A website in Brussels: French, Dutch, English… which languages should you choose?

It’s the first question in almost all our Brussels projects: which languages should the website be in? French only, French and Dutch, or three languages including English? The answer depends less on regulations than on your customers, and on your ability to keep each version alive.

Is there a legal obligation?

As a general rule, there’s no legal obligation requiring a private company to make its commercial website bilingual in Brussels. Belgian language laws mainly concern public administrations and employment relations. However, certain information intended for consumers (labelling, instructions, contract terms) may be subject to language rules depending on your sector: if in doubt, have your situation checked by a lawyer.

Choosing your languages based on your clientele

• Local business in a predominantly French-speaking municipality: French is often enough to start, with a well-maintained Google profile.
• Services across the Region or Belgium: French and Dutch become essential.
• International clientele (expats, European institutions, foreign companies): English is often the second most profitable language.
• National e-commerce: French and Dutch at a minimum, with English as a complement. See our guide to selling online in Belgium.

One complete version beats three half-finished ones

A Dutch version reduced to three machine-translated pages does more harm than good: it looks amateurish to the very people it targets. It’s better to launch the website in two languages done properly, then add the third when you’re ready to handle requests in that language.

The technical structure

1. One URL per language, ideally in subdirectories: yoursite.be/fr/, yoursite.be/nl/, yoursite.be/en/.
2. Hreflang tags on every page, indicating its equivalents in the other languages (fr-BE, nl-BE, en).
3. A visible language switcher that links to the equivalent page, not to the homepage.
4. No automatic redirect based on browser language: suggest, don’t impose.
5. Translated URLs: /nl/diensten/ rather than /nl/services/.

We cover these points in detail in our article on SEO for multilingual websites.

Translate, or adapt?

Search vocabulary isn’t the same from one language to another, or from one country to another. Dutch speakers in Belgium don’t always use the same terms as in the Netherlands, and Belgian French speakers have their own expressions. Do keyword research for each language, then entrust the copy to native writers or translators. Translation tools, including AI, are a good starting point, not a finished product.

What you mustn’t forget to translate

• title tags and meta descriptions;
• image alt text;
• forms, error messages and automatic emails;
• legal pages and terms of sale;
• your Google Business Profile, at least its description and services.

What about the domain name?

A .be domain inspires trust in Belgian customers and is a geographic signal for Google. If your business is international, a .com or another generic domain with language subdirectories also works very well. The key is to stay consistent and not multiply domains without reason.

Our experience

We’ve designed trilingual websites for Belgian companies, such as the real estate agency network Rêvimmo, in French, Dutch and English. If you’re preparing a website in Brussels, our web agency in Brussels page presents our services, and our guide to local SEO in Brussels will help you be visible in every language.