Picture a small physiotherapy practice in Kleinbasel on an ordinary Monday. The first call comes from a patient in Lörrach who wants to know whether she can pay in euros. Then an email arrives in English from a project manager who has just moved to Basel for a job in pharma and has no idea how Swiss insurance handles physiotherapy. Before lunch, a commuter from Saint-Louis asks, in French, whether the practice is open on Saturdays. Three customers, three countries, three languages, and one website that has to answer all of them before they ever pick up the phone. That is the Basel reality, and it is why a website that works perfectly in Bern or Lucerne can quietly fail here. This guide shows how to build one that serves the whole Basel market without becoming a multilingual mess.

Why Basel is different from every other Swiss market

Most Swiss cities have one dominant language and a mostly domestic customer base. Basel has neither. The city sits on the Rhine at the point where Switzerland, Germany and France meet, and the EuroAirport that serves it actually lies on French soil. Customers, employees and partners cross the border every day, often without thinking about it.

Add to that Basel’s role as one of the world’s centres of the pharmaceutical and life-science industry, with global headquarters such as Roche and Novartis in the city, and a large share of the people who might search for your services work in English. Then there are the cultural institutions and events like Art Basel that bring international visitors each year. A website that only works in Swiss German or only targets the canton leaves much of that potential on the table.

The good news: very few local businesses handle this well. When you search for services in Basel in English, the results are full of directories, generic listings and agencies from elsewhere writing about Basel from a distance. A well-built local website with genuine expertise stands out quickly.

Who is actually looking for your business

Before deciding on languages and pages, it helps to be specific about who arrives on your website and what each group needs to see in the first few seconds.

Most businesses do not need to serve all five groups equally. A dental practice near the Messe will focus on local patients and English-speaking expats. A specialised engineering supplier will care more about corporate buyers and German customers. Decide on your two or three priority groups first, then design the site around them.

Start with your enquiries, not with a sitemap

Most website projects begin with a sitemap: home, about, services, contact. In Basel that order hides the most useful information you already have. Before planning a single page, take your last fifty enquiries, whether emails, calls or form messages, and note three things for each: the language it came in, where the person lives, and what they actually asked.

The result is often surprising. Owners who believe their customers are almost all Swiss and German-speaking discover that a fifth of their enquiries arrived in English, or that customers from Germany keep asking the same question about payment. That list is your real brief. It tells you which language deserves a complete version, which questions belong on the homepage and which pages are missing entirely.

Repeat the exercise once a year. Basel’s customer base shifts with every employer that moves into the region, and a website planned on old assumptions slowly stops matching the people who visit it.

Languages: what Basel businesses really need

The most common question we hear is whether a Basel website needs German, English and French. The honest answer: rarely all three at full depth, but almost always more than one.

English is the strongest second language for most Basel businesses because of the international workforce. French matters if you actively serve customers in Alsace or the French-speaking part of Switzerland. German is the default for local Swiss and German customers.

Whatever you choose, do it properly. Each language needs its own pages with their own addresses, properly connected so search engines show the right version to the right person. A translated page that sits on the same address as the original, or an automatic translation widget, is invisible in search and often embarrassing to read. We explain the technical side in our guide to multilingual SEO in Switzerland.

Expats do not need a translation, they need answers

A translated website answers the questions Swiss customers ask, only in English. People who moved to Basel recently ask different questions. They want to know whether you work with their insurance or need a referral, how appointments and cancellations work, whether invoices come by post or email, how long things take in Switzerland, and whether someone on your team speaks their language.

A short page that answers exactly these questions, written for newcomers, can do more than all your translated service pages together. Give it a name your visitors would recognise, such as “New to Basel? How working with us works”. It shows empathy, removes the uncertainty that stops people from calling, and it answers searches your Swiss competitors never think about.

The same logic applies to neighbours from Germany and France. A few honest lines on how cross-border clients work with you are worth more than a second price list nobody keeps up to date.

Three countries, one website: the practical details

If you serve customers on both sides of the border, small details decide whether they trust you enough to get in touch.

• Prices: show CHF as the main currency. If you regularly serve German or French customers, add a short note on how you invoice them (CHF or EUR, VAT handling) instead of a second price table that has to be kept up to date.
• Phone and contact: a Swiss number with the international format (+41) is fine; add a contact form and email so customers abroad are not forced to call internationally.
• Service area: state plainly where you work. “We serve Basel, Baselland, Lörrach and Saint-Louis” is clearer than a vague “the whole region”.
• Data protection: Swiss businesses follow the revised Federal Act on Data Protection. If you actively target customers in the EU, the GDPR can apply as well; your privacy policy and cookie banner should reflect that.
• Imprint: a complete imprint with company name, address and contact is required for Swiss businesses offering goods or services online, and builds trust with German customers who expect one.

