Why your template ships without legal texts #
Your template contains two prepared pages, one for your imprint and one for your privacy policy. Both are empty. That is not a forgotten step, it is a deliberate decision.
What follows is how to fill your legal pages and which details are usually required. That is preparation, not a legal opinion, and not a complete list. What applies to you depends on your country, your legal form and what you do. When in doubt, have your finished texts reviewed by a lawyer.
An imprint answers who stands behind this website. A privacy policy describes what this website does with the data of its visitors. Only you know both, and both change with every rebuild you make to the template.
A legal text shipped with the template would therefore be a text about a company that does not exist. It names the wrong provider, the wrong address and services you may never use. Whoever leaves it in place has a page that states something untrue. That is the worse position, because you do not notice the mistake while reading.
That is exactly why the empty page is a mark of quality. An empty field reminds you that something is still to be done. A wrongly filled one does not.
Why your AI does not write them either #
Your AI can do almost everything in this project. Legal texts are explicitly not part of that, and the skills in your template are set up accordingly. If you ask, it will decline and point you here. There are four reasons.
- It does not know your legal form. Sole trader, limited company, association, freelancer: which details are required at all depends on that question. Guessing leads to a page that states either too little or something wrong.
- It does not know your real data flows. Where your contact form arrives, which host delivers your files, whether you send a newsletter: that is decided on your server, long after the project was built.
- It does not know your country. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have different rules, and beyond them it changes again. The requirements themselves also shift over time.
- The mistake surfaces late. A text that looks like a legal text feels correct and is therefore never checked again. Mistakes on legal pages are rarely noticed while reading. They are noticed when mail arrives.
It may place your finished text, structure it, format it in the design of the website, make your email address clickable and then flip the technical switches. Here it is the typesetter, not the author. How to ask for exactly that is further down under Putting the finished text in place.
The two pages in your project #
The pages already exist, you do not have to create anything. Where exactly they sit depends on how your template is built. Both cases look like this:
- src/pages/impressum.astro · template with a src folder
- src/pages/datenschutz.astro · template with a src folder
- impressum/index.html · template made of finished pages
- datenschutz/index.html · template made of finished pages
Today both pages show a short instruction instead of a text. They exist from the start so that the links in the footer of every page and in the consent dialog do not run into nothing. A website whose privacy link leads to an error page looks unfinished, and that link is built into many places.
Both pages also carry an instruction telling search engines not to include them. It is called noindex and sits in the head of the page. On top of that, neither page appears in your sitemap. That keeps an empty legal page out of search results while you are still rebuilding.
Only remove the noindex once your own texts are on the pages. The reverse holds just as much: as soon as real text is there, the instruction has to go and both pages belong in the sitemap. Legal pages are meant to be found. A forgotten noindex on a filled page is a silent mistake that nobody sees.
Show me where the placeholder pages for the imprint and the privacy policy sit in this project, what they currently say and where the noindex is set. Also list every place that links to these two pages. Do not change anything yet.
Imprint: what is usually required #
An imprint answers a single question. Who runs this website, and how do you reach them. The overview below lists the details that are usually required in German speaking countries. Treat it as preparation for your conversation with a generator or a law firm, not as a final list.
| Detail | What usually goes behind it |
|---|---|
| Name and legal form | The full name you trade under. For a company, the name exactly as it is written in the register, including the legal form. |
| Address | An address where mail actually reaches you. Whether a post box or a delivery address is enough is something to clarify with your advisor. |
| Contact | An email address, usually plus a second route for quick contact, such as a phone number. |
| Authorised representatives | For companies, the person or people who represent the business, for example the managing directors. |
| Register and number | Registering court and register number if your business is registered, for example in the commercial register or the register of associations. |
| VAT ID | The VAT identification number, if one has been issued to you. It is something different from your tax number. Which of the two belongs there is something to clarify with your advisor. |
| Chamber and profession | For regulated professions, for example in law, medicine, tax or architecture, the responsible chamber, the professional title, the state that granted it and the professional rules are usually added. |
This overview describes the most common case, a small business based in Germany. Austria and Switzerland have their own rules, and depending on what you do, further details come on top. If you get your imprint from a generator, it will ask you about exactly these points. That is why it pays to collect them beforehand.
