For businesses on the Costa Blanca and Costa Cálida, the question of language goes beyond social media. Your website is where serious customers go to decide whether to contact you — and if they cannot read it comfortably, they will likely go elsewhere.
So should your website be in English, Spanish or both?
Who are you trying to reach?
The answer starts with your customers:
- Mostly English-speaking residents and visitors? An English site may be enough, at least initially.
- A mix of Spanish and international customers? A bilingual site is likely to pay for itself.
- Aiming to grow beyond the expat market? Spanish is essential. Spanish speakers make up the bulk of the local population, and many international residents — Scandinavian, Dutch, German, Belgian — may be more comfortable in Spanish than English.
Also think about who else might read it: Spanish business partners, suppliers, local authorities and the bank.
The benefits of a bilingual site
- Bigger audience. You become visible to people searching in Spanish.
- Better search visibility. Search engines can rank each language version separately for searches in that language.
- More trust. A professionally translated Spanish version signals that you are an established, long-term business.
- Competitive advantage. Many expat businesses only have English sites, and many Spanish businesses only have Spanish sites. Covering both sets you apart.
The costs and challenges
- Translation. Good translation costs money, but poor translation costs more in lost credibility.
- Maintenance. Every update needs doing twice: new blog posts, price changes, opening hours.
- Customer service. If you invite Spanish-speaking customers, you need to be able to serve them in Spanish.
How to build it properly
Use separate URLs for each language
Each language should have its own address, such as `yoursite.com/` for English and `yoursite.com/es/` for Spanish. This allows search engines to index both versions. Avoid sites that only translate content on the fly with a widget, as these often are not indexed properly and the translations can be poor.
Use hreflang tags
Hreflang tags tell search engines which version of a page is in which language, so the right version appears in the right search results. Good multilingual plugins handle this automatically.
Choose a solid multilingual plugin
On WordPress, established plugins such as WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress manage translations, language switchers and hreflang tags. The right choice depends on your site and budget.
Translate, do not just convert
Machine translation is a useful starting point, but a native speaker should review everything, especially headlines, calls to action and service descriptions. Localise as well as translate: Spanish customers may search for different terms and have different questions to English speakers.
Make the language switcher obvious
Put it in the header, use language names rather than just flags (“English / Español”), and make sure it takes users to the equivalent page, not back to the homepage.
Can you start small?
Yes. Many businesses begin by translating their most important pages: homepage, main service pages and contact page. Blog content can follow later, or you can create separate content for each audience. Remember that your Spanish legal pages matter too — see our guide to website legal essentials in Spain.
Part of a bigger picture
A bilingual website works best alongside bilingual social media and a Google Business Profile in both languages. We explore that in posting in English, Spanish or both and beyond the expat bubble.
Thinking about going bilingual?
We build bilingual WordPress websites for businesses across the Costa Blanca and Costa Cálida. Talk to us about which pages to translate first and how to keep it manageable.
