LA Speaks Over a Hundred Languages. A Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood Approach to Multilingual Marketing

Short answer: In Los Angeles County, 55.1% of residents speak a language other than English at home and a third were born outside the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. Spanish is the largest, but Korean, Chinese, Armenian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Persian and many others anchor whole neighborhoods. LA businesses that market in the language of the neighborhoods they serve, on the platforms those communities actually use, reach customers that English-only competitors miss.

01The county in numbers

Census QuickFacts puts LA County at about 9.7 million people, with 55.1% speaking a language other than English at home, 33.4% foreign-born, 49.3% Hispanic or Latino and 16.6% Asian. The county's population has also declined about 3.2% since 2020, which means businesses compete harder for the customers who remain.

The City of Los Angeles itself publishes major announcements in Spanish and Korean as well as English, a signal of how central multilingual communication is here.

Why one translation strategy doesn't fit LA

A Koreatown dental office, a Glendale law firm, a San Gabriel Valley restaurant and an East LA auto shop serve different communities with different languages, media and expectations. Marketing works best when it follows the neighborhood:

• Language: Spanish, Korean, Chinese (often both traditional and simplified), Armenian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Persian and more.
• Platforms: Google and Instagram for most, but also community-specific apps, messaging platforms and media.
• Trust signals: staff who speak the language, reviews from community members, local partnerships.

A neighborhood-first multilingual plan

1. Map your customers, then your languages

Look at where your customers live and what languages they prefer. Ask on intake forms. Start with the one or two languages that represent the most current and potential customers.

2. Build key pages in those languages

Translate and adapt your homepage, top services and contact page, written by fluent speakers. Mention which team members speak which languages.

3. Make your Google profile multilingual

Add language capabilities to your description, post updates in multiple languages and reply to reviews in the language they were written in.

4. Run ads by language and neighborhood

Separate campaigns by language with native creative, targeted to the neighborhoods where each community lives. Track results separately.

5. Show up in community spaces

Community newspapers, cultural events, houses of worship, associations and creators who speak to that audience build trust that ads alone can't.

6. Answer in the customer's language, fast

An AI follow-up agent can reply to inquiries in the language they arrive in within minutes, then hand off to a team member who speaks it.

The bottom line

In a county where more than half of residents speak another language at home, multilingual marketing isn't a nice-to-have. Start with your customers' languages, build the key pages and profiles, run ads by language and neighborhood and answer quickly. See how we help Los Angeles businesses reach every community they serve.

Frequently asked questions

Which language should an LA business add first? The one your current and potential customers use most. For many businesses that's Spanish; in some neighborhoods it's Korean, Chinese or Armenian.

Is automatic website translation good enough? Not for important pages. Use fluent writers or reviewers so the message reads naturally and builds trust.

Do multilingual pages help SEO? Yes. Properly built language versions let you rank for searches in those languages, where competition is often lower.

Sources

• QuickFacts: Los Angeles County, California, U.S. Census Bureau
• Mayor Bass marks launch of "LA is Open" campaign, Office of the Mayor (published in English, Spanish and Korean)