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A website in French, Dutch and English: necessary in Brussels?

For a Brussels business, the answer is almost always yes. According to the 2024 BRIO language barometer, 81% of Brussels residents speak French, 47% English and 22% Dutch. Every language your website does not speak means customers who cannot find you, or who go next door.

By Jules Rouilly · Updated on

What the figures say

The BRIO language barometer (VUB) asks Brussels residents which languages they speak. Results of its fifth edition, presented in 2024:

  • French: 81% of Brussels residents speak it (down from 95.5% in 2001).
  • English: 47% (up from 33% in 2001), and rising.
  • Dutch: 22.3%, slightly up since 2018.
  • Trilingual in French, Dutch and English: 12.6%.
  • More than 100 different languages recorded in the survey.

Why it helps you get found

Google, Bing and AI assistants treat each language as a separate market. Someone searching for “website laten maken Brussel” or “restaurant near Flagey” only sees pages written in their language. And competition is much weaker in Dutch and English than in French: a clear page in those languages can rank far faster.

Who searches in which language?

  • In Dutch: Dutch-speaking Brussels residents, and Flemish people who come to Brussels to work or go out.
  • In English: expats, EU staff (Etterbeek, Woluwe), international students and tourists.
  • In French: most residents, and visitors from Wallonia.

Doing a multilingual site properly

  • One address per language (for example /nl and /en) rather than a button that swaps the text on the same page: otherwise Google only sees one language.
  • Hreflang tags that tell search engines the three pages are the same page in three languages.
  • Real writing, not raw machine translation: a Dutch-speaking customer spots a word-for-word sentence in a second, and the trust is gone.
  • The words people actually type in each language: nobody searches “site vitrine” in Dutch; they search “website laten maken”.

Which language first?

If the budget forces a choice: start with the language of most of your current customers, then add the one of the customers you want to win. For a restaurant near the EU institutions, English often comes before Dutch. For a tradesperson who also works in the Flemish periphery, it is the other way round.

At Cliko

All three languages are included in every site, €750 to €1,200 (see pricing). The site you are reading is the example: every page exists in French, Dutch and English, each with its own address.

Source

  • BRIO, Taalbarometer 5 (VUB), results presented in May 2024: 1,627 respondents.

Frequently asked questions

Isn’t machine translation enough?

It helps with a first draft, but unreviewed text sounds off and can contain awkward mistakes, about prices or allergens for instance. A review by someone who speaks the language is still essential.

Is a bilingual website mandatory in Brussels?

Not for a private business: language requirements mainly apply to public administrations. It is a commercial choice, and a profitable one.