SEO and digital marketing in Spain: the LSSI disclosure and email rules, the exclusion lists and the influencer decree

SEO and digital marketing in Spain run on Google and on two Spanish laws: the LSSI (Ley 34/2002), which sets what your website must disclose, bans unsolicited marketing email and requires consent for cookies, and the LOPDGDD (Ley Organica 3/2018), which requires direct marketers to check the advertising exclusion lists first. Choose an SEO company or marketing agency in Spain by asking how it handles those rules, which of Spain's languages it writes in, and which city market it knows. Keep Search Console, your analytics, your Business Profile and your ad accounts in your own company's name.

The Spanish search and social market in numbers

StatCounter's figures for September 2026 put Google at 93.81% of searches in Spain, Bing at 3.49%, Yahoo at 1.92% and DuckDuckGo at 0.39%. So SEO in Spain is SEO for Google, with Bing a small second.

For social media, StatCounter's referral figures for the same month show Facebook sending 88.97% of the visits that social networks send to websites in Spain, Instagram 5.17%, X (Twitter) 2.51%, YouTube 1.15%, Pinterest 0.85% and LinkedIn 0.69%. These count clicks to websites, not time spent in the apps, but they tell a social media agency in Barcelona or Madrid where measurable traffic comes from.

Spain's languages and its city markets

Article 3 of the Spanish Constitution makes Castilian the official language of the State and says the other Spanish languages are also official in their autonomous communities, under their statutes. For marketing this matters in practice. A business in Barcelona or Mallorca may need Catalan pages beside Spanish ones, and one in Valencia may need Valencian. Check demand for each language in Google's Keyword Planner, with the location set to the region, and give each language its own URL.

English matters too. Keyword Planner shows English searches in Spain for SEO in Marbella, Mallorca, Barcelona and Malaga, and for marketing agencies in Seville and Valencia. If your buyers include foreign residents or English-speaking companies in Spain, write real English pages for them rather than a machine translation of the Spanish site. For Spanish-language buyers, our Spanish guide to choosing an agencia SEO covers the hire in their own language. Google uses the visible text of a page to decide its language, so keep one language per page and connect the versions with hreflang. Our guide to SEO for international sites and hreflang explains the setup.

What a Spanish website must show under LSSI article 10

We read the consolidated LSSI on boe.es, where the latest update was published on 23 January 2025. Article 10 requires a provider to give users permanent, easy, direct and free electronic access to, among other things:

• its name or company name, its address in Spain, an email address and any other details that allow direct and effective contact;
• its entry in the Registro Mercantil or other public register, where it has one;
• details of any prior authorisation its activity needs, and of the body that supervises it;
• for regulated professions, the professional body and membership number, the qualification and the rules that apply;
• its tax identification number (NIF);
• where prices are shown, clear and exact information on the price, whether taxes are included and any delivery costs.

Most Spanish sites publish this on an "Aviso legal" page linked from the footer. An agency building or rebuilding your site should include it from the start.

Marketing email, cookies and the exclusion lists

Email and equivalent messages. Article 21.1 of the LSSI bans sending advertising or promotional messages by email or an equivalent electronic channel unless the recipient asked for them or expressly authorised them. Article 21.2 allows one exception: where there is a prior contract, you obtained the contact details lawfully, and the message promotes your own products or services similar to what the customer bought. Even then, you must offer a simple, free way to object when you collect the details and in every message, and an email must include a valid address where the recipient can exercise that right.

Withdrawing consent. Article 22.1 lets the recipient withdraw consent at any time with a simple notice, and requires providers to offer simple, free procedures for doing so.

Cookies. Article 22.2 allows storage and access on the user's device only with consent given after clear and complete information about its use, in particular its purposes. Technical storage whose only purpose is to carry a communication, or that is strictly necessary for a service the user asked for, is exempt. So analytics and advertising tags wait for consent in the banner.

Exclusion systems. Article 23.4 of the LOPDGDD says anyone planning direct marketing must first consult the advertising exclusion systems that may affect it and remove people who have objected. Consulting the systems on the list published by the data protection authority is enough, and the check is not needed where the person has consented to receive the message. Ask any agency that runs email, SMS or phone campaigns how it does this check.

Influencer campaigns and the "users of special relevance" decree

An influencer agency in Spain should know Real Decreto 444/2024, which we read on boe.es. It defines when a video creator counts as a "user of special relevance" under the General Audiovisual Communication Law: gross income of 300,000 euros or more in the previous calendar year from activity on video-sharing platforms, at least 1,000,000 followers on one platform or 2,000,000 across all of them, and at least 24 videos published in the previous year. Creators who meet the conditions must be entered in the State register. Ask your agency which of its creators are registered and how each paid post is labelled.

What to put in the brief for a Spanish agency

Service	What to ask for in writing
SEO	The pages to be written or fixed each month, in which language, with Search Console in your name
Local SEO in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Malaga or Marbella	A Business Profile owned by you, with real address, hours and photos
Inbound and email marketing	Consent records, the opt-out address in every email, and the exclusion system check
Social media and influencer work	Accounts in your name, the label on every paid post, and which creators are registered
Media buying and paid ads	Media cost shown apart from the agency fee, paid from your own accounts

Agencies in Spain price by monthly retainer, fixed project or hourly rate. Compare quotes on hours, named people, languages, deliverables and exclusions. Refuse any offer that promises a position: Google's own page on hiring an SEO says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."

Questions about SEO and digital marketing in Spain

Does a small Spanish business need an "Aviso legal" page?

If it offers its services online, yes. Article 10 of the LSSI lists the details it must make available, including its name, address in Spain, email, any register entry and its NIF.

Can we email past customers in Spain without fresh consent?

Only under article 21.2 of the LSSI: a prior contract, contact details obtained lawfully, messages about your own similar products, and a free way to object at collection and in every message.

Should a Barcelona business write in Catalan, Spanish or English?

Write in the languages your buyers search in. Check each one in Keyword Planner with the location set to Catalonia, and give every language its own URL.

Is an inbound marketing agency in Barcelona different from an SEO company?

Usually. An inbound agency plans content, email and lead capture around the buyer's journey, while an SEO company focuses on search rankings and the site. Many do both, so ask which part each named person runs.

When can we judge whether our Spanish agency is delivering?

Read Search Console for impressions, positions and indexed pages, the Business Profile performance report for calls and directions, and your enquiries by page. The outcome depends on competition, your offer and your budget.

What a buyer in Spain hears from an assistant

StatCounter's September 2026 chatbot figures for Spain give ChatGPT 77.82% of use, Google Gemini 14.42% and Perplexity 3.93%. A company in Madrid asking ChatGPT in Spanish for an SEO agency, and a villa owner in Marbella asking in English, can receive different names, because each answer leans on the sources the assistant reads in that language. AI Knows Us checks those questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and reports which firms each one names and why.