Do you need a bilingual (English and Spanish) website to reach Spanish-speaking customers in the US?
Short answer
Usually not a full mirrored site, but yes to real Spanish pages. A small service business in a mid-size US city with Spanish-speaking customers should publish the pages people use to choose and contact it in fluent Spanish, on separate URLs linked with hreflang, as Google Search Central recommends. Census Bureau data shows 61.1% of US residents who spoke a language other than English at home in 2018-2022 spoke Spanish.
“Across most age groups, the majority of the population who spoke a language other than English at home still spoke English very well.”
Adrienne Griffiths, survey statistician, U.S. Census Bureau
Most small service businesses do not need a full mirror of their website in Spanish on day one, but if Spanish-speaking customers call you, they need real Spanish pages. This guide is for plumbers, roofers, HVAC and cleaning companies, auto shops and other small service businesses in mid-size US cities. It explains which pages to translate first, how Google finds them, and how to tell whether they are working.
Do you need a bilingual (English and Spanish) website to reach Spanish-speaking customers in the US?#
You need Spanish pages that let a Spanish-speaking customer understand your services and contact you, written by a fluent person and published on their own URLs. Whether that grows into a full English and Spanish website depends on who already calls you, who lives in your service area, and whether someone on your team can answer in Spanish.
A full website in English and Spanish, where every page exists in both languages, is the complete version. A smaller and often smarter first step is a set of Spanish core pages: the pages a customer reads before deciding to contact you. Those core pages usually are:
- the home page and the main service pages;
- the service area page, so people know you work in their part of town;
- how to contact you, including whether someone answers in Spanish;
- the questions customers ask before hiring you.
Vecino's approach starts with what a customer checks first: a clear website, a complete Google Business Profile, and pages that answer the questions people actually ask, in English and Spanish.
A translated blog archive can wait. A Spanish contact page is only useful if someone can answer in Spanish, so plan the phone and message side before you publish. If nobody on the team speaks Spanish yet, say plainly on the Spanish page how customers can reach you and in which language, rather than promising service you cannot give.
How U.S. Hispanic customers use English and Spanish online#
The best public data on language comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. It measures the language people speak at home and how well they speak English. It does not measure which language people browse in, so treat it as a guide to your audience, not to their search habits.
The Census Bureau's 2018-2022 American Community Survey found that 78.3% of people age 5 and older spoke only English at home. Among people who spoke another language at home, 61.1% spoke Spanish. Of those Spanish speakers, 61.0% spoke English "very well", and among Spanish speakers ages 18 to 64, 58.3% did.
Read the other way, a large minority of Spanish-speaking adults did not report speaking English very well. In 2019 the Census Bureau counted 67.8 million people who spoke a language other than English at home, and 39% of Spanish speakers spoke English "less than very well".
As Adrienne Griffiths, a survey statistician at the Census Bureau, put it when the 2018-2022 figures were released: "Across most age groups, the majority of the population who spoke a language other than English at home still spoke English very well." That is why the choice is rarely all or nothing. People who speak both languages can move between them from one task to the next, which linguists call code-switching. A good site in English and Spanish lets each visitor pick a language and switch back at any point.
How to check how many Spanish speakers live in your service area#
National figures hide large local differences, and a decision about an English and Spanish website should rest on your own county, not the national average. Before you decide, look up your own county on data.census.gov:
- Search data.census.gov for "Language Spoken at Home" (table S1601).
- Filter the geography to the county or counties you serve.
- Note how many residents speak Spanish at home and how many speak English less than very well.
- Compare that with your own call log: how many recent callers asked for Spanish?
If both numbers are meaningful, Spanish core pages are worth building now. If the county data is high but your call log shows few Spanish callers, that can also mean Spanish speakers are not finding you yet.
Spanish-language website pages, customer comfort and the online ad-spend gap#
Spanish-language website pages matter because hiring a service business means reading details, not just a headline. Someone hiring a roofer reads warranties, payment terms and scheduling details, and reading those in a second language takes more effort. Digital.gov's best practices for multilingual websites say the online experience "must be culturally relevant to achieve an emotional connection with the audience", regardless of language.
Spending data suggests few advertisers are investing there. Nielsen reported in September 2025 that less than 1% of digital ad spend from U.S. online retailers went to Spanish-language websites in Q1 2025. That figure covers large online retailers, not local contractors, so it does not tell you what your competitors spend. It does suggest that Spanish-language websites get little advertising investment.
