Imagine a translation agency in the Länggasse quarter preparing a bid for a federal office. The offer is excellent. Then a member of the evaluation team opens the agency’s website with a screen reader, meets a contact form without labels and a menu that cannot be used with the keyboard, and quietly makes a note. Nobody tells the agency why it came second. In Bern, moments like this matter more than in most Swiss cities, because many customers here are institutions, associations and patients with high expectations of clarity, accessibility and discretion. This guide shows what a Bern website needs to meet them, and why meeting them makes it better for everyone else as well.

What makes the Bern market different

As the federal city, Bern brings together the federal administration, parliament, embassies, national associations and many organisations that work with them. Around that core sits a strong network of suppliers: consultants, translators, IT specialists, event organisers, printers, engineers, and many more. Add the university, the university hospital and a large health sector, and you have a market where buyers often work in institutions with formal requirements.

The canton of Bern is officially bilingual. Biel/Bienne is the largest bilingual city in Switzerland, and the French-speaking Bernese Jura is part of the same canton. A Bern business that serves the whole canton, or federal clients in Bern, will regularly meet customers who prefer French.

For your website, this means three things: it has to meet higher expectations for accessibility and clarity, it often needs French alongside German, and it must show trust signals that work for institutional buyers, not only for private customers.

Who visits a Bern business website

Accessibility: from obligation to advantage

In Switzerland, the Disability Discrimination Act (BehiG) obliges federal authorities to make their online services accessible. The federal accessibility standard eCH-0059 is based on the international WCAG guidelines. For private companies there is generally no comparable legal obligation today. But if you work with public bodies, they increasingly expect suppliers to understand accessibility, and many people in Bern use websites with assistive technology every day.

More importantly, accessibility makes your website better for everyone. Clear headings, good contrast, readable text, keyboard navigation and meaningful link texts help older visitors, people on small screens, and search engines. An accessible website is easier to use and easier to rank.

Selling to public bodies and institutions

Public contracts in Switzerland above certain thresholds are published on simap.ch, and smaller contracts are often awarded after direct invitations. Either way, the people evaluating suppliers look at your website. They want to see that you are a stable, competent and transparent company.

What helps: a clear description of your services with typical project sizes, references from comparable organisations (with their permission), information on how you handle data and confidentiality, your certifications if relevant, and named contacts with direct phone numbers. Downloadable company profiles or capability statements are useful, provided they are accessible documents or also available as normal web pages.

What hurts: vague marketing language, missing company details, outdated news, and stock photos of handshakes. Institutional buyers have seen hundreds of supplier websites. Specific, verifiable information always wins.

The procurement officer’s five-minute check

People who evaluate suppliers for public bodies rarely read a website from top to bottom. They check a handful of things quickly, often in the same order, and form an impression within minutes. Knowing that order helps you put the right information where it will be found.

First they look for the company behind the site: full name, legal form, address and commercial register number in the imprint. Then they look for proof that you have done comparable work, ideally for public bodies or similar organisations. Next they test the contact path: is there a named person and a direct phone number, or only a general form? Many will notice whether the site is readable on a phone and usable without a mouse. And if your work touches French-speaking regions, they check whether a French version exists or only a French greeting.

None of these checks is difficult to pass. Most supplier websites fail them through omission, not through bad intent: an incomplete imprint, references buried in a PDF, a contact page without names. Fixing them takes an afternoon and can change how your next bid is read.

Websites for associations and federations

Many national associations and federations are based in Bern. Their websites serve several audiences at once: members, potential members, the public, the media, and sometimes politicians. That makes structure especially important.

A good association website separates these audiences clearly. Members find events, documents and member news quickly. Potential members understand the benefits and how to join. Journalists find contacts, positions and press releases without searching. Board members can update news and events themselves. Many associations also need content in German and French, because their members come from both language regions.

If your association runs events, accept registrations directly on the website, keep past events as an archive, and publish recaps. This content builds search visibility over time and shows that the association is active. Give each recurring event its own permanent page and update it every year instead of creating a new page each time: the address keeps its search history, and members always find the current date in the same place.

Health sector: trust and data minimisation

Bern is a hospital and health city, with the university hospital and a large network of practices, therapies and health services. Patients want three things from a practice website: what you treat, where you are, and how to get an appointment. Everything else comes second.

Health data is particularly sensitive under Swiss data protection law. Contact and appointment forms should ask only for what is necessary to get in touch, not for symptoms or medical history. If you use an online booking tool, choose one that stores data appropriately and mention it in your privacy policy. And write in plain language: patients under stress do not read long paragraphs of medical terminology.

