Twenty minutes from Amsterdam
From our office in Haarlem we are in the city quickly. We meet at your business, in a nearby coffee bar or online, whatever fits your schedule best.
CentrumDe PijpJordaanOud-WestOostNoordZuidasNieuw-West
Web agency for AmsterdamWeb design in Amsterdam
Web design in Amsterdam
for an international audience
Smart Design builds multilingual websites, webshops and apps for Amsterdam businesses: for the local resident, the expat and the tourist at the same time, in Dutch, English and Arabic.
Our office is in Haarlem, about twenty minutes from Amsterdam. So we simply come to you, whether you run a café in De Pijp, a studio in Noord or a startup on the Zuidas.
A global city
Not all your customers speak Dutch
People from almost every country in the world live and work in Amsterdam. On top of that come millions of visitors every year who only know the city from a map on their phone. For many businesses, English is therefore the first language in which customers search, book and pay.
Yet we often see websites that exist only in Dutch, or have an English version that was clearly bolted on later: half-translated pages, buttons that stay in Dutch and a checkout an expat cannot follow. That costs customers, exactly at the moment they want to buy.
How we solve that:
- Every language is a complete version, not a translation plug-in
- English as the main language is possible, with Dutch as the second
- Checkout, emails and invoices in the customer’s language too
- Arabic fully right-to-left
- Extra languages such as German or Spanish can be added later
English first?
If most of your customers are international, your site can open in English by default. Dutch and Arabic visitors switch with a single click.
Who we build for
Websites for Amsterdam’s sectors
A canal-side hotel has different visitors than a design studio in Noord. That is why every project starts with your customers.
Restaurants and bars
A menu in several languages, group reservations and online ordering with iDEAL or credit card. Tourists often prefer paying with a foreign card, and we plan for that.
Tourism and experiences
Canal cruises, bike tours, workshops and small hotels: visitors compare on their phone and book on the spot. A fast site with clear time slots and online payment makes the difference.
Creative agencies and studios
Photographers, filmmakers, architects and designers need a portfolio that shows images large and sharp, loads fast and that you update yourself after every job.
Startups and scale-ups
From a first landing page for your launch to a web app with login, subscriptions through Mollie and links to your own tools. We build so you can keep growing later.
Neighbourhood shops
From a concept store in the Jordaan to a speciality shop in Oost or West: a webshop next to your store, with in-store pick-up and delivery within the city.
Services for expats
Estate agents, relocation agencies, lawyers, dentists and coaches who mainly serve international clients: a professional English-language site with a clear enquiry form.
Local SEO
Stand out among hundreds in Google Maps
Search for "brunch" or "barber" in Amsterdam and you do not get three results, but dozens of businesses within a few streets. Google then chooses mainly on distance, relevance and trust. A site that loads fast, says clearly which neighbourhood you are in and answers in the searcher’s language scores on all three.
Tourists also often search in English, even when they speak German or Spanish themselves. With an English version Google can show separately, you reach a far larger group than Dutch-speaking searchers alone.
What we set up:
- Neighbourhood name in titles and copy, for example De Pijp or Oud-West
- Separate, findable pages per language with hreflang
- Structured data with address, opening hours and menu
- Link to your Google Business Profile and reviews in several languages
- Loading times that stay good on 4G by the canal
How your customers search
- best brunch De Pijp
- barber near Dam Square
- restaurant Jordaan booking
- bike tour Amsterdam English
- photographer Amsterdam-Noord
- web design Amsterdam
Live fast, ready to grow
A startup wants to test quickly and then keep building without starting over. That is why we build on Laravel and Vue, with code your own team can take over later.
- Landing page for your launch or waiting list
- Subscriptions and payments through Mollie
- Links to your CRM, email tool or own API
- English-language admin panel for an international team
Webshops
Sell to everyone who visits the city
Many Amsterdam shops get customers who visit the store once and then go home, to Berlin, London or Dubai. With your own webshop, they can simply keep ordering from you.
We build webshops with Mollie, so you offer iDEAL to Dutch customers and credit card, Apple Pay and Klarna to everyone else. Shipping costs per country, prices with or without VAT and order confirmations in the customer’s language are all managed in your own admin panel.
- iDEAL, cards, Apple Pay and Klarna through Mollie
- Shipping within the Netherlands, the EU and beyond
- In-store pick-up or delivery within the city
- Products, stock and orders in one admin panel
MoMollie
Visa
MasterCard
Apple Pay
Klarna
PNPostNL
Process
How your Amsterdam site comes together
A standard website is usually live within 10 to 20 working days.
01
Choose languages and audience
We look at who your customers are: residents, expats or tourists. Based on that we choose the main language, the order of languages and the key search terms.
02
Design and copy
You approve the design. We prepare the copy for each language and make sure every version reads naturally, not like a literal translation.
03
Launch and visibility
The site goes live on your domain, is submitted to Google per language and we walk through your admin panel together, in the language you prefer.
Our work
Hospitality and creative projects
M
Menuify
menuify.nl
A complete SaaS platform for restaurants: QR menu, online ordering and delivery, point of sale (POS), kitchen display and accounting.
SaaSLaravelReactPOS
CR
Camelia Restaurant
cameliarestaurant.nl
Restaurant website with online menu and ordering, connected to a point-of-sale system (POS), kitchen display and automatic invoices.
LaravelReactPOSKeukenscherm
NB
Nanikas Beauty
nanikasbeauty.com
Multilingual beauty webshop for skincare, make-up, hair and fragrance, with Mollie payments and a fully translated admin panel.
LaravelFleetCartWebshopMollie
FAQ
Questions about web design in Amsterdam
Yes. Amsterdam is about twenty minutes from our office. We are happy to visit you for the first meeting and key moments; the rest often happens by video call and WhatsApp.
Yes. You choose the main language yourself. Many businesses with international customers open in English and offer Dutch and Arabic as second and third languages. Google gets a separate address for each language.
We write and check copy in Dutch, English and Arabic, languages we speak ourselves. For other languages we work with your translator or prepare a structure where you add them later.
With a complete Business Profile, regular new reviews, a fast site that names your neighbourhood and pages in the languages customers search in. We handle the technical side and give you a short checklist to keep up yourself.
That depends on the number of languages, pages and features such as bookings or a webshop. After a short conversation you receive a quote with a fixed price.
Yes. We first look at what is there. Sometimes improving it is enough, sometimes rebuilding is smarter. We redirect existing pages to their new addresses, so you do not lose your positions in Google.
You get a three-month warranty on what we built, we make daily backups and remain available for new languages, pages or features.
Business in Amsterdam?
One site for the whole global city
Tell us who your customers are and which languages they search in. You get a personal reply within one working day, in Dutch, English or Arabic.