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SEO in Vienna and Austria: the ECG imprint, the TKG consent rules and the two 5% advertising taxes

How a company in Vienna, or one selling into Austria, should buy SEO and digital marketing, built on the E-Commerce-Gesetz, the Mediengesetz, the Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021, the Werbeabgabegesetz and the Digitalsteuergesetz, read from the federal legal database on 22 October 2026.

Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 22 October 2026

SEO in Vienna is German-language Google SEO with Austrian rules: your site needs the imprint details in section 5 of the E-Commerce-Gesetz (ECG) and the disclosure in section 25 of the Mediengesetz, cookies for analytics and ads need active consent under section 165 of the Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021 (TKG 2021), and marketing email and SMS need prior consent under section 174. Austria also has two 5% taxes on advertising that a German plan never meets. Check all of this with any agency before you compare prices, and keep every Google and analytics account in your own company's name.

The Austrian search market in numbers

StatCounter's figures for September 2026 put Google at 80.84% of searches in Austria, Bing at 10.93%, Yahoo at 2.69%, DuckDuckGo at 2.38%, Yandex at 1.77% and Ecosia at 1.10%. Bing's share is clearly higher than in Germany (6.49% in the same month), so register an Austrian site in Bing Webmaster Tools as well as Google Search Console and check how it shows there.

On social media, StatCounter's referral figures show Facebook sending 60.68% of social visits to websites in Austria, X (Twitter) 11.23%, Instagram 8.71%, Pinterest 8.32%, Reddit 5.22% and YouTube 3.86%.

The imprint: ECG section 5 and Mediengesetz section 25

Austria has its own imprint law, and it is not the German one. Section 5(1) ECG says a service provider must keep at least the following information permanently, easily and directly available to users:

  • its name or company name, and the geographic address where it is established;
  • details for contacting it quickly and directly, including an email address;
  • its company register number and register court, where it has them;
  • the supervisory authority, where its activity is supervised;
  • for trades and professions, its chamber or professional body, its job title, the member state that awarded it, and a pointer to the trade or professional rules;
  • its VAT identification number, where it has one.

Section 5(2) adds a pricing rule: where prices are shown, it must be clear whether they include VAT and all other charges, and whether delivery costs are included. On top of this, section 25 of the Mediengesetz requires the owner of a website to make its disclosure (Offenlegung) permanently, easily and directly findable, and allows it to be published together with the ECG details. Most Austrian sites do both on one Impressum page linked from the footer.

Cookies, email and SMS: the TKG 2021

Cookies. Section 165(3) TKG 2021 says that collecting such data is only allowed if the user has actively given consent on the basis of clear and comprehensive information. Storage or access stays allowed without consent only where its sole purpose is to transmit a message, or where it is strictly necessary for a service the user asked for. So analytics and ad pixels wait for a yes in the banner.

Email and SMS. Section 174(3) says sending electronic mail, including SMS, for direct marketing is not allowed without the recipient's prior consent. Section 174(4) gives one exception, and all four conditions must hold: you got the contact details in connection with a sale or service to your customer, the message markets your own similar products or services, the recipient was given a clear, free and easy chance to refuse when the details were collected and in every message, and the recipient has not refused in advance, in particular by entering the list in section 7(2) ECG. That list is kept by the regulator RTR, anyone can enter it free of charge, and senders must respect it. Section 174(1) also bars advertising calls without prior consent.

Two advertising taxes: Werbeabgabe and Digitalsteuer

Austria taxes advertising itself, which surprises foreign marketers.

  • Werbeabgabe. The Werbeabgabegesetz 2000 taxes advertising services provided in Austria for payment: advertisements in print media, on radio and television, and the use of surfaces and spaces for advertising messages, such as posters. Section 2 sets the tax at 5% of the fee charged.
  • Digitalsteuer. The Digitalsteuergesetz 2020 taxes online advertising services, such as banner ads and search engine ads, received on a device with an Austrian IP address and aimed at Austrian users. It applies only to providers with at least EUR 750 million worldwide revenue and at least EUR 25 million in Austrian online advertising revenue in a business year, and the rate is 5% of the fee they receive.

You do not pay the Digitalsteuer yourself, but the large platforms that owe it may pass a cost on. Read your platform invoices and ask your agency to show media cost, platform charges and its own fee as separate lines.

Vienna: what is local about buying SEO here

Vienna businesses compete in two languages. Most local buyers search in German, often with Austrian words that differ from German usage, while international companies, start-ups and expats search in English. Decide which market each page is for, give each language its own URL, and write the German pages for Austrian readers rather than reusing copy written for Germany.

For a shop, clinic, studio or restaurant, Vienna search is local by district. Own your Google Business Profile, use your real address and opening hours, and add photos of the actual premises. Our German-language guide to local SEO and how Google ranks businesses on the map explains what you can fix yourself. It was written for Germany, so pair it with the Austrian rules above.

Founders new to the city can start with the Vienna Business Agency, which offers consultations, funding and events for companies, founders and start-ups in Vienna, and runs an Expat Center.

Outside Vienna, the same federal rules apply in Linz, Graz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. A business there names its own register court in its imprint and builds its local pages around the places it really serves. If you also sell into Switzerland, the rules change again: our guide to SEO and digital marketing in Switzerland covers the Swiss UWG and FADP.

What to put in the brief

ServiceWhat to ask for in writing
SEOPages to be written or fixed each month, in Austrian German or English, with Search Console in your name
Local SEOThe Business Profile owned by you, with real address, hours and photos
Google Ads and social adsAccounts in your name, media cost and platform charges shown apart from the fee
Print, radio and outdoorWho invoices and pays the 5% Werbeabgabe
Email and SMSConsent records, a check against the RTR list, and the refusal option in every message

Agencies price by monthly retainer, fixed project or day rate. Compare quotes on hours, named people, pages produced, reports and exclusions. Refuse any offer that promises a position: Google's own guidance says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." Our German-language guide to SEO consulting, costs and the contract covers the contract terms in more detail.

Questions about SEO and marketing in Austria

Is a German Impressum enough for an Austrian website?

No. Austria's duties come from section 5 ECG and section 25 Mediengesetz. A template written for German law can miss the Austrian disclosure, so build the page from the Austrian list.

Can we email customers in Austria without asking first?

Only under the four conditions of section 174(4) TKG 2021, which include giving a free way to refuse in every message and respecting the RTR list. Otherwise you need prior consent.

Do we pay the 5% Digitalsteuer on our Google Ads?

The tax is owed by large online advertising providers, not by the advertiser. Read your invoices to see whether a platform passes a charge on.

Should a Vienna company write in German or English?

Write each page in the language its buyer searches in. Many Vienna firms need both, each on its own URL, with German pages written for Austrian readers.

When can we judge whether our SEO agency is delivering?

Read Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for impressions, positions and indexed pages, the Business Profile performance report for calls and directions, and your own enquiries by page. The outcome depends on competition, your offer and your budget.

What a Vienna buyer hears from ChatGPT

ChatGPT dominates AI assistant use in Austria: StatCounter's September 2026 chatbot figures for Austria give ChatGPT 83.31% of use, Gemini 9.64% and Perplexity 3.14%. When an operations manager in Vienna asks ChatGPT for an SEO agency in Vienna, the answer names a few firms based on what the assistant can find: directories, Austrian business press, award lists and agency websites. That list is built differently from Google's results, so the two rarely match. AI Knows Us checks this for a business, putting its buyers' questions to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and reporting which firms each answer names and why.

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