In short and in plain language
Do you want to start a home care service? Then your website can grow while you apply for your licence.
People already look for you in this time. They are nurses, relatives and hospitals. Without a website, you are hard to find.
The article explains what can go online before the contract with the care funds. And it shows what has to wait until after.
A page for job seekers matters early. So do pages for the towns where you provide care.
We build the website alongside your licence. The domain and access are in the name of your provider from the start.
A home care service does not come into being on the day it is licensed. It comes into being in the months before: when the provider entity is registered, the responsible nurse has been found, the application is sitting with the regional associations of the long-term care funds and the first interviews are being held. During that time somebody is already looking for you - the nurse who wants to move on, the daughter looking for something close to her mother's home, the discharge planner at a hospital who would like to add a new service to her list. If there is no website yet, you simply do not exist for any of them. This article puts the website build next to the founding steps: what may go online before the provider contract, what has to wait, and which details from the contract and the service list you have already collected anyway.
Key takeaways
- Care funds may only provide home care through facilities that hold a provider contract (section 72 (1) SGB XI). Until it is signed, the website describes the plan, the provider and the team, but no billable service.
- For home care services the contract fixes the catchment area (section 72 (3) SGB XI). The same list of towns later carries the location pages - write it once carefully and you use it twice.
- The responsible nurse needs two years of practical experience within the last eight years plus further training for management roles with a number of hours that should not fall below 460 (section 71 (3) SGB XI).
- At the end of 2023, 446,425 people worked in home care services, 126,251 of them full time (Federal Statistical Office). A careers page that names part-time models openly speaks to the larger group.
- There were 15,549 home care services in Germany at the end of 2023 (Federal Statistical Office). A new service becomes visible through location pages for its catchment area, not through the licence itself.
Why the website grows alongside the provider contract
Founding a home care service moves towards one fixed goal: the provider contract under section 72 SGB XI. Only once it is signed is the facility licensed to care for insured people for the term of the contract. Depending on the federal state and the state of the file, that takes weeks to months, and the time is anything but empty: you are hiring, renting rooms, choosing software, talking to GP practices and hospital social services. Every one of those groups is looking for evidence that you exist. A provider who plans a website for home care only after the first day of operations gives away exactly the period in which other people make their decisions.
The market you are entering is large. In December 2023 just under 5.7 million people in Germany were in need of long-term care as defined by the long-term care insurance act (Federal Statistical Office); 86 percent of them were cared for at home. 1.1 million people in need of care lived in private households and were cared for together with or entirely by home care and support services, an increase of 5.1 percent or 54,000 people over the previous survey. Another 3.1 million received only the care allowance and were cared for mainly by relatives - that is the group tomorrow's enquiries come from. For those 1.1 million cared for by services there were 15,549 home care services (Federal Statistical Office, reference date 15 December 2023); two years earlier there were 15,376.
Three audiences, one window
What the care mandate dictates for your pages
Section 72 SGB XI governs licensing through a provider contract. It is concluded between the provider of the care facility and the regional associations of the long-term care funds, in agreement with the supra-local social assistance bodies in the state, unless state law makes the local body responsible. The contract sets out the type, content and scope of the general care services to be provided for insured people for the term of the contract - the care mandate. There is a right to conclude such a contract as long as the facility meets the requirements. For the website that mandate is the basis of every service page: whatever is described there as a service has to be covered by it - and whatever it does not cover does not belong in a list.
For home care services a second point applies that becomes immediately practical on the website. The provider contracts have to fix the catchment area in which services are to be delivered efficiently and sparingly (section 72 (3) SGB XI). That list of towns, municipalities and districts is at once the template for the location pages and their limit: a page for a place outside the catchment area produces enquiries you have to turn down, and so costs twice. The fee agreement, too, is concluded separately for each care service and applies to the catchment area agreed under section 72 (3) unless something else is expressly agreed (section 89 (2) SGB XI). Contract, fees and location pages therefore describe the same territory.