Privacy: know first, write second #
A privacy policy is not a formula, it is a description. It says what actually happens on your website and who sees which data along the way. Two websites that look the same therefore need two different policies as soon as one has a contact form and the other only a phone number.
That sets the order. First you answer the questions below, then the text takes shape. Bring the answers along and you will be through quickly with any generator and in any consultation.
What you need to know beforehand
- Your host and its location. Who delivers your website, and where the servers stand. Ask the provider about a data processing agreement as well, every generator will ask you for it.
- Your contact form and its destination. Whether the entries land in a mailbox at your host, in your own mailbox or with an external form service. And how long they stay there.
- Measurement, yes or no. Whether you want to know how often your pages are opened. If so, with which tool and from which provider.
- Your fonts. Whether they come from your own server or an external one. Your template delivers them locally, but that can change the moment you swap a font.
- Embedded maps and videos. Every map, every video and every social feed from an external provider counts, even if it only sits in the footer of a single page.
- Newsletter. Whether you send one, through which provider, and how people sign up and unsubscribe again.
- Booking and scheduling tools. Calendars, appointment booking, chat windows or review widgets belong on the list too.
You can have the technical half of this list shown to you instead of searching for it. Your AI sees every connection the project sets up.
Go through this project and list every connection to an external server that can occur when the website is opened: fonts, scripts, images, maps, videos, embedded content and form destinations. For each finding, give me the file, the line and the provider. Also tell me where the contact form sends its data. Invent nothing and change nothing.
The result of that query is the raw material for your policy. Take it with you to whichever route you choose under Three routes to your text.
What your template does technically #
Your template is built sparingly at this point, and that is intentional. The fewer external services involved when a page loads, the shorter and simpler your policy becomes. As delivered:
- Fonts sit locally in the project. When your website loads, no request goes to a font provider.
- No external script networks. Everything the page needs to run comes from your own server.
- Images sit in the project. They do not come from an image service or an external media library.
- Nothing that measures loads before consent. The consent dialog holds everything back until the visitor has decided.
The moment you embed a map, pull a video from a video platform, load a font from an external server or add a chat window, your website opens a connection to that provider on load and passes on at least your visitor's IP address. That then belongs in your policy, and it often needs consent before it may load at all. Tell your advisor what you embed before the text is written.
For the most common of these embeds there is a calmer route. Instead of an embedded map, a picture of your location with a link that only opens the map service after a click is usually enough. The visitor still gets directions, and nothing happens on your page beforehand.
The consent dialog and measurement #
Your template comes with a working consent dialog. It is not a dummy and not an image. Before consent it loads nothing that could measure, and it stores your visitor's choice locally in their browser only.
The measurement ID inside it is a placeholder, usually in the form G-XXXXXXXXXX. As long as it reads like that, nothing is measured. You have two clean routes, and both are fine.
Enter your own ID
You set up an account with the provider of your choice and enter your real ID in the project. From then on measurement really happens. From exactly that point the tool also belongs in your privacy policy, with the provider, the purpose and the way someone withdraws their consent again.
Remove measurement entirely
If you do not need the numbers, take measurement out completely, along with the matching switch in the dialog. Your website gets faster and your policy gets shorter. Which details still belong in your text afterwards is settled by the route you pick below.
Show me where the measurement ID sits in this project and whether the placeholder is still in there. Then explain in plain words what the consent dialog loads before consent and what it loads after. If I decide to go without it, remove measurement completely, along with the statistics switch in the dialog. Show me which files you would touch before you do.
A dialog that offers statistics while nothing is being measured promises your visitors something untrue. Measurement that is running but missing from the policy is among the common mistakes on freshly launched websites. Pick one of the two routes and see it through.
Three routes to your text #
All three routes lead to a usable result. They differ in price, effort and how well they fit your case. We deliberately recommend no particular provider.
