An outpatient care service has two groups of visitors on its website, and they could hardly be more different. One is sitting at the kitchen table after a phone call from the hospital, looking for support for her own mother. The other is a qualified nurse, off shift, comparing employers at her own pace. Both arrive through the same home page. At the end of 2023, just under 5.7 million people in Germany were in need of long-term care within the meaning of the statutory long-term care insurance, and 86 percent of them were cared for at home (Federal Statistical Office). On the other side, the unemployment rate among nursing professionals stood at 1.1 percent in 2025 (Federal Employment Agency) – anyone looking for a post is choosing rather than applying. A website that tries to address both groups with the same sentences reaches neither. This article describes how to separate the two paths cleanly without splitting the site into two presences: which entry points are needed, what relatives actually look for, what nurses want to see before applying, and why both paths should end at the same telephone number.
Two audiences, one presence
Of the almost 5.7 million people in need of care, 3.1 million received care allowance only and were looked after mainly by relatives; a further 1.1 million also lived in private households and were cared for together with, or entirely by, outpatient care and support services (Federal Statistical Office). The movement between these two groups is what an outpatient service answers with its website: families who have managed on their own so far and are now reaching a limit. They rarely look for a provider in general terms, but for an answer to a very specific question – does someone come before seven in the morning, is our part of town covered at all, and what is left to pay at the end of the month.
The choice is wider than it feels locally: at the end of 2023 there were 15,549 outpatient care services in Germany (Federal Statistical Office). They employed 446,425 people, of whom 126,251 held a full-time post (Federal Statistical Office). For the website this means two things. First, the comparison relatives make is real, even if it usually happens between two or three services in the area. Second, the business is itself one employer among many, and the page that convinces relatives does not automatically produce an application.
Two audiences on one site are not unique to care. How two routes can be separated without overloading the home page is shown from a different angle in the article on private and business customers on one website. What is specific to care is the register: one group decides under strain and often at short notice, the other calmly and with alternatives. A text that tries to serve both at once reads as too promotional for relatives and too vague for professionals.
Who arrives on the home page
The home page does not make a decision, it sorts. Two visible entry points near the top are enough, each with a line that names the group rather than paraphrasing it: “Arranging care at home” and “Working with us”. What follows differs in order and level of detail, not in tone. The six concerns below cover most arrivals in practice and can be set up as sections or as separate pages.
What is handled at home
Basic care, medical care and household support in everyday language, with an example of a typical visit instead of a list of billing categories.
What the insurer covers
Which service is billed through which insurer, what affects the amount left to pay, and which documents are needed for the first meeting.
Whether the address is covered
Towns and districts as plain text, not only as a map section. Anyone who cannot find their own district assumes the service is out of range and does not call.
What the roster looks like
Round length, early shift, late shift, weekend rhythm and how far ahead the roster is fixed – the details a nurse looks for before applying.
Who is on the team
Team size, mix of qualifications, induction, and who runs the service. Names and roles carry further than a list of adjectives.
How an application works
A short route with name, qualification and a callback request, plus a note on who gets in touch and within what period that usually happens.
Both entry points lead, at different stages, to the same place: a person on the phone. That is not a flaw in the design, it is the point. Relatives and applicants drop out at the same moment, namely when it stays unclear who will answer. How closely availability and enquiry success are linked is set out in the article on opening hours and availability on the website.
The home page sorts, it does not sell
The family path: from question to person
People arranging care at home are rarely working on a single task. Discharge, assessment, adapting the flat and their own working hours usually arrive at the same time. A website cannot resolve that situation, but it can set the order in which the questions can be worked through. Five steps are enough, and they should appear on the page in this sequence.
- Establish coverage: which towns are served, from which level of care need, and whether people without an assessment are advised too. This belongs at the very top, because it governs everything else.
- Place the services: what the team takes on in the morning, what in the evening, what stays with the family. A described daily routine carries further here than a list of technical terms.