In a mid-size city, check whether the competitors that show up next to you on Google Maps have any real Spanish pages. If they do not, your Spanish service pages may face less competition for those searches.
English and Spanish website options: full site, Spanish core pages or a translation plugin#
There are three common ways to add Spanish to a small business website: a translation plugin, a set of Spanish core pages written by a fluent person, or a full website in English and Spanish. They differ in cost, upkeep and how well Google can find them, and only the last two give Spanish-speaking customers pages written for them.
Machine translation plugins add a language button and translate pages automatically. They are quick, but Digital.gov says "the use of machine or automatic translations as a sole solution is strongly discouraged even if a disclaimer is added." Plugins that switch language through cookies or browser settings also conflict with Google's advice on separate URLs, covered in the next section.
Transcreation is the alternative. Instead of swapping English words for Spanish ones, a fluent writer adapts the message: the service names people actually use, the tone, and the examples. Digital.gov recommends that any software translation be reviewed by a qualified language professional before it goes live.
A full English and Spanish site makes sense once the core pages are getting calls and you have someone who can answer in Spanish every day. Digital.gov's guidance is that a multilingual site should give a comparable experience to the English one, so a small Spanish section that is complete usually serves customers better than a half-translated site with English menus.
Multilingual SEO for an English and Spanish website: hreflang, separate URLs, subdirectories vs subdomains#
Multilingual SEO is how Google finds and shows the right language version of each page. For a website in English and Spanish, it comes down to a few rules from Google Search Central: keep one language per page, give each language its own URL, link the versions with hreflang, and never redirect people automatically by language.
Google uses the visible content of a page to work out its language. It does not use the lang attribute in your code or the URL. A page that mixes English and Spanish side by side is harder to classify, so keep each page in one language.
Google recommends using different URLs for each language version of a page rather than cookies or browser settings. In practice that means a subdirectory such as example.com/es/ or a subdomain such as es.example.com. Google's own comparison describes subdirectories as easy to set up and low maintenance because they sit on the same host. Subdomains are also easy to set up and allow a different server location. For most small businesses, a subdirectory is the simpler choice.
Each language version should then be linked with hreflang annotations, in the page head, in HTTP headers or in a sitemap. Google's rule is that each language version must list itself as well as all other language versions, and that if page X links to page Y, page Y must link back. Google lists missing return links among the most common hreflang mistakes.
Finally, do not redirect visitors automatically based on what you think their language is. Google warns against it because it can stop users and search engines from seeing all versions of your site.
Language switcher best practices for an English and Spanish website#
A language switcher is the button or link that moves a visitor between English and Spanish, and where you put it decides whether Spanish speakers find your Spanish pages at all. Digital.gov's best practices for multilingual websites are written for federal agencies, but the same rules apply well to a small business site:
- Put the Spanish link in the main navigation at the top right of every English page. The Federal Trade Commission, for example, puts an "En español" link in its global navigation.
- Make the switcher go to the matching page, not the home page. Digital.gov points to the National Cancer Institute, where visitors can go back and forth between English and Spanish pages without going through the home page.
- When a Spanish page links to something only available in English, say so in the link text with "(en inglés)", as USAGov en Español does.
Label the switcher in the language it leads to, so the Spanish link reads "Español" even on English pages. On a phone, keep it visible in the header or the first screen of the menu rather than buried in the footer.
How to measure an English and Spanish website: calls, forms, bounce rate and conversion rate optimization#
The way to know whether Spanish pages are working is to count what Spanish-speaking visitors do on them, not just how many arrive. Set up tracking before the pages go live, so the first month gives you a baseline instead of a guess.
Bounce rate alone will not tell you much. A visitor who reads one Spanish service page and taps to call has done exactly what you wanted. Measure actions instead:
- taps to call, WhatsApp messages and form submissions, split by language version;
- which Spanish pages those contacts started on;
- how many of those contacts became paid jobs.
A tap on the call button is not a customer, so the last line matters most. This is basic conversion rate optimization: look at which Spanish pages lead to contacts that become work, and improve the pages that get visits but no calls. Keep the English and Spanish numbers separate, so a strong English page does not hide a weak Spanish one.
