Austria is not Germany with different stamps.
Austrian sites get built from German templates, and the template is missing a whole second disclosure duty. Austria has its own imprint statute, its own media law obligation on top of it, and named fine ceilings for both.
Start with the free 15 point site check. Two working days, no call required.
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What is actually different about selling into Austria
The specifics that change the build, not a list of countries I will work in.
The regulator
The Oesterreichische Datenschutzbehoerde, the DSB. One national authority, unlike Germany, so there is a single published position to build against.
What the site must publish
Two lists, not one. Paragraf 5 of the E-Commerce-Gesetz gives the provider details, and Paragraf 25 of the Mediengesetz adds an ownership and editorial disclosure duty on top.
What it costs to get wrong
Up to 3,000 euro under Paragraf 26 of the ECG, and up to 20,000 euro for the Mediengesetz disclosure duty. These are stated ceilings, not estimates.
Checkout
Euro, with EPS bank transfer and Klarna both expected alongside cards. Austrian buyers use invoice payment more than most of Europe.
What usually goes wrong on an Austrian site
A German Impressum copied across the border
A page built to section 5 of the German DDG, which does not satisfy Paragraf 5 ECG and says nothing at all about the Mediengesetz duty. Two obligations, one of them invisible.
The newsletter nobody counted as media
The Mediengesetz disclosure duty reaches recurring electronic media, which catches a newsletter going out on a schedule. Most Austrian senders have never heard this.
German German, not Austrian German
Copy written for Germany, with the German month names and the German words for everyday things. It reads as foreign to an Austrian buyer in the first paragraph.
Competing with Vienna on Vienna's terms
A site aimed at the same two word search every Viennese agency is buying, when the winnable searches are the specific questions nobody has answered in German yet.
Not sure which of those it is? Send the web address and the written 15 point check says so in two working days, free.
What the work actually is
The same list whether you are in Austria or anywhere else I work.
The 15 point technical check
Speed, indexing, structured data, redirects, consent and the rest, written out in the order worth fixing rather than the order a crawler found them.
Pages for what buyers search
Built from real search data in the language your buyers type, not translated from an English page and hoped over.
A redirect map before anything moves
Every old address mapped to a new one and tested before launch, because this is the step that loses rankings when it is skipped.
Tracking that waits for consent
Nothing loads before a choice is made, and the banner says what it does. This is the part regulators are actually acting on.
Google Ads on a flat fee
A fixed monthly amount whatever the spend, so the advice does not get more expensive when the budget does.
Shopify and WooCommerce moves
Products, variants, media and URLs moved with the search positions held, on the same domain where that is possible.
Custom systems when software is the problem
Order flows, stock feeds and internal tools, when the honest answer is that no amount of marketing fixes the process underneath.
Plain monthly notes
What was done, what it changed and what is next, in a page you can read without a glossary.
Want the number first? Every price is published, including the ones I would not charge you.
Two disclosure duties, and most sites know about one
Paragraf 5 of the E-Commerce-Gesetz is the Austrian end of the European provider information duty, and it is the one people find when they search. Sitting on top of it is the Mediengesetz, which is where Austrian guidance usually goes wrong. Its imprint provision covers printed works and recurring electronic media, and its disclosure provision asks for ownership and editorial information about the medium itself. A commercial website with a regular newsletter is squarely inside that, and the fine ceiling for the disclosure duty is the higher of the two.
Neither duty is hard to satisfy. Both are easy to miss entirely if the site was built from a German template, because the German statute has no Mediengesetz equivalent to copy. The comparison across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the statute numbers and the fine ceilings, is set out in the imprint guide.
One regulator, which makes the consent question simpler than in Germany
Austria has a single national data protection authority rather than Germany's sixteen state bodies, so there is one published position to build against instead of a patchwork. The DSB was also among the first European authorities to rule on third country analytics transfers, which means the Austrian line on measurement has been clear for longer than most.
The practical build is the same discipline either way: nothing non essential touches the visitor's device before a choice, refusing is as easy as accepting, and the privacy policy describes what actually runs rather than what the template said. How that resolves for analytics specifically, including which tools survive the test, is in the guide to GDPR and analytics.
A furniture retailer: three storefronts, three ad accounts and a CRM
A Dutch furniture retailer with three brands and a ten to twelve week order cycle, where the online numbers alone made a busy business look like a failing one until the measurement was fixed.
What I will not do
Said before you ask, because it is usually the deciding part.
Promise a position
Nobody controls Google's results, and anyone who promises a ranking is either guessing or lying. I will tell you what is winnable and what is not, with the search data in front of you.
Hold your accounts
Analytics, Search Console and every ad account are registered in your name from day one. If you stop working with me you lose nothing but me.
Bill a percentage of ad spend
A percentage pays me more when you spend more, which is the wrong incentive. Advertising is a flat monthly fee whatever the budget.
Take the work if it is the wrong spend
If the free check says your problem is not a website problem, the report says so and I tell you what would actually move the number.
Rather just ask? One question by email or WhatsApp is fine.
The rest of DACH
Neighbouring markets, each with its own regulator, language and checkout.
Every market I work in is listed on where I work, with what differs in each one.
Fair questions before you get in touch
You are not based here. Does that matter?
It has not so far. Everything runs by email and WhatsApp, the accounts are in your name, and the work is the same work wherever it is typed. I am in Pakistan and I say so on every page, because finding that out later is worse than reading it now.
We already have a German style Impressum. Is that enough for Austria?
Probably not. It will cover most of Paragraf 5 ECG by accident, because both statutes implement the same European list, and it will say nothing about the Mediengesetz disclosure duty. That is the gap worth closing, and the ceiling on it is 20,000 euro.
Does the Mediengesetz really apply to a company newsletter?
Its reach includes recurring electronic media, and a newsletter going out on a schedule is the textbook example. The honest answer is that the boundary has edges, and that publishing the information costs you nothing while arguing about whether you had to costs you a lawyer.
Can the same pages serve Germany and Austria?
The service pages can share structure, but not wording. Different everyday vocabulary, different month names and a different second disclosure duty. Sharing the template and splitting the copy is the arrangement that works.
Why are the prices on the website?
Because the alternative is a quote form, and a quote form exists to get you on a call before you know the number. The free 15 point check, the 290 euro audit and the monthly and rebuild prices are all published. You can decide before you ever write to me.
How long before any of this shows up in search?
A new page on a site that already carries some authority can move within weeks. On a site with very few links pointing at it, expect months, and expect the first movement on specific questions rather than on the obvious commercial terms. I will not give you a date, because nobody controls the result. What I will give you is the order of the work and what each step is meant to change.
Send your web address. That is the whole first step.
The written 15 point check comes back within two working days, free. It says what is holding the site back, in the order worth fixing.