---
title: Should my business website be in English as well as Portuguese?
source: https://rubradigital.com/answers/should-my-website-be-in-english-and-portuguese
site: Rubra Digital
language: en
description: When a second language is worth it for a small business in Portugal, especially around Cascais and Sintra, and how to add it without hurting SEO.
updated: 2026-10-08
topic: websites
also_asked: Do I need an English version of my website? | Does a bilingual website help SEO? | Is machine translation good enough for a website?
---

# Should my business website be in English as well as Portuguese?

**Summary:** If a meaningful share of your customers are foreign residents, tourists or international companies, yes. In Cascais about one in ten residents holds a foreign nationality, and Sintra and the coast receive visitors all year, so restaurants, clinics, rentals and home services there often get searches in English. Write each language properly rather than machine translating, give each version its own address, link them with hreflang tags, and keep the Google profile consistent. If almost all your customers are Portuguese, put the effort into the Portuguese site first.

## Who usually needs it

- Restaurants, cafés, guesthouses and tour businesses in Sintra, Cascais and
  along the coast.
- Clinics, dentists, schools and home services with foreign residents among
  their customers.
- Small manufacturers looking for buyers abroad, such as the clothing and
  furniture makers of Lousada and Paredes.

## How to do it properly

- Each language at its own address, for example `/pt/` and `/en/`, never
  switched by a script on the same URL, so search engines can index both.
- hreflang tags linking each page to its translation.
- Text written or checked by someone fluent. Machine translation reads as such,
  and visitors notice.
- The legal pages and the complaints book link in both versions.
- Prices, hours and contact details identical in both.

## When to wait

If nearly all of your customers search in Portuguese, a strong Portuguese site
and Google profile come first. An English page with the essentials, meaning what
you do, where, and how to book, can come later.

---

Source: https://rubradigital.com/answers/should-my-website-be-in-english-and-portuguese
Rubra Digital. Websites, online shops, SEO and workflow automation for small businesses in Portugal, since 2019.
Contact: hello@rubradigital.com