Web designer & developer in Richmond, BC.
I build durable websites and custom software for Richmond small and medium businesses — from the professional services around Minoru and Alderbridge to the retail, import/export, and food operators across Steveston, City Centre, and the airport corridor. Fixed-price websites, scope-per-engagement apps, proper bilingual implementation when it’s needed.
Richmond’s customer base is meaningfully bilingual.
More than any other Metro Vancouver city, Richmond operates in two languages at once. Chinese — Mandarin and Cantonese — is a first or primary language for a substantial share of Richmond residents and business owners. Your website needs to work for both audiences or it’s leaving business on the table.
This doesn’t mean auto-translating every page with Google Translate and calling it bilingual. A proper bilingual site has hand-produced copy in both languages, separate URL structures (/en/ and /zh/ or distinct subdomains), language-aware schema markup, and canonicals that don’t confuse Google about which version is authoritative. I scope all of that up front for Richmond SMBs that want to serve both markets.
Beyond language, Richmond has its own business mix: Steveston’s fishing heritage and tourism, the airport-adjacent logistics and import/export cluster, the City Centre high-rise professional services, and the mature retail catchment around Lansdowne and Richmond Centre. Each has its own competitive dynamics. A generic template marketing to all of them is outperformed by a site that takes Richmond’s actual market seriously.
Bilingual technical setup
- Separate URL paths (/en/ vs /zh/) or clean subdomains with hreflang tags signalling the language variants.
- Copy translated by a human, not Google Translate — cultural nuance matters for trust and conversion.
- Language-aware schema markup and canonicals that don’t confuse Google about authority.
- Both language versions indexed and discoverable on the right search engines (including Baidu if you target mainland China).
- Google Business Profile set up consistently in both languages.
Richmond industries I’ve worked with
- Professional services (accounting, legal, consulting) with multilingual clientele.
- Retail and restaurants serving both ethnic-Chinese and broader Metro markets.
- Import/export and logistics operators near YVR and the Fraser Port.
- Tourism operators around Steveston Village and the waterfront.
- Health and dental practices catering to the local community.
Richmond businesses frequently reach into Vancouver and beyond.
Airport-adjacent logistics operators, wholesalers, and professional services often serve customers across the Lower Mainland and beyond. See the Vancouver page for metro context or the Fraser Valley hub if your customer base extends east.
Can you actually build a bilingual English + Chinese site, or do I need a specialist?
I build the site structure, schema, hreflang tags, and technical SEO to properly handle two languages. I don't translate the copy — you provide the Chinese content (or hire a translator) and I implement it into the site. For technical bilingual SEO, this is exactly the right split: the development expertise is in the architecture, the content expertise is with a native speaker who understands your customers.
I've been told my Richmond business should have a second site in Chinese on a separate domain. Is that right?
Usually not. A single site with language-aware URL structure (/en/ and /zh/) and hreflang tags is cleaner, cheaper to maintain, and gives you one Google-ranking authority to build. A separate domain fragments your SEO equity. There are edge cases — if you are specifically targeting mainland China and need Baidu indexing, a .cn domain may make sense — but for Richmond businesses serving local Chinese and English speakers, one site with two language paths is the right call.
My Richmond business has been on Wix for four years and isn't ranking. Is SEO the fix?
Maybe. It depends on whether Wix's structural limitations are what's blocking you, or whether it's a content and strategy problem. An SEO audit is the right way to figure that out — two weeks, fixed price, concrete fix list at the end. Sometimes the audit concludes Wix itself is the obstacle and the answer is a rebuild. Sometimes the audit finds six technical fixes that move rankings without leaving Wix. I'll tell you which honestly.
Running a business in Richmond?
20 minutes on the phone. I reply within one business day with a scope, a price, and a timeline — or a straight answer about why I am not the right fit.
Book a 20-min call