The long-term care funds may only provide home care and residential care through care facilities with which a provider contract exists (licensed care facilities).
The responsible nurse and the paperwork before
Under section 71 (1) SGB XI, home care facilities are independently operating organisations that, under the continuous responsibility of a trained nurse, care for people in need of care in their own homes with services of domestic nursing assistance. The law attaches requirements to that person which have to be met before the application: alongside the relevant professional qualification, two years of practical experience in the trained profession within the last eight years, with the reference period beginning eight years before the day on which the responsible nurse is to be appointed. On top of that comes further training for management roles with a minimum number of hours that should not fall below 460 hours (section 71 (3) SGB XI).
- Name, legal form and address of the provider - identical in the application, in the imprint and in the register extract. Deviations typically trigger queries that cost weeks.
- The responsible nurse with proof of qualification - on the website as a named contact with a role, not as an advertising claim about special experience.
- The catchment area as a list of places and postcodes - required in the contract, and the basis of the location pages on the website.
- The service list by service bundles - the raw version of every later service page, usually usable as an outline straight away.
- Availability and on-call times - the detail relatives look for first on a care website.
- A phone number for the service that is answered from day one and will not be swapped later because it belongs to a private person.
- Privacy notices and the record of processing activities - the basis for every form on the site.
- Domain, mailbox and hosting access in the name of the provider - why that ownership matters later.
Before and after licensing: what may go online
The dividing line is simpler than it sounds. Before the provider contract is signed you may describe who you are, where you are heading and whom you are looking for. You may not create the impression that long-term care insurance benefits can already be billed through your service - because the care funds may only provide care through licensed facilities. Once the contract is signed, the facility is licensed for its term (section 72 (4) SGB XI), and the existing pages are extended rather than rebuilt. Structure the site that way from the start and you save yourself the second build - and the redirects that a later restructure drags along.
| Detail on the website | Before the provider contract | After the provider contract |
|---|---|---|
| Provider, legal form, address | Complete, with the founding date | Unchanged, plus the date of licensing |
| Services | Planned service areas, worded as intentions | Service bundles within the care mandate |
| Billing with the care fund | No reference to billability | Reference to licensing under section 72 SGB XI |
| Catchment area | Planned territory, marked as planning | The agreed catchment area as a list of places |
| Job openings | Online from day one, with a start date | Ongoing, naming the rounds that are open |
The timeline: the website grows with the application
A website project and a licensing procedure share the same bottleneck: details somebody has to decide. Do the two one after the other and you decide twice - once for the application, once for the page, and usually with different wording. At the latest during a quality inspection it becomes obvious that the website describes something other than the contract. Run them side by side and you write the catchment area, the service list and the availability once and use them twice. In our experience that is where a founding project gains time without cutting anything - and where the later upkeep of the site stays cheap.
The same goes for the budget. The fee for home nursing assistance is agreed between the provider of the care service and the payers along uniform principles; it has to allow a care service run on sound commercial lines to finance its expenditure and fulfil its care mandate (section 89 (1) SGB XI). In that calculation a website is not a special item but part of the expenditure - and one of the few that touch staffing and enquiries at the same time. What it actually costs and how the benefit can be read off is set out in the cost and benefit calculation for care service websites.
The access belongs to the provider
Six steps from domain to first enquiry
The order is not arbitrary. Some things have to come first because everything else points at them - the domain, the imprint, the phone number. Others can come later without anything being missing, and some may only come later because the contract does not cover them yet. The following order has proved itself in founding projects and can be picked up in any week of the procedure without a later step undoing an earlier one.
- Secure the domain and register it in the name of the provider. The name should carry the place if the catchment area is clearly bounded, rather than betting on a later expansion.
- Publish the imprint and privacy notice before any content goes online. What belongs in a care service imprint and where German medicinal advertising law draws the line is set out in the guide to a legally sound care website.
