Imprint (Impressum)

Whether the crawled pages link an imprint. Germany and Austria require one by law; elsewhere it is a convention.

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An imprint (German Impressum) is a page that names who is behind the site: the person or company, a postal address, a fast way of getting in touch, and where relevant the register entry, VAT number and responsible editor. In Germany (§ 5 DDG, formerly the TMG) and Austria it is a legal requirement for almost every commercial site, and a missing or incomplete one is a classic target of warning letters. Elsewhere it is a convention that simply builds trust.

How SiteScan checks it

The scan looks for a link whose address or text contains impressum, imprint, legal-notice, mentions-legales or «реквизиты». One such link on any crawled page counts for the whole site.

• Green — an imprint is linked.
• Grey — none found. The report does not mark the site down for it, because whether one is owed depends on where the operator is based — which a scanner cannot know.

What to do

If you run a business site addressed to Germany or Austria, publish the imprint on its own page and link it from every page — the footer is the usual place, and the rule is that it must be reachable in no more than two clicks. Keep it separate from the privacy policy; both are expected.