Do I need a privacy policy for a small website?

Yes, if the site collects any personal data at all — and a contact form counts, as do server logs and most analytics. Under UK and EU data protection law a privacy notice is mandatory whenever personal data is processed, regardless of how small the business is.

Do I need to display my business address on my website?

If you sell to consumers at a distance, yes — distance selling rules require a geographic address and contact details before the contract is concluded. UK companies must also display their registered details. A form alone does not satisfy either requirement.

Do I need a refund policy if I only sell services?

Yes. Even where a deposit is genuinely non-refundable, the policy has to say so, and it has to say what happens if you cannot deliver. Silence is the position that produces disputes, because both parties then argue from what they each assumed.

Legal

Do I need terms and conditions on my website?

If you sell anything, yes — and you need two documents, not one. Terms of service govern using the website; terms of business govern buying from you. Conflating them leaves the commercial relationship undefined, which is where most disputes start.

Answered by Anas Bin Masud 179 words 3 sections

The difference between the two

Terms of service: Acceptable use, intellectual property, disclaimers, governing law. Applies to every visitor.
Terms of business: Scope, price, payment schedule, revisions, delivery, ownership on final payment. Applies to customers.

What terms cannot do

They cannot exclude liability for death, personal injury or fraud, and they cannot remove statutory consumer rights. A clause reading "no refunds under any circumstances" is void against a consumer where a statutory cancellation right exists, and including it undermines the credibility of everything else in the document.

What makes them enforceable

You are identifiable — a real trading name and contact address, not just a form
They are findable before the transaction, not only in a footer
They are dated, and the date is updated when the terms change
They are indexable rather than hidden behind a noindex tag

The longer version

This answer is deliberately short. If you want the full treatment, Buying a website: the questions that decide what you actually own covers it in about 5 minutes — free, ungated, written from client work.

Who answered this

Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan — fifteen live client sites, six of them stores taking real payments. These answers come from those projects rather than from a content brief. More about how I work, or ask me something directly.