- A home page with the provider, the plan, the intended territory and availability. One sentence on the status of the licensing procedure answers the question before it is asked.
- The careers page with the first vacancies. In the founding phase it is the page with the highest return, because staff is the bottleneck, not demand.
- The service pages from the service list, first as intentions and after licensing as an offer - doctor-prescribed nursing care deserves a page of its own.
- The location pages for the catchment area, only once it has been agreed, so that no page promises a territory the contract does not cover.
One sentence that saves many questions
The careers page is the first real test
At the end of 2023, 446,425 people worked in home care services, 126,251 of them full time (Federal Statistical Office) - around 28 percent. Part-time work is therefore not the exception in this sector but the normal case. A careers page that knows only full-time posts and leaves working hours to the interview speaks past the larger group. Name hourly models, fixed rounds and how the roster is handled instead, and you answer the question that comes first in the interview anyway - and you pre-sort the applications rather than merely counting them.
A second point comes from the contract itself. Since 1 September 2022, provider contracts may only be concluded with care facilities that pay their employees in care and support the salaries agreed in collective agreements or church labour law rules to which the facility is bound (section 72 (3a) SGB XI). The law does not require that binding as such: section 72 (3) no. 2 SGB XI calls for the requirements of subsection (3a) or subsection (3b), and subsection (3b) allows provider contracts with facilities that are not bound by such agreements as long as their pay does not fall below the level of an applicable collective agreement or the regionally customary pay level. One route or the other is part of the licensing requirements - and on the careers page pay is a statement you can substantiate without advertising. How such a page is built is shown in the article on recruiting staff through the website; we build the page and the application flow as a careers page.
Who runs the service
The responsible nurse with role and availability - the position under section 71 SGB XI, not a promise about special experience.
How the rounds are set
Early shift, late shift, weekend rhythm. Name the structure and you get applications from people it suits, instead of refusals after the first interview.
What the contract binds you to
Pay under section 72 (3a) or (3b) SGB XI, probation period, induction. Verifiable details work harder here than any adjective.
Where the work happens
The catchment area as a list of places. In care, the distance between home and round decides more often than the salary line.
How people get in touch
A short form with name, callback number and qualification. Cover letters and references can follow later; the callback number cannot.
What happens to the data
State retention periods for application documents openly. It is a duty and, in care, works as a sign of trust at the same time.
Visible in the catchment area from day one
People search locally, and they search online. In the 2025 survey, 80 percent of 45 to 64 year olds had looked online for information about goods and services in the three months before the survey; among 65 to 74 year olds it was 65 percent (Federal Statistical Office). Those are exactly the age groups relatives and people in need of care come from: at the end of 2023, 78 percent of people in need of care were 65 or older and around a third (34 percent) at least 85 (Federal Statistical Office). In many families the research is done by the generation in between - and it expects a page that reads on a phone.
- The place name in the title and in the first heading, without repeating it in the body until it grates.
- The services actually delivered there - not the complete list from the service catalogue.
- Availability with times and a phone number that is genuinely answered locally.
- A statement of territory that matches the agreed catchment area rather than half the region.
- A note on licensing under section 72 SGB XI as soon as it exists - before that, the status of the procedure.
- Forms that work with a keyboard and a screen reader, plus downloads that lock nobody out.
- One page per place instead of one page with twenty place names - how local SEO for care services works.
The demand a new service meets will not stay as it is. Through ageing alone, the number of people in need of care could rise from 5.0 million at the end of 2021 to 6.8 million at the end of 2055 (Federal Statistical Office, care projection 2023). Already today around 11 percent of 70 to 74 year olds were in need of care, and 87 percent of those aged 90 and over. For a newly founded service that means the demand is coming: the question is whether it finds you. Map the catchment area as location pages with local visibility and you are findable before the first referrer asks - the rest is settled in a conversation or straight away as a complete website project.
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