Local SEO in Spain — where Dutch business owners get stuck

A Dutch business owner expanding into Spain often thinks: "We'll translate the site, register a .es domain, done." Three months later, nothing shows up on Google.es. These are the three differences I explain to every client.

1. Google Maps dominates local — more than in the Netherlands

In Spain, a local query ("alquiler bicis Begur") opens the Map Pack first. If you're not in it, you don't exist. Google Business Profile matters more here than an SEO-friendly website does.

Practical: make sure NAP (name, address, phone) is identical everywhere. Google cross-references it, and a single dash difference in your phone number can suppress your listing.

I've seen Dutch companies invest months in technical SEO while their Business Profile sat half-finished. Reverse the order: profile first, photos, opening hours, categories, then the website.

2. Hreflang for regions, not just languages

Spain has Catalan, Basque, Galician. A Costa Brava business that only declares es as hreflang misses potential Catalan searchers. For tourist regions, adding ca-ES as an alternate is often a free SEO win.

The same logic applies to your rental or admin system itself. If you operate in Catalonia, having Catalan as a real option (not Google Translate over the top) builds trust with both customers and staff. See a bilingual rental system for how to solve this technically and operationally. In my panels, two languages aren't a plugin — they're rails the system runs on. For an English audience that sounds odd, but it's the reality of doing business in this region.

3. Reviews in Spanish, not auto-translated

Spanish customers review on Google in Spanish. Reviews that have been manually translated from English sources rank worse — Google detects it. Ask happy Spanish customers explicitly to leave their review in Spanish, in natural language.

A short follow-up email in Spanish after a stay or rental, with a direct Google link, beats every fancy review automation I've seen. People respond to a human asking, not a templated request from a US-based SaaS.

What also catches Dutch owners off guard

A few smaller things, but they add up:

• Domain extension matters less than you'd think. A .com with proper hreflang ranks fine in Spain. A .es doesn't magically rank either. Geotargeting in Google Search Console plus solid local signals does the work.
• Bing has real share in Spain. Not huge, but the older demographic uses it more than in the Netherlands. Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools — costs ten minutes.
• Page speed on Spanish mobile networks. Coverage in rural Catalonia or Andalucía is uneven. A site that loads in 1.2 seconds in Amsterdam can take 4+ seconds on a 4G connection in a mountain town. Test on slow networks.
• Local backlinks matter more. A link from a Spanish tourism site or local newspaper outweighs ten Dutch directory links. Spend time on local partnerships instead of generic link building.

The biggest mistake

Copy-pasting a Dutch SEO strategy one-to-one. Spanish searchers use different terms, search differently, and convert through different channels. WhatsApp is the default contact method here — not a contact form. Native copy plus local presence outweighs technical SEO perfection.

I write the Spanish copy on my client sites myself (I live here, my partner is Catalan, the language is part of my daily life), not because translation tools can't do it, but because Spanish customers spot a translated site within two paragraphs. If you're operating in Spain long-term, the copy needs to come from someone who actually thinks in Spanish.

When this fits, and when it doesn't

This approach fits if: you're serious about the Spanish market, you have a physical location or service area in Spain, and you're willing to invest in native copy and a local Google Business Profile.

This approach doesn't fit if: you're testing the market with a single landing page, or your audience is exclusively Dutch expats who Google in Dutch anyway. In that case, a translated landing page on your existing site is enough — don't over-engineer it.

A concrete example

For a practical look at how this plays out: the caravanverhuurspanje case — a Dutch company operating in Spain that needs to be found on both markets. Two languages as equal rails, one system, one person maintaining it.

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If you're curious where your site currently stands on Google.es, send me a quick email — I'll give an honest answer within a day, no pitch deck, no audit funnel. Just a look at what's working and what's not. For the broader picture of what I build and maintain, see services.