Website design for German businesses

Designing for German text

German copy is often longer than English, and it carries long compound nouns such as Datenschutzerklärung or Geschäftsführung. A layout designed around short English headings breaks on the first real translation: buttons overflow, menus wrap and headlines hit the edge on a phone. We design with real German text from the start, not placeholder English.

• Set the page language to German so browsers hyphenate long words correctly and screen readers pronounce them properly.
• Give headings and buttons room to grow, and test the navigation with the longest labels first.
• Choose typefaces that include ä, ö, ü and ß and look right in capitalized nouns, which German uses throughout body text.
• Decide early between Sie and du, and keep it the same in menus, forms and error messages.

What a German visitor looks for before trusting a site

A company site in Germany is judged quickly on a few details. A full Impressum, a readable privacy notice, a postal address and a real contact route tell the visitor that a real business stands behind the page. Many German buyers also check company registration details in the footer. We plan these as design elements, not as afterthoughts squeezed in at launch.

Consent banner and tracking, designed in

TDDDG requires consent before non-essential cookies and similar storage are used, and a banner that is hard to refuse is a recurring complaint from German supervisory authorities. We design the banner as part of the interface: equal weight for accept and reject, a settings layer, and a permanent link to reopen the choice. Scripts such as analytics, maps and video embeds load only after consent, which also helps page speed.

German courts have criticized loading Google Fonts from Google servers without consent, so we host fonts on your own server. The same goes for icon sets and scripts that would otherwise call third-party servers. Our GDPR website checklist lists the items we test.

Accessibility from the first wireframe

The Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) has applied since 28 June 2025 and covers, among others, online shops and several consumer services. A plain company site that only describes your work may fall outside it, but accessible design improves usability for everyone and avoids a retrofit later. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA: contrast, keyboard paths, visible focus, labeled forms and meaningful alt text. See the WCAG 2.2 checklist.

How the project runs

1. Brief and sitemapWe agree pages, languages, integrations and who will edit the site. The website brief template helps.
2. Design in GermanKey templates are designed with real German text and shown for approval.
3. BuildWebflow, WordPress or Next.js, chosen for your editing needs and budget.
4. Review and testConsent, forms, speed, accessibility and mobile checks, with your German reviewer reading every page.
5. Launch and handoverRedirects, search setup and training, with accounts in your name.

A morning call in Berlin falls in the Indian afternoon: India is 4.5 hours ahead of Germany in winter and 3.5 hours ahead in summer. Work is shown every week.

What affects the price

Projects start at $1,500 and we work at $30 an hour. Page count, custom animation, number of languages, CMS complexity and integrations move the total. A five-page company site sits at the low end, while a multilingual site with a custom CMS needs more. Read the website cost guide for ranges, then request a fixed quote on the contact page.