Millions of Americans search for local businesses in Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and dozens of other languages.
The United States is one of the most linguistically diverse nations in the world. Over 68 million people in the US speak a language other than English at home. In cities like Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Chicago, and Houston, Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean, and Tagalog are spoken by millions of people who search for local businesses in their own language.
If your business serves a community that includes non-English speakers — and in most US cities, it does — there is a significant, underserved local SEO opportunity in multilingual optimization. This guide covers exactly how to optimize your Google Business Profile to appear in searches conducted in languages other than English.
When a Spanish-speaking customer searches "plomero cerca de mí" (plumber near me) on Google, Google's algorithm surfaces results based on the same local ranking factors as an English search: relevance, distance, and prominence. The key difference is that Google uses the query's language to determine relevance — and your GBP content, reviews, and business description in Spanish become relevance signals for Spanish-language queries.
A business with Spanish content in its GBP description, services, and reviews will rank better for Spanish-language searches than an identical business with only English GBP content. This is the core opportunity in multilingual local SEO.
Your GBP business description allows 750 characters. For businesses serving significant multilingual communities, use this space for a bilingual description — key information in both English and your target language.
Example structure (English + Spanish): "Smith Plumbing is a licensed plumbing contractor serving [City] with 15 years of experience in residential and commercial plumbing, water heater installation, drain cleaning, and emergency repairs. Available 24/7.
Smith Plumbing es un contratista de plomería licenciado que sirve a [Ciudad] con 15 años de experiencia en plomería residencial y comercial, instalación de calentadores de agua, limpieza de drenajes y reparaciones de emergencia. Disponible las 24 horas."
Key points:
The Services section of your GBP allows you to list your services with names and descriptions. For multilingual markets, add key services in both languages.
Google allows you to customize service names and descriptions. You can add "Water Heater Installation" as one service entry and "Instalación de Calentadores de Agua" as a second entry — both pointing to the same service.
This multilingual services list directly improves your relevance score for searches conducted in your target language.
Google displays reviews in the language of the reader, with an offer to translate. Reviews left in Spanish by Spanish-speaking customers are visible to other Spanish speakers and serve as relevance signals for Spanish-language local searches.
Encourage reviews in your customers' language:
Respond to reviews in the reviewer's language: When a customer leaves a review in Spanish, respond in Spanish. This signals to Google and to other Spanish-speaking potential customers that you are a business that actively serves the Spanish-speaking community — not just one that happens to have Spanish speakers as customers.
💡 Pro Tip: If you respond to reviews in other languages, ensure your responses are culturally appropriate and naturally written — not machine translated from English. Consider having a bilingual team member review responses before posting.
Google's GBP attribute system includes "Languages spoken" in applicable categories (particularly relevant for healthcare, legal, financial, and personal service businesses). If your staff speaks Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, or other languages, add those languages as attributes.
How to add language attributes:
These attributes appear prominently on your listing and directly signal to multilingual searchers that your business can serve them in their language. For many immigrant communities, finding a business where staff speaks their language is a primary selection criterion.
For businesses serious about serving multilingual communities, a dedicated bilingual or Spanish-language page on your website provides organic search authority that supports your GBP optimization.
Page structure:
/servicios/ or /es/ for the Spanish sectionA Spanish-language service page that ranks for "plomero [ciudad]" organic search also drives local authority signals back to your GBP listing.
GBP Posts can be written in any language. For businesses actively pursuing multilingual markets, alternate your posts — one English, one Spanish (or your target language), or write bilingual posts that serve both audiences.
Post content ideas for Spanish-speaking communities:
Use Google Search Console to identify whether Spanish or other-language keywords are already driving impressions to your website. If Spanish-language queries appear in your GSC Performance report — even with low click rates — that is evidence of untapped multilingual search volume in your market.
Common Spanish local search keywords to target:
| Service | Spanish keyword |
|---|---|
| Plumber | plomero [ciudad] |
| Dentist | dentista cerca de mí |
| Restaurant | restaurante [ciudad] |
| Lawyer | abogado [ciudad] |
| Doctor | médico cerca de mí |
| Auto repair | mecánico cerca de mí |
| Real estate | bienes raíces [ciudad] |
🔥 Quick Win: Use Flento to track your Google Maps ranking for your primary Spanish-language keywords. See where you rank for "plomero [ciudad]" vs. "plumber [city]" and identify which multilingual keywords offer the most growth opportunity in your market.
Multilingual customers represent a significant and often underserved market segment in most US cities. A business that makes the effort to appear in Spanish-language searches, respond to Spanish reviews, and communicate in the languages of its community builds loyal customer relationships that competitors who only optimize for English cannot reach.