- Show the cost frame: which service runs through the long-term care insurer, which through the health insurer, and where a personal contribution arises. Without this section, the worry arises that costs are being withheld.
- Name the process: first meeting, care contract, first visit. Someone who knows that three steps follow is more likely to call than someone expecting an unspecified procedure.
- Offer contact: telephone number, hours, and a callback option for people who cannot call during office hours. A form should complement the call, not replace it.
In this section the wording matters more than the layout. A sentence that could have come from a brochure reads like a defence in this situation. A sentence that picks up the actual question reads like an answer. The difference can be checked line by line.
Scroll table sideways
| Place on the page | Wording that creates distance | Wording that carries |
|---|---|---|
| Entry point | “Welcome to our homepage” | “Need care at home? Here is the first step” |
| Services | “Holistic support to modern standards” | “What we take on in the morning and what in the evening” |
| Costs | “We are happy to advise you on costs” | “What the insurer covers and where a contribution arises” |
| Availability | “Just give us a call” | “Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm, on-call cover after that” |
| Catchment area | “We are there for you in the region” | “These are the towns and districts we serve” |
| Next step | “Get in touch” | “Callback on the next working day, first meeting at your home” |
Costs, services and catchment area without detours
The cost section is the one most often missing from care service websites – and the one most often looked for. It can be written without promising a price, because the framework figures are set in law. For care level 2, the entitlement to home nursing assistance covers services up to a total value of 796 euros per calendar month (SGB XI, section 36), while the care allowance for privately arranged help is 347 euros a month at the same level (SGB XI, section 37). On top of that comes a relief amount of up to 131 euros a month for people receiving care at home (SGB XI, section 45b). Those three figures answer most of the questions that otherwise arrive by telephone.
- The combination of care allowance and benefits in kind is the most common way into outpatient care: on annual average in 2025, 600,351 people drew this combined benefit, while 175,135 received benefits in kind alone (Federal Ministry of Health).
- Households currently on care allowance alone are not looking for a full package on the website, but for an entry point with two visits a week. A section on small volumes lowers the threshold noticeably.
- The relief amount is earmarked and does not cover self-care services at care levels 2 to 5. Explaining that on the page prevents disappointment at the first meeting.
- Advisory visits under section 37, paragraph 3 are a separate reason to make contact, and for many families the first point of contact with a service at all.
- The catchment area belongs on the page as a list, not only inside a map. Search engines and screen readers read the list; they do not read the map section.
For the list of towns itself, the same applies as for any other local business: it belongs on its own page together with directions and hours. The article on the directions and location page describes the structure. It is also worth looking at the question of when prices belong on the website – in care the answer is usually a framework with a date rather than a single figure.
An entitlement many families do not know about
The path for nurses: roster instead of platitudes
The second path starts from a different position. In 2025, around 1.8 million nursing staff in Germany were in employment subject to social insurance contributions (Federal Employment Agency), and the occupational unemployment rate for nursing professionals stood at 1.1 percent (Federal Employment Agency). Anyone looking around therefore usually has a post already and is comparing from a secure position. A careers page built on “committed team” and “family atmosphere” gives that reader nothing to compare.
What she does compare is working time. In the nursing occupations, 49 percent of employees subject to social insurance contributions worked part-time, against 31 percent across the economy as a whole (Federal Employment Agency). Part-time work is the norm in this field, not a special request. It fits that 63 percent of the vacancies reported can be worked either full-time or part-time, and that 96 percent of the postings are aimed at qualified nursing professionals or nursing assistants (Federal Employment Agency). A job advert that leaves the working-time model open falls behind in that environment.
- Working-time models with actual hours, not just “full-time or part-time possible”
- Round length and number of visits per shift, given as a range
- Early and late shift times with start and finish
- Weekend rhythm and how far ahead the roster is fixed
- Company vehicle or private car, and how mileage is settled
- Documentation: what is used and how much time is allowed for it
- Induction: duration, who accompanies it, and who the contact person is
- Training and further education with examples from the current year
- A named contact for questions, with role and direct line
A job advert without a roster is an invitation without an address: kindly meant, but impossible to reach.
