch with the address of the site you have, or a line about the one you need.