Many care websites that are online today were built years ago - long before the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG) became mandatory on 28 June 2025 (Federal Accessibility Agency), long before search engines made the mobile view the benchmark, and long before care staff were won primarily through a career page. Such sites load sluggishly on the smartphone, their contrasts are too weak, their content lists yesterday's prices and services. A relaunch is the obvious answer - but it does not pay off in every situation. This article names the concrete triggers for a relaunch in 2026, explains the legal and technical thresholds behind them, and provides a sober decision logic for when a clean rebuild pays off compared with ongoing patchwork. For context: Germany recently counted 15,549 (Destatis) authorised home-care services - almost all with a website, many of them technically dated.
Key takeaways
- Four triggers justify a rebuild: missing accessibility, persistently poor Core Web Vitals, outdated content that is hard to maintain, and a missing recruiting function. In practice they rarely appear alone and tend to reinforce one another.
- The German Accessibility Strengthening Act has applied since 28 June 2025, mainly to sites with business functions such as appointment booking; micro-enterprises under ten employees and up to two million euros turnover may be exempt (Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit).
- Via the EN 301 549 standard, WCAG 2.1 level AA applies: text contrast of at least 4.5:1 (WCAG 2.1), full keyboard operation, text enlargement without breaking the layout, and labelled form fields. A retrofitted overlay widget does not replace that work.
- The technical bar is measurable: LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, CLS under 0.1, judged at the 75th percentile (Google Search Central) of real page views. At five seconds load time the bounce rate rises by 90 percent (Think with Google).
- Dated visuals alone do not justify a rebuild. If the loading values are in the green and only the texts have aged, a focused revision is enough; a relaunch pays off once several triggers coincide or the old system blocks a clean solution.
- The process runs in six stages: audit, goal setting, concept, build, testing including redirects, and ongoing upkeep. Accessibility, load time, maintainable content, a career page and hosting in Germany are planned together rather than bolted on later.
Why Many Care Websites Face a Relaunch in 2026
The pressure on care websites in 2026 has several causes that coincide in time. Demand for care is growing: at the end of 2023, around 5.7 million (Destatis) people in Germany were classified as in need of care, roughly 730,000 more (Destatis) than two years earlier. About 86 percent, or 4.9 million (Destatis), of these people are cared for at home - mostly with the involvement of relatives who inform themselves on a smartphone. Reaching them requires a page that is fast, readable and operable on a phone. How strongly mobile quality decides the first contact is explored in the article on the care website optimised for mobile relatives.
In parallel, the technical bar has shifted. Search engines now assess pages via the mobile view and factor the loading experience into that assessment. Google has completed mobile indexing for the entire web search (Google Search Central); a slow, unsteadily building page therefore has not only a user problem but also a visibility problem. For a care service that wants to be found in its region, local findability thus depends directly on the technical quality of the website. When an old site is weak on several of these fronts at once, a relaunch moves from a nice-to-have to a commercially sensible decision.
A Relaunch Is Not an End in Itself
The Four Most Common Relaunch Triggers
In practice, the reasons for a relaunch can be narrowed down to four recurring triggers. Rarely does only one occur on its own - usually they reinforce each other. A site without accessibility is often also technically dated, and a technically dated site rarely reflects new services and fair prices correctly. The following overview arranges the four triggers and makes clear what to watch for in each case.
BFSG and Accessibility
Since 28 June 2025, the BFSG requires accessibility from many digital offerings. Missing contrasts, keyboard operation or labelled forms are a legal as well as a practical trigger. Our page on the accessible website in care explains the details.
Weak Core Web Vitals
If the page loads longer than necessary on the smartphone or the build stutters, user experience and visibility suffer at the same time. Measurably poor loading values are one of the clearest technical relaunch triggers.
Outdated Content
If the site lists obsolete services, old contacts or wrong prices, trust is damaged. When content is hard to maintain in the old system, a rebuild is often the faster solution.
Missing Recruiting Function
Without a real career page with a simple application, a care website gives away the most important channel of staff acquisition. An integrated career page turns visitors into applicants.
BFSG and Accessibility: the Legal Trigger
The clearest relaunch trigger is probably accessibility. The Accessibility Strengthening Act has applied since 28 June 2025 (German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) and obliges many providers in e-commerce to make their digital offerings accessible. Affected are above all websites with business functions such as online appointment booking, contract initiation, payment or a customer account. An exception applies to micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and no more than two million euros (Federal Accessibility Agency) in annual turnover or balance sheet total when providing services - whether it applies in an individual case belongs in a legal review.
Technically, the act relies via the European standard EN 301 549 on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Conformance level AA is decisive; among other things it requires a text contrast of at least 4.5:1 (WCAG 2.1), full keyboard operability and text enlargement without breaking the layout. For the disproportionately older audience of care, this is not bureaucratic decoration but directly useful. How these criteria can be implemented in practice is shown in the article on the accessible care website in practical terms; the legal framework is set out in the article on the BFSG for care services.
