Strategy
Does your business need a Spanish website?
Start with the people who already contact your business. What language do they use when they ask questions, compare services, and decide? The answer is worth more than a national number presented as if it measured your local search demand.
We revised this article on September 6, 2026, to take out an unsupported count of Spanish-language Google users and to explain more clearly how multilingual publishing works.
Four questions to ask
Do customers already use Spanish with your team? If those conversations keep happening, that's evidence that language access matters. Ask what people need to know before they call, and which questions cause confusion.
Can you support the next step in Spanish? A translated page should lead to contact instructions people can understand and an honest note about what help is available. If your team only answers in English, say so. Don't imply a Spanish service.
Are other people researching on the customer's behalf? Family members and colleagues sometimes help someone compare providers, and that shared decision gets easier when the service details, conditions, and process are laid out clearly.
Can you maintain both versions? Hours, prices, terms, and availability have to stay in sync. Decide who reviews updates, and how the team will notice when one version falls behind.
Use these questions to work out the scope of the project, but don't expect them to add up to a score that guarantees a bilingual website will be profitable.
Translation and localization can both be useful
| Approach | What to review |
|---|---|
| On-demand translation tool | Accuracy, reader access, forms, and whether a separate URL exists |
| Professional translation | Terminology, context, service facts, and editorial consistency |
| Content written for the target audience | Actual audience needs, factual accuracy, and maintenance |
The method on its own doesn't decide quality or ranking. A professional translation can work well, and a page written from scratch can still be vague or inaccurate. Whichever you choose, pick the language and examples with your audience in mind, then review the result.
Related phrases such as “diseño web” and “diseño de páginas web” don't automatically need separate pages, since one useful page can cover different wording when the customer is making the same decision.
Publish a complete path
Give each language a stable URL and a visible language switch, and add the right links between equivalent pages. Forms, confirmation messages, and important service conditions have to be understandable too.
Google's localized-page guidance describes how hreflang helps identify alternate versions, and its multilingual-site guidance explains the URL structures you can choose from. We use /es/ on our own site because it keeps maintenance simple. That's an implementation choice. There's no universal ranking rule behind it.
A first phase can cover the primary service, the contact page, and the essential terms. Only pair pages that have a real equivalent. Plan the review work alongside design and development, because keeping a second language current is an ongoing cost.
Evaluate what happens after launch
In Search Console, review your Spanish landing pages and classify the queries you can see. There's no ready-made filter for query language. The query data is also incomplete, so combine it with the inquiries you actually receive and with what customers tell you.
Compare equal time windows. A low click count can come from a small audience, limited visibility, or pages that were only recently indexed, and it doesn't prove the translation method failed. Getting more qualified inquiries is a different result from getting more impressions.
Our bilingual website service explains the approach. For a smaller starting point, see websites for local businesses and the pricing guide.