- Most Costa del Sol businesses need one, but not in ten languages. Start with Spanish and English, then add only the languages your real customers use.
- Use a separate URL for each language, such as /es/ and /en/ folders on one domain, with hreflang tags. Google recommends this over cookie or browser-based switching.
- Machine translation plus human review is the sensible default. The API fee is small. The review time is the real cost.
Yes, if your customers include people who live in, visit or buy property on the Costa del Sol, you probably need a multilingual website. A multilingual website is one site that serves the same content in several languages, with each language on its own address. The real questions are which languages, how to structure the URLs, and how much human work goes into the translation.
Why one language is rarely enough here
Málaga province had 1,791,183 residents in the latest INE census (2024 data), and 341,229 of them are foreign nationals, or 19%. This article uses that nationality definition. A second report from the same census counts foreign-born residents and puts the share at 23%. The two figures measure different things. Source: Olive Press.
That share is expected to grow. INE projects foreign residents will make up 35% of Málaga province by 2041, according to the Olive Press.
Buyers add another layer. Foreign buyers took 37.01% of all homes registered in Málaga province in Q2 2026. The national foreign share was 15.98% in the same quarter, the highest ever recorded. This is Colegio de Registradores data, reported here.
Tourism points the same way. The Costa del Sol received 14.6 million tourists in 2025, generating more than €21.8 billion, and Brits are nearly 30 per cent of international visitors, per the Olive Press.
What the research says about language and buying
CSA Research surveyed 8,709 consumers in 29 countries. It found that 76% of online shoppers prefer to buy products with information in their native language, and 40% will never buy from websites in other languages. Source: CSA Research.
There is a caveat. In a follow-up from the same firm, buyers confident in reading English were 6.81 times more likely to buy on English-language sites than those with no English. Among people who don't read English well, 67% prefer buying on sites in their mother tongue. Source: CSA Research. English works for many people, but not for everyone.
Which languages to choose
Do not pick languages from a census table alone. Pick them from your own customers: enquiry emails, booking nationalities, analytics, and what your sales team hears on calls. The public data tells you where to look, not what to build.
| Language | Evidence | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | The local default and the language of the authorities. | Everyone |
| English | Britons are the largest foreign group in Málaga province (49,298 people). The UK sent 13,554 hotel tourists in November 2025, and the US 7,718. | Almost everyone |
| Dutch | Dutch buyers were 6.94% of foreign acquisitions nationally. In Marbella, 89% of Dutch buyers are non-resident (91% in Estepona). | Property, legal, relocation services |
| German | 6.11% of foreign purchases nationally; 11,369 German residents in the province. | Property, health, services for long-stay residents |
| French, Italian | French buyers were 4.97% of foreign purchases. Italians are the third-largest foreign group in the province (21,549). | Depends on your niche |
| Finnish and others | Fuengirola is 44.6% foreign, mostly Finns and Brits. | Hyper-local businesses in specific towns |
Sources: the census figures, national buyer shares, tourist numbers, Dutch non-resident share (a local agent's analysis of Registradores data) and town-level census data.
Three things to notice
No single language dominates. British buyers lead nationally at 6.99%, but Dutch (6.94%) and German (6.11%) are close behind. EU nationals made up 57.39% of foreign purchases. Translating only into English leaves part of the market out.
The mix changes by town. Benahavís has 64% foreign residents, Fuengirola 44.6%. A business serving one town can sensibly choose differently from one serving the whole coast.
"English" is not one audience. In November 2025 the US was the second-largest international source of hotel tourists in the province. Check spelling, currency, units and date formats, and consider neutral English over strongly British phrasing.
A sensible starting set
For most businesses in Marbella and the surrounding towns, start with Spanish and English. Add a third or fourth language only when you can name the customers who would use it. If you can't say who would read the Dutch version and what they would do next, wait.
URL structure: how to organise the languages
Google recommends separate URLs for each language version of a page, rather than using cookies or browser settings to switch the language. With separate URLs, hreflang annotations help Google Search point users to the right version. Source: Google Search Central.
| Option | Example | Good | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subfolders | example.com/es/, example.com/en/ | One domain, one analytics setup, simple to maintain | Needs clean routing from day one |
| Subdomains | en.example.com | Can be hosted separately | More to set up and manage |
| Country domains | example.es, example.nl | A clear address for each market | One domain per market, each with its own cost and upkeep |
| Cookie or browser switching | Same URL, language changes by setting | Quick to build | Google recommends against it |
For a local business, subfolders are usually the right answer. This is our recommendation, not a Google rule. You keep one domain and one set of links, and adding Dutch later means adding a folder, not a new site.
Hreflang, done properly
Hreflang tells Google which page is the Spanish version and which is the English one. Two rules from Google catch people out. First, each language version must list itself as well as all other language versions. Second, localized versions count as duplicates only if the main content stays untranslated. A page with only the template translated therefore risks duplicate treatment. Source: Google Search Central.