BFSG, EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.1
- Insufficient colour contrasts, for example light grey text on a white background below the 4.5:1 value
- Forms without labelled fields and without understandable error messages
- Operation by mouse only, without a visible focus indicator for the keyboard
- Images without alternative text that a screen reader cannot read aloud
- A missing accessibility statement with a way to report barriers
- Cookie banners and pop-ups that cannot be closed with the keyboard
Core Web Vitals: When Technology Tips the Scale
The second major trigger is technology - and it can be measured. Google summarises the central loading experience in the Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures when the main content becomes visible and should be under 2.5 seconds (Google Search Central). Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures responsiveness and is considered good under 200 milliseconds (web.dev). Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) rates how steadily the page builds and should stay under 0.1 (web.dev). The assessment uses the 75th percentile (Google Search Central) of real page views, not the lab value of a single test.
| Core Web Vital | Good target value | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | under 2.5 seconds | When the main content appears - the perceived load time |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | under 200 milliseconds | How quickly the page responds to taps and clicks |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | under 0.1 | How steadily the content builds without jumping while loading |
These values are not mere technical cosmetics but hang directly on the first contact. A widely cited analysis by Think with Google shows that the probability of a bounce rises by 32 percent (Think with Google) when the load time grows from one to three seconds, and by 90 percent (Think with Google) when it climbs to five seconds. For a care service, every second saved therefore means directly more calls and enquiries. Whether the effort pays off can even be estimated from this - a perspective the article on the costs and benefits of a care-service website examines more closely. If a page stays fast over time, that is no accident but the result of consistent website maintenance.
Technology You Can Measure
Relaunch or Patchwork: the Sober Decision Logic
This raises the decisive question: relaunch or keep patching? The factual answer is that not every weakness justifies a rebuild. Individual outdated texts, a missing form field or a button that is too small can be fixed selectively. A relaunch pays off when the problems are structural - that is, when several triggers come together or when the existing system technically prevents a clean solution. The following comparison helps to distinguish ongoing patchwork from a fundamental rebuild.
| Aspect | Ongoing patchwork | Clean relaunch |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | Touch up individual contrasts | WCAG 2.1 AA compliant from the ground up |
| Load time | Mask the symptoms | Core Web Vitals structurally in the green |
| Content upkeep | Cumbersome in the old system | Kept current without technical knowledge |
| Recruiting | Bolted on afterwards | Career page planned in from the start |
| Cost over time | Many small items that add up | One-off investment with a clear result |
A common misconception is that patchwork is the cheaper option. At first glance that is true, yet many small interventions add up - and do not solve the structural problem. When a site is weak on four fronts at once, the twelfth patch is more expensive than a rebuild that fixes all points at once. Conversely, it would be wasteful to rebuild a technically healthy site completely because of a few outdated texts. Where exactly the line runs is shown by the comparison with pure website maintenance for care services, which keeps a healthy site up to date in a targeted way. How such a process runs in practice can be discussed using concrete project examples.
- The site does not meet central accessibility criteria per WCAG 2.1 AA and cannot be cleanly retrofitted in the old system.
- The Core Web Vitals are persistently poor and the technology in use prevents any noticeable improvement.
- Content, services or prices are hard to maintain because the editing system is dated or inaccessible.
- There is no real recruiting function, even though staff acquisition is a stated goal of the business.
- Several of these points apply at the same time - then patchwork adds up to more than a rebuild.
A relaunch pays off not because a site looks old, but because it measurably costs enquiries, visibility or applications.
What a Clean Relaunch Involves
Once the decision for a relaunch is made, it involves more than a new appearance. A clean rebuild thinks accessibility, speed, content and recruiting together from the start, instead of bolting them on one after another. From more than 50 website projects (project experience), we know that the biggest lever lies not in expensive special technology but in solid foundations: a clear structure, clean code and content that is easy to maintain later. Those who plan these building blocks together build the new care website right just once.
Accessible per BFSG
Contrasts, keyboard operation, labelled forms and an accessibility statement are planned in from the start, not bolted on afterwards.
Fast and Stable
Lean code, optimised images and avoiding superfluous scripts keep LCP, INP and CLS in the green.
Mobile First
The page is designed from the smallest screen size, so that searching relatives reach their goal safely with the thumb.
Easy to Maintain
Services, prices and contacts can be kept current without technical knowledge, so content does not age again.
Recruiting Built In
A career page with a simple application is part of the concept, because winning staff via the website is a central goal.
Privacy and Hosting
Sensitive health data, GDPR-compliant forms and hosting in Germany are part of the foundation of a care website.
Beyond this foundation, it is worth connecting the relaunch to the goals of the business. A day-care provider wants to fill vacant places, a home-care service wants to respond quickly to enquiries. How free capacity can be marketed via the website in a targeted way is shown in the article on the day-care website that fills vacant places; how recurring questions can be answered around the clock without tying up staff is covered in the article on the AI chatbot for enquiries on the care website.
Through the Relaunch in Six Steps
A relaunch is easy to plan when it runs in clear stages. Instead of switching off the old site overnight, a structured approach is advisable that begins with a sober inventory and builds the new site step by step. This way the business stays reachable throughout the entire process.
- Inventory: examine and document the accessibility, Core Web Vitals, content and recruiting function of the current site.
- Clarify goals: define what the new site should achieve - more enquiries, better findability, more applications or all of these together.
- Concept and structure: plan the page layout, content and contact paths, considering accessibility and mobile first from the start.
- Implementation: rebuild the site with clean code, short load times and maintainable content.
- Review and migration: test accessibility and loading values, set up redirects and replace the old site without loss.
- Ongoing upkeep: keep content current and secure the technical quality in regular maintenance.
Start With an Inventory
Sources and Studies