Website for doctors in Austria: what patients need and what the rules allow

Short answer: A good website for doctors in Austria answers five questions in under ten seconds (what you treat, which insurance funds you have contracts with, opening hours, where you are and how to book) and stays within § 53 Ärztegesetz: factual, true information is allowed, pushy self-promotion is not. Add GDPR-compliant online booking, a maintained Google Business Profile and local SEO, and the site works as your second front desk.

Most practice websites in Austria were built once and then forgotten: a photo of the team, a list of services in medical jargon, a phone number that is busy in the morning. Patients today compare on their phones, often late in the evening, and they book where it is easiest.

We have built websites for psychologists, therapists and health companies, from Christina Pedretscher in Carinthia to HBE Healthcare and Blue & Green Healthcare. This guide sums up what we have learned, plus the legal points you need to know as a doctor in Austria. It is not legal advice; for borderline cases ask your regional Medical Chamber.

What patients look for on a practice website

Patients don’t visit a practice website to be impressed. They come with a concrete question, and every second spent searching costs trust. In our projects these are the questions that come first:

• Do you treat my problem? Services in plain language, sorted by need, not by billing code.
• Do you have a contract with my insurance fund? ÖGK, BVAEB, SVS or private only (Wahlarzt): this belongs at the top, not in the footer.
• When are you open and how do I get there? Opening hours, public transport, parking, step-free access.
• How do I get an appointment? One button that is visible on every page, online booking or at least a clear phone window.
• Who will I see? Real photos, training and focus areas, written in a human way.

For Julia-Susanna Mende we sorted the services for children, teenagers and adults so that every visitor lands on the page meant for them (case study). For Christina Pedretscher the brief was to make the path “from first orientation to booking an appointment as clear as possible”, with a calm design that builds trust before the first conversation.

What the Ärztegesetz allows on a doctor’s website

The legal basis is § 53 Ärztegesetz. It forbids doctors from publishing information that is unfactual, untrue or damaging to the profession’s reputation. The Austrian Medical Chamber spells this out in its advertising guideline “Arzt und Öffentlichkeit”, which explicitly allows doctors to run their own website. What counts is how you present yourself.

Testimonials and patient quotes are a grey area: depending on how they are used, they can be read as self-promotion. Linking to your Google reviews is common practice; curated quotes on your own site should be cleared with the Chamber first. And when replying to Google reviews, remember professional secrecy (§ 54 ÄrzteG): never confirm that someone is your patient or discuss treatment details.

The imprint is mandatory too: name, address, contact details, Medical Chamber membership, professional title and the country that granted it, a reference to the Ärztegesetz and, if applicable, the VAT number. Missing information under the E-Commerce Act (ECG) can be fined up to €3,000.

GDPR: contact forms and online booking

As soon as patients send you data through your website, you are processing health data in many cases. Even the fact that someone books with a psychotherapist or cardiologist reveals something about their health, which makes it special-category data under Art. 9 GDPR. That doesn’t make online booking impossible, but it raises the bar.

• Data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR) with every provider: booking tool, hosting, form service, newsletter.
• EU hosting, ideally in Austria or Germany, and encrypted transmission (HTTPS).
• As few fields as possible. Name, contact, appointment type. No free-text field for symptoms unless you really need it.
• Privacy policy that names the booking provider and explains what happens with the data.
• Cookie banner that blocks analytics and marketing tags until the visitor agrees, and self-hosted fonts instead of loading them from Google.

Technically we connect your existing booking system or calendar so that booking is one click away from every page. Whether you use an Austrian booking platform, your practice software or a simple calendar is your decision; we make sure the website handles it cleanly.

Google Business Profile and local SEO

Most new patients don’t type your name, they search for “dermatologist Graz” or “psychologist near me”. Google answers with a map and three practices. Whether you are among them depends mainly on your Google Business Profile and how clearly your website states what you do and where.

1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile: correct category, opening hours (including holidays), photos, booking link, insurance info.
2. Keep name, address and phone number identical everywhere: website, Google, Herold, the Chamber’s doctor search.
3. One page per core service with the location in the text, not one long list.
4. Regional landing pages if patients come from several towns. For Christina Pedretscher we built purpose-built regional landing pages to reach people across Carinthia.
5. Structured data (schema.org Physician / MedicalClinic) so Google and AI assistants read your details correctly.
6. Reviews: ask satisfied patients, reply factually and without patient details.

AI assistants are becoming a second search engine. When someone asks ChatGPT for a gynaecologist in Linz, it uses the same signals: clear pages, consistent data, reviews and mentions. You can’t buy your way in there, because health ads are currently not allowed in ChatGPT in Austria (more in our article on ChatGPT ads in Austria). Organic visibility through GEO is the way.

Accessibility: more than a legal question

Your patients include older people, people with poor eyesight and people who are unwell when they visit your site. Good contrast, large enough type, clear buttons, alt texts for images and a site that works with a screen reader are simply part of a practice website.

Legally, Austria’s Accessibility Act (BaFG) has applied to certain consumer services since 28 June 2025, with exemptions for micro-enterprises providing services. Whether it applies to your practice depends on the case; we explain the details in our article on the Accessibility Act. We build to WCAG standards either way, because it helps every patient.

Design that calms instead of sells

A practice website should feel like a good waiting room: calm, clean, human. For Yvonne’s Welt in Bregenz we used a nature-inspired design language with lots of white space and a restrained palette. For Christina Pedretscher a warm, appreciative look that conveys safety without losing the credibility of clinical psychology.

For specialists and medical companies the brief changes. For HBE Healthcare we built custom 3D animations that make medical processes from joint and cartilage down to the cellular level easy to see, and structured products such as PRP and hyaluronic acid so doctors find any piece of information in a few clicks. For Blue & Green Healthcare, which rents fully equipped practice rooms to doctors and therapists, we integrated Matterport 3D tours so prospects can walk through the locations from anywhere.

What a practice website costs and how long it takes

The price depends on scope: a single-doctor practice with five service pages is a different project from a group practice with several locations, online booking and multilingual content. We don’t work with standard packages. After a free strategy call you get a fixed quote, so you know exactly what you get. Typical market ranges in Austria are in our guide to website costs in Austria.

After launch you edit texts, opening hours and holiday notices yourself in our CMS. Whether funding is available for your project we check in the strategy call (funding).

When you don’t need a new website

Not every practice needs a relaunch. If your practice is fully booked months ahead, you have no plans to change your patient mix and your site is correct, a careful update of your Google Business Profile and the imprint may be enough. The same applies if the site is less than two or three years old and technically sound: then better texts and local SEO usually bring more than a new design.

A new website is worth it when you want more private patients or a specific patient group, when you open a new location, when your phone line is constantly overloaded, or when the site doesn’t work properly on a phone.

Checklist for your practice website

1. Services in plain language, sorted by patient need
2. Insurance contracts or private practice status visible at the top
3. Booking button on every page, online booking with a data processing agreement
4. Opening hours, directions and step-free access on the contact page
5. Complete imprint and privacy policy, cookie banner that blocks tags until consent
6. Google Business Profile complete and identical to the website
7. No pushy claims, no before/after images, no product advertising

Written byChristoph SpeiserProject lead & sales

Meet the team →