A generator
Several established providers offer generators for imprints and privacy policies, some free for simple cases, some on subscription. You answer a series of questions and get a text. The quality depends on how precisely you answer, because no generator knows your website. That is exactly what you collected the list under Privacy for.
Association, chamber or legal insurance
Many professional associations, guilds and chambers provide their members with templates or an initial consultation, often at no extra cost. If you are a member, that is frequently the cheapest reviewed route. Some legal expenses insurers also offer an initial consultation by phone. One call settles in five minutes whether that is open to you.
A lawyer
The calmest route, and for a small website often cheaper than expected, because the review stays manageable. Sensible at the latest if you work in a regulated profession, handle sensitive data such as health data, process data outside Europe or sell online. Bring the answers from the list above and the appointment will be short.
Copying the text of somebody else's website. It describes somebody else's circumstances, names another provider and other services, and you take over wording that is not yours. The result looks complete and is still wrong for your case. Writing your own text costs less effort than the trouble that follows.
Putting the finished text in place #
From here your AI takes over again. You supply the finished text, it puts it in the right place, structures it in the design of your website and then flips the technical switches. It adds nothing and leaves nothing out.
Get the text ready
Plain text works best. Paragraphs copied out of a PDF often bring invisible characters and hard line breaks with them. Take a quick look at the special characters before you hand the text over.
Have it placed
With the sentence below. Paste your text into the chat right after it. For the privacy policy you use the same sentence and swap the word imprint.
I am about to give you my finished imprint text. Place it 1:1 into the existing placeholder page, without changing, adding or shortening a single word. Do not rephrase anything and do not invent any details. Structure the text with headings in the design of the website, make the email address and phone number clickable, then remove the noindex and add the page to the sitemap. If something seems to be missing, ask me instead of adding it.
Release visibility
The noindex is gone, both pages are in the sitemap. Check that once too often, because you cannot see this change on the page in the browser. Your AI can show you the head of the page and the entry in the sitemap.
Read it yourself
Open both pages in the browser and read them top to bottom. Is your name there, your address, your contact details. Is the last paragraph complete. Does the link to the privacy policy work from inside the consent dialog. This is the check nobody does for you.
Images, faces and logos #
The most common stumbling block at this point is not a missing paragraph, it is an image. Legal texts get read during a review, images get skimmed.
- The portraits from your template have to go. They show real people who never agreed to appear on your website. They must never look like you or your skills. Replace every recognisable face with a photo of your own or take the section out. Subjects without people, such as rooms or objects, may stay.
- Your own photos need consent. Have pictures of customers, staff or events approved before you publish them, in writing if possible. That approval is called a model release and is a short sentence, not a certificate.
- Images from a search are not free images. Image services have their own licences too, and some require the creator to be named. Note down where every image came from.
- Other people's logos and awards. Client logos, seals and awards belong on your website only if you are really entitled to display them. The invented client logos from the template get replaced or removed.
- The sources are included. Where the supplied images come from is documented in
BILDNACHWEIS.mdin your project folder.
Your AI can track down names and phone numbers across the whole project. A portrait it will not find. So go through your image folder by hand once before you go live. It takes five minutes and spares you the most unpleasant message a new website can bring.
The list to tick off #
If you can say yes to everything here, the legal side of your website is prepared.
- Your imprint text exists, from a generator, an association or a law firm
- Your privacy policy exists and names exactly the services you actually use
- Both pages show your text instead of the supplied instructions
- The
noindexis removed from both pages - Both pages are listed in the sitemap
- Both pages are reachable from every page, including from the consent dialog
- The measurement ID is your own, or measurement is removed completely
- What gets measured is described in your privacy policy
- Maps, videos and fonts from external servers are known and described in the text
- The contact form has a known destination, and that destination is in the policy
- No image shows a face without consent
- You have read both pages in the browser, top to bottom
- When in doubt, someone with a legal eye has looked over it
You fill these pages once. After that you only come back when something about your website or your business changes, such as a new address, a new newsletter or a newly added tool. Once both pages stand, carry on with Going live.