A website that exists vs a website that sells
Many foreign entrepreneurs in Spain have a website simply because they feel they should. A friend built it, it was cheap, or it came out of a site builder over one weekend. It looks decent, but no enquiries arrive, and customers still come through word of mouth or Facebook groups.
In Tenerife, Málaga or Alicante the problem tends to be the same: the site was designed for customers back home and their habits, yet it operates in a market where people look for services differently. Below are the elements that separate a website that just sits there from one that actually brings in customers.
1. The language your customers search in
If you don't only serve your own expat community, a Spanish version is the starting point, not an extra. In the Canary Islands, English matters too, because many customers are residents from the UK, Germany or Scandinavia.
How those versions are created matters. Machine translation sounds artificial, and a Spanish reader notices it from the first sentence. Each language should have its own titles and descriptions, matched to what people really type into Google, "fontanero Adeje" is not a literal translation of what an English speaker would search for.
2. WhatsApp and a +34 number within thumb's reach
In Spain, WhatsApp is the main way to contact a business. A customer who only sees a form will often close the page and message a competitor who has the green button in the corner.
A good business website has:
- a WhatsApp button visible on every page on mobile,
- a +34 phone number you can call with one tap,
- a short form (name, phone, what it's about) instead of a ten-field questionnaire,
- information on which languages you reply in and during which hours.
3. Speed on a phone, not on an office monitor
Most enquiries to small businesses in the Canary Islands come from a phone, often from the beach, a car or an apartment with weak Wi-Fi. A site that takes five seconds to load loses a large share of visitors along the way.
That's why I build websites with Next.js rather than a heavy theme with a dozen plugins. Images are resized automatically and the page opens almost instantly even on poor coverage. It isn't about looks: Google takes speed into account when ranking, especially in mobile results.
4. A Google Business Profile connected to the site
For a small service business in Spain, the Google Business Profile can matter more than the website itself. It's what shows up on the map when someone searches "electricista cerca de mí" in Costa Adeje.
The website and the profile should work together: the same name, address and phone number, a link from the site to your reviews, and on the site, your service area described with real place names. You can see how this works in practice on the page about local SEO in Tenerife.
5. A specific offer and prices, even approximate ones
Before getting in touch, a Spanish customer wants to know three things: what exactly you do, where you work and roughly how much it costs. A site full of vague lines like "comprehensive, top-quality services" answers none of them.
What works well: separate pages for each main service, photos of real jobs instead of stock images, and "from" prices or sample quotes. In the Canary Islands it's worth stating clearly whether prices include IGIC, the local tax that replaces VAT (IVA), which customers from mainland Spain often don't know about.
6. Legal requirements you can't skip
A business operating in Spain must show its identification details on the website (name, NIF/NIE, address), a GDPR-compliant privacy policy and cookie information. Missing an "aviso legal" isn't just a fine risk, it also tells customers the business is informal.
7. Room to grow
Many businesses start with a simple site and a year later want online bookings, appointment scheduling or deposits. If the site is built on a closed site builder, that usually means rebuilding everything from scratch.
It's better to choose a setup from day one that can take a booking form or a full booking system, just as, for example, clinics and practices do after starting out with a plain website and a contact form.
What it costs
A simple one-page business card site with a form, WhatsApp and a Google profile starts at €590 excluding tax with me. A business website with several pages, a blog and two languages starts at €1,490. Package details and ongoing care are on the pricing page and on the page about business websites in Spain and Tenerife.
Summary
A business website in Spain doesn't need to be large, but it does need to speak the customer's language, load fast on a phone, offer one-tap WhatsApp contact and work together with your Google Business Profile. Add a clear offer, prices that state the tax and the full set of legal information. That's enough for the website to start working for your business instead of merely existing.
Run a business in Tenerife or elsewhere in Spain and not sure what your current website is missing? Get in touch through the contact form, I'll review it and reply with a concrete list of fixes or a quote for a new site.