A first-month English and Spanish website plan for a small service business#
A small service business can put a working Spanish section live without rebuilding the whole site. The order below starts with the cheapest checks and ends with measurement, so each step tells you whether the next one is worth doing.
- Check your county's language data and your own call log.
- Complete your Google Business Profile before anything else, since it is often the first thing a customer sees.
- Choose the handful of pages a customer needs to decide and contact you.
- Have a fluent writer adapt them into Spanish rather than running them through a plugin.
- Publish them on their own URLs, such as a /es/ subdirectory, with hreflang linking each pair.
- Add a language switcher at the top right that goes to the matching page.
- Make sure calls and messages in Spanish get answered, then track which contacts become work.
Vecino Marketing builds websites in English and Spanish, and sets up Google Business Profiles, for small service businesses in mid-size US cities. If you want help deciding which pages to put in Spanish first, contact Vecino for a review of your current site.
| Measure | Figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People age 5 and older who spoke only English at home | 78.3% | 2018-2022 | U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year |
| People speaking a non-English language at home who spoke Spanish | 61.1% | 2018-2022 | U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year |
| Spanish speakers age 5 and older who spoke English "very well" | 61.0% | 2018-2022 | U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year |
| Spanish speakers ages 18 to 64 who spoke English "very well" | 58.3% | 2018-2022 | U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year |
| People who spoke a language other than English at home | 67.8 million | 2019 | U.S. Census Bureau |
| Spanish speakers who spoke English "less than very well" | 39% | 2019 | U.S. Census Bureau |
| Option | How it works | What the guidance says | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Translation plugin | Translates pages automatically, often switching language through cookies or browser settings | Digital.gov strongly discourages machine translation as a sole solution; Google recommends separate URLs for each language version | Only as a short stopgap while real Spanish pages are written |
| Spanish core pages | Fluent Spanish versions of the pages customers use to decide and contact you, each on its own URL | Google: keep one language per page, use separate URLs and link versions with hreflang | Spanish-speaking customers already call and someone can answer in Spanish |
| Full English and Spanish site | Every page in both languages, with a switcher that goes to the matching page | Digital.gov: give the multilingual site a comparable experience to the English site | Core pages already bring contacts and Spanish support is available every day |
| Interface element | Recommendation | Example cited by Digital.gov |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish link placement | Global navigation at the top right of every English page | Federal Trade Commission "En español" link |
| Language switcher | Goes to the matching page in the other language, not the home page | National Cancer Institute |
| Links to English-only content | Add "(en inglés)" to the link text | USAGov en Español |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you give me an example of a multilingual website?
USAGov en Español is a well-documented example. Digital.gov notes that it has the same structure, look and feel as USA.gov, while offering content and images that resonate with the Hispanic community. The National Cancer Institute site lets visitors switch between matching English and Spanish pages without going back to the home page.
Can I just use Google Translate or a translation plugin on my website?
Not as your only solution. Digital.gov strongly discourages machine or automatic translation as a sole solution, even with a disclaimer, and Google recommends a separate URL for each language version rather than switching language with cookies or browser settings. A plugin can be a short stopgap while a fluent writer prepares real Spanish pages.
Should my Spanish pages go in a subdirectory or a subdomain?
Google lists both as options. Its documentation describes subdirectories such as example.com/es/ as easy to set up and low maintenance because they share a host, and subdomains such as es.example.com as easy to set up with the option of a separate server location. Most small businesses choose a subdirectory, then link each English and Spanish pair with hreflang.
Does Google use the lang attribute to know a page is in Spanish?
No. Google Search Central says it uses the visible content of a page to determine its language and does not use code-level language information such as lang attributes, or the URL. Keep each page in a single language so the language is obvious.
Sources
- Most Americans Speak Only English at Home or Speak English “Very Well” - U.S. Census Bureau (2023-12-07)
- Nearly 68 Million People Spoke a Language Other Than English at Home in 2019 - U.S. Census Bureau (2022-12-06)
- Hispanic Consumers Overindex on Streaming Consumption Versus Rest of U.S., New Nielsen Report Finds - nielsen.com (2025-09-09)
- Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites - Google Search Central
- Tell Google about localized versions of your page - Google Search Central
- Top 10 best practices for multilingual websites - digital.gov