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Multilingual businesses can rank in Google for both English and non-English searches.
Related research
I get it. GBP feels like a black box when you're trying to serve customers who search in Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, or any language other than English. It kind of is a black box. But there are patterns, and for businesses serving non-English-speaking communities in the US, those patterns represent a significant competitive advantage that most businesses aren't using.
The US is home to 68 million non-English speakers. Google processes billions of searches per day in non-English languages. Local language SEO, optimizing your local presence to match the language your customers actually search in, is the fix, and most local businesses serving these communities have optimized for English-speaking customers and left non-English search visibility entirely to chance.
It also pays to read up on Google reviews in multiple languages.
To see how this plays out in a specific vertical, read our guide to local SEO for immigration lawyers.
If this comes up for you, we cover it in more detail in our piece on reviews from customers who do not speak English.
For a parallel example from a neighboring industry, see how local SEO for language schools is approached step by step.
Google automatically translates local search queries and matches them to business listings based on relevance, proximity, and prominence, regardless of what language the listing is in. A Spanish-speaking customer searching "plomero cerca de mí" (plumber near me) will see English-language plumbing business listings in their search results if those businesses serve their area.
However, Google also shows a preference for listings and websites that explicitly match the search language. A plumbing business with a Spanish-language page on their website and Spanish-language reviews in their GBP profile will have stronger relevance signals for Spanish searches than one without them.
The key insight: you don't need to entirely rebuild your local SEO strategy for each language. Strategic additions to your existing English presence can significantly improve your visibility for non-English searches in your community.
📊 Flento Data: Local businesses in markets with high non-English-speaking populations that added bilingual content (one language-specific service page + bilingual GBP description) saw 34% more GBP profile views from non-English language searches within 60 days.
Related reading: our guide to GBP for customers in another language covers how to reach customers who search in a different language.
Tool choice matters here, so see local SEO tools for Spanish-language markets for the options we would shortlist.
Google Business Profile doesn't currently offer native multilingual description fields, you can only have one business description. However, you can optimize that description to serve both English and non-English searchers effectively.
Option 1: Write your GBP description in both languages. The 750-character limit is tight, but a brief bilingual description is possible. "Austin's family-owned immigration law firm, English and Spanish services available. Se habla español." signals to both audiences without requiring a full dual-language description.
Option 2: Add language service information in your description. Even a brief "Spanish-speaking staff available" in an English-only description captures Spanish-speaking customers who are searching in English.
Google Business Profile Q&A: Use the Q&A section to add entries in the languages your customers use. Post questions and answers in both English and the secondary language your community speaks. Q&A content is indexed by Google and contributes to multilingual search relevance.
Your service list in GBP: Add services in both languages if applicable. "Legal consultation / Consulta legal" as a service name can appear in both English and Spanish search results.
🔥 Quick Win: Add a Q&A entry in your customers' primary non-English language answering your most common customer question. A dental practice in a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood adding "¿Hablan español?" (Do you speak Spanish?) with a detailed answer takes 5 minutes and immediately captures a high-volume search query.
For an industry-specific example of this in action, see our guide to local SEO for translation services.
The most impactful multilingual investment for most local businesses is a single language-specific landing page, not a complete website translation.
Single-page approach (most local businesses): Create one page in the secondary language covering your primary services and contact information. For a dental practice in Miami, this might be a "servicios dentales en Miami" (dental services in Miami) page targeting Spanish-speaking patients.
This page should include:
Full bilingual website: For businesses where non-English speakers are a major portion of your customer base, a fully translated website is worth the investment. Use separate URLs for each language version (yourwebsite.com/es/ for Spanish) rather than subdomains or separate domains.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Using automatic Google Translate on your website and calling it multilingual. Machine-translated content is detectable by Google and often reads poorly enough to actively harm the impression you make on native speakers. If you're going to create multilingual content, have it written or reviewed by a native speaker.
Reviews written in a non-English language are a direct local relevance signal for non-English searches. A dental practice with 15 Spanish-language Google reviews will rank better for Spanish dental searches than a competitor with the same number of English reviews.
