· Notes

English and Spanish: a bilingual website guide for small businesses

How to set up an English and Spanish website the right way: separate pages, no auto-redirects, matching Google info. Plain advice for Aurora-area shops.

Lee esta guía en español →

Short answer: A good bilingual small-business website gives each language its own page and web address, lets visitors switch languages with a clear link, and never redirects them automatically. Google recommends separate URLs per language and one language per page. Have a fluent speaker review the Spanish, and keep your name, phone and hours identical.

Why this matters in Aurora

Aurora is a very bilingual city. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, about 33% of Aurora residents age 5 and older speak Spanish at home (roughly 56,000 people, with a margin of error of about ±2,000). About 42% of residents are Hispanic or Latino. The Aurora Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce describes Aurora as home to the largest Hispanic population in Illinois outside the City of Chicago.

The same survey estimates about 20,500 Aurora residents speak Spanish at home and speak English less than "very well". For a salon, auto shop, restaurant or contractor, that's a lot of potential customers who will understand your Spanish page better than your English one. Yet in our check of 171 local business websites, none offered a Spanish version.

The four ways to do it (and which to pick)

1. Separate pages for each language (recommended). Example: yoursite.com/services and yoursite.com/es/servicios. Each page is fully in one language. Google's guidance is to use different URLs for each language version rather than cookies or browser settings to switch the content.

2. Both languages side by side on one page. Tempting, but Google recommends against side-by-side translations and suggests one language per page. It also makes pages long and hard to read on a phone.

3. A translation widget. A button that machine-translates the page on the fly. It's better than nothing, but the wording can come out wrong, and you don't control it. Prices, hours and policies are where mistakes cost you.

4. Automatic redirect by browser language. The site guesses the visitor's language and sends them somewhere. Google advises against this because it can stop visitors and Google from seeing all your versions. Let people choose.

A bilingual setup checklist

Structure

  • One language per page, each with its own web address (for example /es/ for Spanish).
  • A visible "Español" / "English" link at the top of every page that goes to the matching page, not the home page.
  • Tell browsers which language each page is in. The W3C recommends always declaring the language in the page code (the `lang` attribute: `lang="en"` or `lang="es"`). Google notes it uses the visible text, not that tag, to decide the language, so the words on the page still have to be in that language.
  • Link the language versions to each other with "hreflang" tags so Google can show the right one to the right searcher. Your web person can add these in an afternoon.

Content

  • Translate the pages customers actually use first: home, services and prices, hours and location, contact or booking.
  • Have a native or fluent Spanish speaker review every page. Write for how your customers talk, not word for word from English.
  • Keep business facts identical: name, phone number, hours and prices must match across both languages and your Google Business Profile.
  • Translate buttons and forms too. A Spanish page with an English-only booking form loses people at the last step.

Google Business Profile

  • Your Google profile has one business name and one description. Mention in the description that you serve customers in Spanish, if you do.
  • Reply to Spanish reviews in Spanish.
  • If staff speak Spanish, say so on the website and in your profile description.

Phone and chat

  • If calls might come in Spanish, decide who answers them, or say on the Spanish page when Spanish-speaking staff are available.
  • If your site has a chat assistant, make sure it answers in Spanish from wording you've approved.

Common mistakes

  • A Spanish home page, with every other page only in English.
  • A language switch that drops visitors back on the home page.
  • Old hours on the Spanish version because only the English page got updated.
  • Machine translation of menus and service names that customers don't recognize.

How AP Visible handles it

Every AP Visible website includes a chat assistant that answers in English and Spanish from a script the owner approves. We keep your name, phone and hours matching across both languages and your Google profile. The free audit will tell you where your current site stands. Call or text (331) 298-2109.

Frequently asked questions

Should I put English and Spanish on the same page?

Usually no. Google recommends one language per page and separate web addresses for each language. Side-by-side text is also hard to read on a phone.

Is Google Translate good enough for my business website?

It's a start, but not for prices, hours, policies or menus. Have a fluent speaker review the Spanish pages before they go live.

Will a Spanish version of my site hurt my Google rankings?

Google publishes guidance for sites with more than one language: separate URLs per language, no automatic redirects, and hreflang links between versions. Follow that and each version can be found by searchers in its language. No one can guarantee rankings.

How many people in Aurora speak Spanish at home?

About 33% of residents age 5 and older, roughly 56,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

Sources

Written by Priscilla Patel, CEO of AP Visible, which builds websites and manages Google profiles for family-run shops around Aurora and Naperville, Illinois. More notes →

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