Preliminary Work Instructions

In order to be able to carry out the certification with the International Website Trust Standard (IWTS), some further information and evidence about the website to be certified and the company belonging to it are required following the application for certification, which must be provided by the company's authorised representative. All information and evidence can be submitted directly to the certification body via the online form for preliminary work.

To ensure that you can easily fill in the preliminary work form with all information and evidence in one step, it is recommended that you make some preparations in advance.

Required information and evidence

Identification details:
- Customer number and order number (both from the application confirmation)
- URL of the website to be certified
- Name of the applying company
Communication data:
- Preferred language for further communication: German or English
- If further communication is to be made via an employee authorized to represent the company: Name, function and contact details
Data on the applying company:
- Number of full-time employees in the company
- Official registration and reporting obligation (in a register or at the trade office)
- Existence of a data protection officer in the company
- Special occupational group for which separate mandatory information must be provided in the legal notice (profession, supervisory authority or similar, e.g. insurance companies, doctors, banks)
Data on the certifying website:
- Existence of an Internet shop or an active sales page
- Domain ownership verification: Detailed explanations on this point can be found following this list under "IWTS domain ownership verification”
Proof of ownership document to be provided (can be uploaded directly in the work form)
Please note that, depending on what applies to the company, only one of the documents listed below must be submitted:
- Extract from the register: Required if it is a registered company or organisation and this was so stated when registering for certification (register of companies, cooperatives, associations, etc.)
- Business registration: Required if it is not a registered company or organisation (register entry), but the company is subject to a business registration.
- Invoice document: Required if the company does not have to be entered in the register or is not subject to a business registration. An invoice document can be, for example, a consumption, rental, electricity or Internet connection bill. The respective invoice address must correspond to the address in the imprint of the website to be certified.

IWTS domain ownership verification

Via your domain host you confirm your domain. Usually this is the provider from whom you purchased your domain. The domain host manages the so-called DNS entries. DNS entries are settings for controlling and managing Internet access via your domain.

In the application protocol (attached PDF in the application confirmation email) we have provided you with a key for a TXT confirmation entry that needs to be added to the DNS records of your domain host. If the certification body can successfully verify that the entry exists in the settings, your domain ownership is considered confirmed. The confirmation entry does not affect your email or website.

How to proceed step by step:

Copy key as confirmation entry from application protocol:
In the application protocol, the PDF document attached to your application confirmation email, on the last page in the section "Preliminary Work: "Domain Ownership Verification", you have received an automatically generated key in the form "iwts-site-verification-[Key]"; where [Key] is a 30 character alphanumeric string.
Accessing DNS records for your domain
1. Log in to your browser in the account of your domain host.
2. In the account, call up the DNS records for your domain. In most cases, the page is called 'DNS Management', 'Name Server Management', 'Control Panel' or 'Advanced Settings', but it can also have a similar name.
3. There you can select to add a new entry.
Add key/key as confirmation entry to your domain host
1. Select TXT as entry type.
2. Type the @ sign in the field named 'Name', 'Host' or 'Alias'. Alternatively, you can leave the field blank.
  It may also be that your host requires you to enter your domain at this point, such as yourdomain.com. Other DNS entries can be used as a guide if necessary.
3. Enter the value 86400 in the Validity period (TTL) field or accept the default value.
4. In the 'Value', 'Response' or 'Target' field, insert the confirmation entry that you copied in step 1.
5. Finally, save the entry.

Note: You can ignore warnings about changing DNS settings. Adding the confirmation entry as a TXT record will not change or corrupt your website or DNS settings.