Why the careers page does not belong at the end
On many care service websites the jobs section sits between the legal notice and the privacy policy. That was defensible while applications arrived through advertisements. Today the organisation's own site is where a nurse forms a picture before making contact at all. The jobs section therefore belongs in the main navigation, with its own address that can be passed on. How such a page is built is described in the article on the careers page for skilled staff.
The second point concerns the application itself. A form with twelve mandatory fields and a covering letter as a condition does not fit an occupational field where people look around after their shift. A short route with name, qualification, preferred hours and a callback time is enough for first contact; the phone call clears up the rest. Anyone reworking their forms anyway will find the groundwork in the article on the contact form that actually uses enquiries, and the question of response times in the article on responding to enquiries.
Health data does not belong in a form field
Both paths touch data that is specially protected. Relatives tend to write the diagnosis, the care level and the medication into the free-text field of a contact form, because they believe it helps. Health data then lands in a mailbox that is often not set up for it. The remedy is not a note under the field but the design of the form itself: few fields, an explicit line saying that details of the illness are better discussed on the phone, and a callback request as the main route. For existing clients with recurring matters, a separate narrow route is worth having, as described in the article on service forms for existing customers.
What a subject access request means in care
Language, readability and use on the move
At the end of 2023, 78 percent of people in need of care were aged 65 or over (Federal Statistical Office). The website is nevertheless rarely read by them, but by daughters, sons and partners, often in the evening and frequently on a phone between two appointments. Together that produces a clear requirement: short sentences, large targets, a telephone number that can be dialled with one tap, and no text that only makes sense in landscape orientation.
- Explain technical terms in half a sentence the first time they appear, instead of moving them to a glossary.
- Keep paragraphs to three or four lines; on a phone that already fills half a screen.
- Mark the telephone number up as a dialable link rather than embedding it as an image.
- Write subheadings so that they answer the section when the page is skimmed.
- Give forms visible field labels instead of placeholder text that disappears as soon as someone types.
How to plan readable copy without thinning out the content is described in the article on accessible, understandable writing. Use on the move is covered in the article on usability on a phone. Both pay into both paths: a nurse reading the roster on the bus has the same requirements as a daughter looking for a number in the evening.
Trust comes from what can be checked
Care is a service delivered inside someone's home, and nobody can try it out in advance. Trust therefore comes from details that can be checked: who runs the service, how long it has existed, how large the team is, which qualifications are represented, how on-call cover is organised. Photographs from the organisation itself carry more weight than stock motifs, and a page about the business that names roles and responsibilities carries further than a collection of values. The article on the about page without platitudes shows which details are enough.
With seals and awards, restraint is advisable. Results from quality inspections may be shown, but they need a date and a reference, otherwise they create an impression that cannot be sustained. Which credentials can be displayed safely and which formulations are risky is set out in the article on seals and credentials on the website. Regulated health professions face additional advertising limits, covered in the article on the compliant practice website; an outpatient care service is not directly subject to those rules, but works within the same expectations.
How XICflow separates the two paths without splitting the site
In XICflow, services, the towns in the catchment area, contact people and open positions exist as records rather than as individually maintained pages. A new district is entered once and then appears in the list of towns, in the catchment area section and in the note under the contact route. A new vacancy is created once and appears in the jobs section, in the overview of open positions and in the structured markup for search engines. The separation of the two paths is preserved without creating two maintenance states that drift apart.
The German and English versions come from the same source, which doubles the reach of the jobs section in regions with international nursing staff without doubling the work. The output meets WCAG 2.2 AA, is delivered statically and needs no consent layer for third-party services – on a site where people are looking for care for their parents, that is not a technical detail but part of how the organisation presents itself. Anyone wanting to bring existing content across will find the usual procedure in the article on switching providers and moving a website.
Sources and studies