Accessibility starts in your content, not in your code

Many business owners believe accessibility is a technical feature the developer switches on. In reality, most problems appear later, when content is added. Headings chosen because they look bigger rather than because they structure the page, images uploaded without alternative text, links that say “click here”, important information only in a scanned PDF, colours used as the only way to show meaning. No plugin repairs these, because they are editorial decisions.

The practical consequence: whoever updates your website needs a short set of rules. Use headings in order, describe images that carry information, write link texts that make sense on their own, publish information as web pages rather than only as attachments, and never rely on colour alone. Five rules, one page, shared with everyone who edits. That habit keeps an accessible website accessible long after launch.

German, French and English: the language question

For businesses working only in the city of Bern, German may be enough. As soon as you serve the whole canton, federal clients, or national associations, French becomes important. English matters for international organisations, embassies, researchers and the growing number of English-speaking residents.

Do it properly: every language needs its own pages with their own addresses, correctly connected so search engines show each visitor the right version. Translate with a professional or have machine translations reviewed by a native speaker. A clumsy French version can do more harm than none, especially with institutional readers. The technical details are in our multilingual SEO guide.

Bilingual without doubling your workload

The biggest fear about a French version is the work it creates. It does not have to double your effort if you decide a few things upfront. Choose which pages exist in both languages and keep their structure identical, so every update is a translation, not a rewrite. Publish news and events in both languages or in neither; a French section that stops in 2023 does more harm than none. Keep a short glossary of your key terms in both languages so translations stay consistent. And ask one French-speaking customer or partner to read your French pages once a year. Their comments are often the most valuable review the website gets.

Being found in Bern

For local services, Google Maps and local search results bring a large share of new customers. Complete your Google Business Profile, keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere, and collect honest reviews.

Bern customers often think in districts and regions: Altstadt, Länggasse, Breitenrain, Kirchenfeld, Bümpliz, or the wider region with Thun, Burgdorf and Biel. If you serve specific areas, mention them naturally in your text and create separate pages for important locations or services. Our local SEO guide covers the full setup.

A page plan that works for Bern businesses

Most Bern SMEs do not need a large website. They need the right pages, each with a clear job. The plan below works for consultancies, practices, trades and suppliers alike; associations add member and event pages.

Keep each page focused. A service page that tries to sell five services at once ranks for none of them and confuses visitors. Five focused pages, each answering one customer’s questions, bring more enquiries than one long list.

Plain language: the underrated advantage

Bern audiences include civil servants, association members, patients and older customers. What they share: little patience for jargon. Plain language means short sentences, concrete words, active verbs and one idea per paragraph. It also means writing what the reader will get, not what you are proud of.

Compare “We offer comprehensive, holistic solutions for organisations of all sizes” with “We organise member events for associations with 50 to 500 members, from venue booking to the follow-up email.” The second sentence is shorter, more specific and much easier to trust. Plain language is also a core part of accessibility: people with cognitive impairments, people reading in their second language, and people under stress all benefit. And search engines understand clear text better too.

A practical test: read your homepage aloud to someone outside your industry. Wherever they ask “meaning what?”, rewrite.

How accessible is your website? A quick check

Tick what is already true for your website. The check shows the most important open point.

What a Bern website costs

Because many Bern businesses need German and French, the comparison assumes a bilingual website with around ten pages per language over three years.

Our subscription costs CHF 49 a month for one language or CHF 69 for two, billed annually, with Swiss hosting, updates, accessibility basics and a yearly design refresh included. If you want new articles in both languages every week, the Growth plan includes eight blog posts a month for CHF 199. More details on our web design prices page.

Five mistakes we see on Bern websites

1. Accessibility ignored. Light grey text, missing alternative texts and forms without labels exclude visitors and look careless to institutional buyers.
2. French only on the homepage. A French greeting followed by German content frustrates French-speaking customers more than an honest German-only site.
3. PDF-only information. Price lists, brochures and forms only as PDF are hard to read on phones and often inaccessible.
4. Forms that ask too much. Especially in the health sector, asking for sensitive details in a contact form creates unnecessary data protection risks.
5. No references. Bern buyers rely on references. A website without any proof of experience makes them look elsewhere.

How we work with Bern businesses

We work remotely across Switzerland and meet in person when it helps. After a free 30-minute call we plan the structure and languages with you, write the content together, build an accessible website and look after hosting, updates and changes afterwards. Because it is a subscription, your website keeps evolving: new service pages, French versions or event pages can be added without a new project. To compare providers properly, see our guide on how to choose a web design agency in Switzerland.

Asel Mamytova

Founder of Clear Design Experts. She builds clear, accessible and multilingual websites for Swiss SMEs, associations and international firms.

Updated November 2026. Legal notes are general information, not legal advice.

Web design in Bern: frequently asked questions