Web developer in San Diego: Spanish pages planned around your Spanish-speaking customers
For a business serving customers in English and in Spanish, I plan two sets of pages, each from the questions its own customers ask. The Spanish pages carry the services Spanish-speaking customers book, which may not match the English list. My team builds the site in Kolkata, India, and the web developer in San Diego you'll speak to at every step is me.
Overview
One test before any Spanish page
My test for a Spanish version is simple: does someone at the business answer the phone in Spanish? If yes, the site should too, and its Spanish pages lead straight to that person.
Spanish text runs longer than English. Each layout is drawn with room for both, and that's work for the designer on my team. Buttons, menus and form labels get the same room, so neither language is squeezed.
Two audiences
How a bilingual website splits the work
Each language has its own contact route and its own editor. Both sets of pages share one design and one login.
English-speaking customers
- Enquiries go to whoever handles English calls
- Edited by your usual site editor
- Pages labelled as English for search engines
Spanish-speaking customers
- Enquiries go to the person who speaks Spanish
- Edited by whoever writes your Spanish copy
- Pages labelled as Spanish, at addresses of their own
What gets built here
Research, hospitality and defence-supply sites
I'll ask which of these you sell into early in a meeting, since it changes the plan from the first screen down.
- 01Biotech and research firms — every claim stays within what you're allowed to publish, and you sign off the wording.
- 02Hotels and tourism businesses — rooms and views go first, with booking beside them, for guests deciding before they arrive.
- 03Defence suppliers — the approvals you hold are listed on a page of their own, where someone checking you can find them.
What moves the number
What a second language adds to the build
Most of the extra work comes from Spanish pages that can't simply follow the English ones. The rest depends on your sector and your current site.
- How many Spanish pages need copy of their own
- Whether the Spanish pages launch with the English ones or follow in phase two
- A separate contact route for Spanish enquiries
- Which of research, hospitality or defence supply the site sells into
- Claims a research firm needs checked before they're published
- Approvals a defence supplier needs listed, with their reference numbers
Where this comes from
The numbers I'd point you to
The record stands at 900+ projects completed since 2017, and it takes in 600+ projects for US clients.
Both versions sit on one staging link, with a language switch you can try from your own phone. Each Spanish form is sent once as a test, so you can see it land with the right person.
The team works on your schedule, in your time zone.
What a scope from me looks like
A sample first scope for a two-language business
Included
- A written scope: every page and feature as its own line, agreed before work starts
- Design to build, reviewed on a staging URL that stays open the whole project
- Mobile first — checked on a real phone
- Domain, hosting and every account created in your name from day one
- A Spanish contact route that reaches someone who speaks Spanish
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console connected
- A runbook at handover: how to edit it, what renews and when
Phase two
- Spanish pages, if they aren't needed at launch
- A booking page for hotel or tour guests
- Ongoing SEO once the site has traffic to read
- A maintenance plan once the site is live
- Logo and brand design, quoted separately from the build
Not doing
- Guaranteed rankings
Each Spanish page is listed by name, beside the English page it pairs with.
Nearby
Elsewhere in California
If your work is portfolio-led, the Los Angeles page fits; for a software company's marketing site, try San Francisco.
FAQ
What changes with a Spanish version
The Spanish contact route is tested with a real enquiry before launch.
Does a bilingual website need every page in Spanish?
- A bilingual website needs Spanish versions of the pages Spanish-speaking customers use, and those may be a few. I go by your enquiry records: if they book three of your services, those three get Spanish pages first, and the rest can follow. Each Spanish page links to its English partner, so a customer can switch at any point.
Can a translation plugin run the Spanish side?
- A translation plugin can run the Spanish side where those pages are the English ones in another language, and I'll set it up that way when that's the case. Pages that need different content are written and edited by hand, inside the same site. Your Spanish writer sees both kinds in one dashboard, marked by language.
Who keeps both versions up to date?
- Your Spanish writer edits the Spanish pages, in the same editor as the English ones. I'll list the paired pages in the runbook, so whoever changes one knows which other page to check.
Is the Spanish work a separate line in the scope?
- It is. The Spanish pages sit on a line of their own, apart from the build, so you can decide on them by themselves. If you'd rather hold them back for later, the rest of the scope doesn't change.
Can the Spanish pages rank in search?
- Spanish pages can rank for Spanish searches when each one has its own address, a Spanish title and description, and a tag telling search engines which English page it pairs with. I set those up in the build, and Search Console reports on both languages from launch. Each Spanish page also gets its own entry in the sitemap.
Next step
Count your Spanish enquiries
A rough count of the calls and emails that arrive in Spanish is the figure I'd most like to see. It tells us how large the Spanish side should be, and which pages come first. A rough tally from memory is enough to start.
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