Articles · Local SEO · Updated July 2026
Your customers search in English and Spanish. Here's how to show up on Google and Google Maps for both — from your Business Profile to bilingual keywords.
Your customers search in two languages. A retiree in Boquete googles "dentist near me" in English; a local googles "dentista en Boquete". If your online presence only speaks one language, you're invisible to half your market. Local SEO for an expat business means winning both searches.
For "near me" searches, Google shows the map pack before any website. Claim your Google Business Profile, pick the correct category, add real photos, your hours, and your WhatsApp. Write your business description in both languages. This single free profile usually matters more than your website for local searches.
💡 TD Solutions tip: Reviews are the ranking currency of the map pack. Ask every happy customer for a Google review — in whichever language they speak. A steady trickle of genuine reviews beats a one-time burst.
Google cross-checks your profile against your website: same name, same phone, same address (what SEOs call NAP consistency). Your site should name your area naturally — the town you serve, the neighborhoods, how to find you — and carry the languages your customers actually use. That's exactly how we build sites for expat businesses in Panama.
Don't machine-translate your pages. Search behavior differs by language: English speakers search "boquete coffee tour", locals search "tour de café boquete". Build each language version around what that audience actually types — and connect the two versions with hreflang tags so Google shows the right one to the right person.
It's free and it tells you exactly which searches show your business, in which position, and which ones get clicks. Check it monthly: it's how you know whether your English pages are pulling their weight — and which new page to build next.
💡 TD Solutions tip: Local SEO compounds slowly — expect real movement in 3–6 months. The Google Business Profile, though, can start producing calls within weeks.
Want your business found in both languages?
We set up local SEO for expat businesses across Panama — profile, website and bilingual keywords. Free diagnosis, in English.
Chat with us on WhatsAppOf everything that decides your position in the map pack, reviews are what you can move fastest. Google looks at how many you have, how recent they are, and whether you reply. A business with fifteen recent, genuine reviews usually outranks one with five from two years ago.
Two things matter specifically for an expat business. First, ask in the language the customer used with you — a mix of English and Spanish reviews is a strong signal that you genuinely serve both markets, and it reassures the next reader in either language. Second, ask at the moment the work is finished and the person is happy. Sending the direct review link over WhatsApp removes almost all the friction.
Reply to every review, including the bad ones. A calm, specific answer to a complaint builds more trust with the person reading than twenty unanswered five-star ratings.
Never buy reviews or ask friends to invent experiences. Google detects the pattern, and the penalty can be suspension of the whole profile. Getting it back is slow and sometimes impossible.
Most expat-run businesses in Panama don't have a storefront. They work from home, visit clients, or operate online. That creates the single most common mistake we see: inventing an address, or using a mailbox service like the ones in most Panamanian shopping centres.
Don't. Google verifies addresses, and a mailbox address shared with hundreds of other businesses is a known pattern. The correct solution already exists and is free: set your profile up as a service-area business. You define the areas you cover — Panama City, Coronado, Boquete, wherever you actually work — and your address stays hidden.
You will rank a little less strongly in searches made from far away, because distance is one of the three ranking factors Google uses. But you keep your profile safe, and a suspended profile ranks nowhere at all.
Use a Panamanian phone number. A foreign mobile number on a Panamanian business profile is a mismatch signal, and more practically, many local customers won't call an international number.
A citation is any place online that lists your business name, address and phone. Consistency across them tells Google your business is real. The rule is simple and strict: the details must match your profile character for character. "+507 6000-0000" in one place and "6000 0000" in another reads as conflicting information.
Generic international directory lists are mostly a waste of time here. These are the ones that carry weight in Panama:
These do double duty: they reinforce your local signals and they send you real referral traffic from people already looking.
Expat life in Panama concentrates in specific places, and each behaves like its own local market. Someone in Boquete searching for a service is not going to hire a provider in Panama City, and Google knows it.
If you serve one of these areas, say so explicitly on your website and in your service area: Panama City (Costa del Este, Punta Pacífica, Casco Antiguo), Coronado and the Pacific beaches, Boquete and Volcán in Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, Pedasí and the Azuero peninsula.
"Web design in Boquete" is a search almost nobody competes for. "Web design in Panama" is fought over by every agency in the country. The narrower search brings fewer visitors, but they are far closer to hiring you.
The wrong way to run a bilingual site is to publish the same page twice and hope Google works it out. The right way is to keep separate pages per language and connect them with hreflang tags, which tell Google that two URLs are the same content in different languages so it can serve the right one to the right person.
Two details people get wrong. The tags must be reciprocal — if the English page points to the Spanish one but not the other way round, Google ignores both. And translation is not enough: Panamanians don't search the way Spaniards do, and a literal translation of an English keyword often produces a phrase nobody actually types.
Verification of your Business Profile can take days, so start it before anything else. Once the profile is verified and properly filled in, movement in the map pack usually shows up within weeks.
Your website is slower. Ranking a new domain in organic results takes months, not weeks, and no honest provider will tell you otherwise. This is why the order matters: profile first, because it's the only part that pays off quickly, then the website as the asset that compounds.
Do I need a Panamanian company to have a Google Business Profile?
No. The profile is about a real business operating at a real location or service area. Company structure is a separate legal question — worth resolving properly, but it doesn't block your profile.
Should my website be in English, Spanish, or both?
Both, if you serve both markets. If you have to start with one, start with the language your paying customers use, and add the second when you can do it properly with hreflang.
My competitors have keywords stuffed in their business names. Should I?
No. Adding keywords to your business name violates Google's guidelines and is a common reason for suspension. Competitors doing it are carrying a risk, not an advantage, and you can report it.
How many reviews do I need?
There's no threshold. What matters is having genuine, recent reviews and replying to them, consistently, rather than a burst once a year.