Do not redirect by location
Locale-adaptive pages, which return different content depending on the visitor's perceived country or language, may not be fully crawled, indexed or ranked, according to Google. So don't force a visitor onto a language page based on location. Show a language switcher, perhaps with a suggestion banner, and let the person choose.
Translation method: machine, human or both
| Method | Cost and speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Raw machine translation | Lowest cost, fastest | Internal drafts only |
| Machine plus native review | Low API cost, plus reviewer time | Most service pages, blog posts, FAQs |
| Professional human translation | Highest cost, slowest | Legal text, pricing, contracts, key sales pages |
| Rewritten per market | Highest cost | Home page and top landing pages in priority languages |
What machine translation costs
In Google's price table, the first 500,000 characters a month are free. Neural machine translation then costs $20 per million characters. Google's LLM translation mode costs $10 per million input characters and $10 per million output characters. Source: Google Cloud.
DeepL's API pricing varies by source and plan, with extra characters quoted anywhere from €22 to $27.50 per million. One tracker lists the Growth plan from €23.80 a month billed annually, with extra characters at €22.00 per million. Check DeepL's own pricing page before you budget.
The API fee is small next to human review and developer time. Choose your method based on what a bad translation would cost you, not on the fee.
Will Google punish machine translation?
Google's spam policy describes scaled content abuse as many pages generated mainly to manipulate Search rankings rather than help users. Source: Google Search Central. The policy does not single out translation.
Third-party analyses say translated pages are fine when accurately adapted to local terminology, law, currency or customer needs. They become risky when machine-translated copies get no language review or keep wrong market details. Source: SEO with Jack. That is an outside interpretation, not Google's statement.
A workable split
- Human-written or professionally translated: home page, main service pages, pricing, legal and terms.
- Machine translation with native review: blog posts, FAQs, secondary pages.
- Left in one language: content with no audience in the other language, such as a local news post.
What to build and in what order
Do the structure first, even if you only launch two languages: language folders, a switcher, hreflang, translatable content fields in the CMS, and layouts that cope with text of different lengths. Building this in from the start is usually easier than retrofitting it, because the content model may have to change.
Then add content in priority order, with the pages that bring in money first. Also translate the things people forget: form labels, error messages, confirmation emails, image alt text, page titles, meta descriptions and the cookie banner. Adapt local details too: euro prices, international phone formats and legal references that fit Spain rather than a generic template.
If you're planning a new build, see our website development work, or use the project planner to scope it. Our pricing page explains how we quote.
Common mistakes
- Translating the template only. Menus in Spanish, body in English. Visitors get a half-translated page and Google may treat the versions as duplicates.
- Too many languages too early. Eight half-checked versions are worse than two good ones.
- Automatic redirects by location. They can stop search engines from reaching all versions.
- One-way hreflang. Each version must list itself and all the others.
- Forgetting maintenance. When you change the English page, someone must update the others. Decide who owns that before launch.
- Wrong market details. Wrong currency, legal text that doesn't apply in Spain, or phone numbers without country codes.
A quick decision guide
- Local trade serving residents (plumber, clinic, gym): Spanish and English. Add a third language only if enquiries show it.
- Hospitality, tours, rentals: Spanish, English, plus the top one or two source markets from your booking data.
- Property, legal, relocation, finance: Spanish, English, and Dutch or German if your enquiries support it. Many Dutch buyers in Marbella and Estepona are non-resident and research from abroad, in their own language.
- Single-town business in a mixed area: check the local nationality mix first. Fuengirola and Benahavís look very different.
If you want a second opinion on scope, get in touch and we'll tell you whether you need one language more or one fewer.
FAQ
Is English enough for a Costa del Sol business?
For some, yes. But CSA Research found that among people who don't read English well, 67% prefer buying on sites in their mother tongue. If your customers include Dutch, German, French or Nordic speakers, English-only may lose some of them. Check your own enquiries before deciding.
Should I use subfolders, subdomains or separate domains?
For most local businesses, subfolders on one domain, such as /es/ and /en/. They are simpler to run and keep your site's links in one place. Separate country domains make sense mainly if you run distinct businesses per market.
Is machine translation bad for SEO?
Google's spam policy targets pages generated mainly to manipulate rankings and does not single out translation. The risk comes from unreviewed copies with wrong local details. Use machine translation as a first draft, have a native speaker edit it, and make sure each version has its own translated main content.
How much does it cost to translate a website?
The machine translation fee is small. Google's neural machine translation costs $20 per million characters after the first 500,000 free each month. The larger costs are human review, professional translation of key pages, and developer time to build proper language support. We can quote once we know your pages and languages.
Do I need to translate my whole site at once?
No. Build the language structure first, then translate the pages that bring in customers. Add the rest as you can review them properly.
