Website for Solicitors and Accountants in the UK: SRA Transparency Rules, Trust Signals and the Pages Clients Expect

A UK solicitors’ firm authorised by the SRA must show, on its website, its SRA number and the SRA digital badge, its complaints procedure including how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, and clear price and service information for nine listed services such as residential conveyancing, uncontested probate and employment tribunal claims. These come from the SRA Transparency Rules. Accountants have no equivalent price rule, but clients check the same things: who you are regulated by, what you charge, and who will do the work.

Which SRA rules apply to a law firm website?

The SRA Transparency Rules have four parts, and three of them land directly on the website. Rule 1 covers cost information for specified services. Rule 2 requires the firm’s complaints handling procedure on the website, including how and when a complaint can be made to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA. Rule 4.1 requires authorised bodies to display their SRA number and the SRA digital badge prominently. Rule 3 covers firms with no website, which must give the same information on request.

Separately from the SRA, a firm that is a limited company or LLP must show its registered name, number, place of registration and registered office on its website under the Companies Act 2006. Most firms put this and the SRA number in the footer of every page.

Which services need prices on a solicitor’s website?

Rule 1 applies when a firm advertises any of the services below as part of its usual business. Publicly funded work is excluded. The list is narrower than many firms assume, and wills, family law and commercial contracts are not on it, although nothing stops a firm publishing prices for those too.

What must a solicitor’s price page say?

Rule 1.5 sets the content. For each listed service, the page must give:

• 1The total cost of the service or, where that is not practicable, the average cost or range of costs.
• 2The basis of the charges, including any hourly rates or fixed fees.
• 3The experience and qualifications of the people carrying out the work and of their supervisors.
• 4A description of likely disbursements, such as search fees or court fees, with their cost or an average or range.
• 5Whether fees and disbursements attract VAT, and the amount.
• 6What the price includes, the key stages of the matter and likely timescales, and any services a client might reasonably expect that are not included.
• 7Where conditional fee or damages-based agreements are used, the circumstances in which clients may have to pay themselves, including from damages.

Rule 1.6 requires this to be clear and accessible and in a prominent place on the website. In practice, a link from the main menu or the relevant service page works far better than a PDF in the footer. The best price pages read like an honest conversation: a fixed fee for a standard freehold purchase up to a given value, what pushes the price up (leasehold, new build, a mortgage lender with extra requirements), a table of typical disbursements, and how long each stage usually takes.

Where should the SRA digital badge and complaints information go?

Rule 4.1 says “prominently”. The SRA provides the badge as a small piece of code that displays the firm’s live regulatory status and links to its record, so it must be added as code rather than a copied image. The footer of every page, or the header on smaller screens, is the usual place, next to the SRA number.

The complaints page should explain how to complain to the firm, the timescales for the firm’s response, and how and when a client can go to the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA. Link it from the footer and from the price pages. Firms also need the words “authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority” with their number on letterheads and emails under rule 4.2; putting the same line in the website footer keeps everything consistent.

What should an accountant’s website show?

There is no accountancy version of the SRA price rule, which gives accountants more freedom and less excuse. Prospective clients of a small practice are usually sole traders, landlords or small limited companies comparing a handful of firms. What they look for:

• 1Who regulates or supervises you. If your firm is a member firm of a professional body such as ICAEW, ACCA or AAT, say so and link to the body’s directory entry. Each body has its own rules on using its name, logo and designations such as “Chartered Accountants”, so check them before the badge goes up.
• 2Packages with prices or “from” prices: self-assessment tax return, sole trader accounts, limited company year-end and corporation tax, VAT returns, payroll per employee, landlord accounts.
• 3What each package includes and excludes, such as how many bank accounts, whether bookkeeping is included, and how many meetings a year.
• 4The software you work with, because clients often choose a firm that already uses their bookkeeping app.
• 5Deadlines in plain words: when you need records from them to meet the self-assessment or company filing deadlines.
• 6Who the client will deal with, with names, qualifications and a photo.

Accountancy firms that are companies or LLPs also have the Companies Act website disclosures. And both professions collect sensitive personal and financial details through enquiry forms, so a privacy notice that explains exactly where those details go is essential, and the enquiry form should ask for the minimum: name, contact details and the type of help needed. Documents belong in a secure client portal, not an open website form.

Worked example: a three-partner high-street firm in Kent

Picture a solicitors’ firm with three partners and six staff, doing residential conveyancing, wills and probate, and employment law for employees. This is an illustrative page plan, not a real client. The services decide which pages need SRA price information.

• 1Home: the firm, the towns it serves, the three service areas, SRA badge and number in the footer, and one clear way to get a quote.
• 2Residential conveyancing: SRA price information required. Fixed fees by purchase price band, what changes for leasehold and new build, a disbursements table, VAT shown, typical timescales by stage, and who does the work.
• 3Probate: SRA price information required for uncontested estate administration. Fixed fee for obtaining the grant only, hourly rate and likely range for full administration, disbursements such as the probate application fee, and what is excluded, such as disputes.
• 4Wills and lasting powers of attorney: not covered by rule 1, but fixed prices published anyway because clients compare them.
• 5Employment law for employees: SRA price information required for unfair and wrongful dismissal claims, including how any no-win no-fee arrangement works and when the client may still pay.
• 6Our people: each solicitor’s experience and qualifications, which rule 1.5 also asks for.
• 7Complaints: the firm’s procedure, timescales, and how and when to go to the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA.
• 8Free extras: Contact, FAQ and Privacy.

That is seven pages plus the three free ones. On Adyft Sites it needs the Growth plan (25 pages, £1,999 plus £99 a month), which also leaves room for a page per town or per conveyancing type later. A sole practitioner offering only wills and one regulated service fits Starter at £999 plus £49 a month.

How much does a solicitor or accountant website cost?

Published UK price guides (2026) put a five-page site at £1,500 to £3,000 from a freelancer and £3,000 to £5,000 from an agency, often without copywriting, which costs £50 to £150 a page. For professional firms that copy is the hard part: price pages that satisfy rule 1.5, plain-English service pages, and biographies that state qualifications accurately. Our UK cost guide breaks down each route in more detail.

Who should build a professional firm’s website?

A firm with a marketing team, or a partner who enjoys writing, can do very well with a DIY website builder or a freelancer, provided someone owns the job of keeping prices and people current. The pages go stale when a fee changes, a solicitor leaves or a disbursement rises and nobody updates the site.

Adyft Sites suits firms that want this handled. We write every page from your answers on WhatsApp, including the price and complaints pages laid out to the structure of the SRA rules, can add the SRA badge code you provide, set the site up to be found on Google, and host and secure it. When a fee or a team member changes, you send a message and we update it as part of the monthly plan. The domain is registered in the firm’s name and you get a monthly visitor report. You stay responsible for the figures and the regulatory wording being correct, and your compliance officer should sign off the price pages before launch.

We are not the right fit for a large firm that needs a client portal, online case tracking or an instant conveyancing quote calculator connected to case management. That is a custom build for a specialist legal-tech agency.

Sources: SRA Transparency Rules — https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/transparency-rules/ · Business Companion (Trading Standards), company and business names — https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/miscellaneous/company-and-business-names · Published UK website price guides (2026) from web design firms and a business comparison site