None of this is complicated, but each missing piece makes a visitor from across the border wonder whether you really serve them. A clear service area and pricing note often does more for cross-border enquiries than any marketing text.

Credibility for life-science and corporate buyers

If you sell to the pharmaceutical, biotech or medtech sector, your website is part of a supplier evaluation, whether you know it or not. Buyers and project leads check it before the first call, and often again before signing.

What they look for is rarely design. They look for evidence that you understand their world: quality processes, confidentiality, relevant certifications, experience with regulated environments, and named people who are responsible. A page that explains how you handle confidential documents or validated processes says more than a slogan about innovation.

One caution for companies working close to medicines: Swiss law restricts advertising prescription medicines to the public. If you are a supplier or service provider to the industry, describe your services and expertise, not specific products, and let your client’s regulatory team review anything that touches their products.

Recruiting international talent through your website

Basel businesses compete for skilled people with some of the largest employers in the world. Your careers page is often the first thing a candidate reads, and many of them read it in English.

A good careers page answers the questions candidates actually have: what the role involves day to day, which languages are used at work, how the team is organised, whether hybrid work is possible, and how the application process runs. For candidates moving from abroad, a short note on what you help with (permits, relocation, language courses) is a strong signal that you have done this before.

Keep job listings on your own website, not only on job boards. They bring search traffic, they stay findable after the listing ends elsewhere, and they show visitors that your company is growing.

Being found in Basel: local search

For local services, a large share of new customers comes through Google Maps and local search results. Three things matter most.

First, a complete Google Business Profile with the right category, opening hours, photos and the service area you actually cover, including German or French towns if you serve them. Second, consistent company details everywhere: the same name, address and phone number on your website, in local.ch and search.ch, and in industry directories. Third, pages that match how people search: “physiotherapy Basel English-speaking” or “Steuerberatung Basel” need a page that clearly covers that service in that place.

Basel itself is small enough that district names matter for some businesses. If your customers think in terms of Grossbasel, Kleinbasel, Gundeldingen or Riehen, mention the areas you serve naturally in your text. Our local SEO guide for Switzerland walks through the full setup.

A border is also a search border

Search engines treat countries as separate markets. Someone in Lörrach searching on Google in Germany sees mostly German results, even though your office may be a short tram ride away. If you want those customers, your website has to give search engines a reason to show you across the border.

Three things help. Mention the German and French towns you serve on the pages where they matter, in natural sentences rather than keyword lists. Include them in your Google Business Profile service area. And earn a few mentions from the other side of the border: a regional association, a partner, a local directory. None of this guarantees visibility, but without it you remain almost invisible to customers who live closer to you than many Swiss ones.

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What a Basel website costs

Most Basel businesses need at least two languages, so the comparison below assumes a bilingual website with around ten pages per language, over three years including running costs.

A classic agency project usually means a large upfront invoice and separate costs for hosting, maintenance and every change. Our subscription spreads the work into a fixed monthly fee: CHF 49 for one language, CHF 69 for two, billed annually, with Swiss hosting, updates and a yearly design refresh included. If you also want fresh content in both languages every week, the Growth plan adds eight blog posts a month for CHF 199. All details are on our web design prices page and the website subscription page.

Five mistakes we see on Basel websites

1. English as an afterthought. A single "English" page that summarises the German site in three paragraphs tells international visitors they are second-class customers.
2. No word on cross-border service. Customers from Germany and France leave because they cannot tell whether you serve them.
3. Machine translation without review. Automatic translations of technical or legal content create misunderstandings and cost credibility, especially with corporate buyers.
4. Stock photos of laboratories. Life-science buyers recognise generic lab images instantly. Real photos of your team and your work build far more trust.
5. A careers page that only lists vacancies. Candidates want to know how you work, which languages you use and what you offer, not just job titles.

How we build websites for Basel businesses

We work remotely with clients across Switzerland, with personal meetings in the region when they help. The process starts with a free 30-minute call in which we clarify your priority audiences and languages. From there we plan the page structure, write the texts with you, design and build the site, and take care of hosting, updates and changes afterwards.

Because the website is part of a subscription, it does not freeze after launch. You can add a new service page when you expand to Germany, publish a job ad in English the same day you need it, and refresh the design once a year without a new project. If you are comparing options, our guide on how to choose a web design agency in Switzerland lists the questions worth asking any provider, including us.

Asel Mamytova

Founder of Clear Design Experts. She builds bilingual websites for Swiss SMEs and international firms, with a focus on clear structure, honest pricing and content that brings enquiries.

Updated November 2026. Legal notes are general information, not legal advice.

Web design in Basel: frequently asked questions