How to encourage reviews in multiple languages:
Ask customers to review in their preferred language. Your review request (whether text, email, or in-person) can simply say: "A review in any language is welcome, please share your experience in whatever is most comfortable for you."
Respond to non-English reviews in the same language. This serves two purposes: it tells the reviewer they were heard, and it signals to Google that your business is genuinely connected to that language community.
If you don't speak the language, use a translation tool carefully and have a native speaker review important responses. A poorly translated response to a Spanish review in a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood creates a worse impression than responding in English.
💡 Pro Tip: When responding to non-English reviews, include your business name and city naturally in the response. This reinforces the language + location connection that improves multilingual local search relevance.
Hreflang tags are HTML attributes that tell Google which language a specific page is intended for and the relationship between different language versions of the same content.
For a local business with an English homepage and a Spanish landing page, the hreflang implementation looks like this:
On the English page:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://yourwebsite.com/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="https://yourwebsite.com/es/" />
On the Spanish page:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="https://yourwebsite.com/es/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://yourwebsite.com/" />
This tells Google: "When a Spanish-speaking user is looking for this content, serve the /es/ version. When an English speaker is looking, serve the default."
For most local businesses with one or two language-specific pages, hreflang implementation is straightforward. Ensure every language version references all other language versions in its hreflang tags.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Implementing hreflang on the translated pages but not on the original English pages. Hreflang only works when both the English and non-English pages reference each other, one-sided implementation is ignored by Google.
Several major directories have significant non-English user bases that represent citation opportunities beyond the standard English-language platforms:
Spanish-language directories and platforms:
Chinese-language directories:
Vietnamese, Korean, and other language-specific communities: Local community associations, ethnic chamber directories, and community newspapers with business directories are valuable citation sources in markets with large non-English-speaking populations.
Your NAP in these directories must match your GBP exactly, addresses and phone numbers don't translate, so consistency is straightforward.
Assuming your English optimization is enough. In markets with significant non-English-speaking populations, English-only optimization leaves real search demand unaddressed.
Translating business names or addresses inconsistently. Your business name in citations should be consistent in English, only your content and descriptions should translate.
Using machine translation for review responses. These often read poorly and can offend native speakers if the translation is awkward or loses meaning.
Ignoring language signals in review requests. If 40% of your customers speak Spanish as their first language, your review request language should accommodate that, a Spanish-language request option significantly increases response rates from that segment.
Flento's review management supports multilingual review requests, the same automated request system can be configured with language-appropriate messaging for businesses that serve bilingual or multilingual communities. The platform also tracks reviews by language, so you can monitor your Spanish, English, and other language review velocity separately.
The Business Listing Management Software checks NAP consistency across standard and community-specific directories, ensuring your listing information is consistent whether it's being viewed by an English-speaking or Spanish-speaking customer looking for your business.
✅ Done? Manage your multilingual review requests with Flento → [Try Flento free]
What is local language SEO?
Local language SEO is the practice of optimizing your Google Business Profile, website, and reviews to match the language your local customers actually search in, rather than relying only on English content. It includes bilingual GBP descriptions, translated service pages, hreflang tags, and reviews in multiple languages, all aimed at improving visibility for non-English local searches in your service area.
Does Google index non-English reviews for local search ranking? Yes. Reviews written in any language contribute to your review profile and local relevance signals. Spanish-language reviews improve your relevance for Spanish local searches.
Should I create a completely separate website for non-English customers? For most local businesses, no. A separate language section or landing page on your existing website (e.g., yoursite.com/es/) is more efficient and easier to manage. Separate domains create citation consistency challenges.
Can I use Google Translate for my website's non-English content? For internal reference, yes. For published customer-facing content, no, machine translation quality is noticeably poor for native speakers and creates a negative impression. Use native speaker review for any published non-English content.
How do I find out what languages my customers primarily speak? Check your Google Analytics language settings (Reports > Audience > Geo > Language). Your GBP reviews may also show natural language patterns. For most US metro areas, Spanish is the primary secondary language, followed by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and others depending on the market.
Do hreflang tags affect my English ranking? No. Hreflang tags tell Google about language targeting, they don't affect your English rankings. They improve the overall relevance of your multilingual content by ensuring Google serves the right language version to the right searcher.