Building a website for a business in Malta: what to plan for

Businesses in Malta serve an unusual mix of people: locals, tourists, international students and expats, many of whom find you before they arrive on the island. A website here has to work for all of them, and it has to follow EU rules on privacy, cookies and, for many businesses, accessibility.

This guide draws on two websites we have built in Malta: The Charcole, a charcoal grill restaurant in Marsaskala with menus and table reservations, and EduDirect, a study-abroad portal for a consultancy in Żebbuġ with a course finder, university fair registration and an employer login. We are a web team based in Angamaly, India, and we say below how working with a team outside Malta works in practice.

Start with who is really visiting

Many of your visitors are not in Malta yet. A tourist chooses dinner from a hotel room, and a student compares countries months before applying. Decide who your main visitor is, what they need to decide, and what they are likely to search for from where they are.

English is one of Malta's two official languages, and most business websites here are in English. If a large share of your customers come from one country, a well-written page in their language can help. A machine-translated copy of the whole site usually does not.

Restaurants and hospitality: menu, table, directions

People choose a restaurant on their phone in a few seconds: does it look good, what does it cost, and can I get a table tonight? The Charcole website answers those three questions.

• The look matches the food. A dark, warm design suits a charcoal grill far better than a bright template.
• The menu is on the page with euro prices, not a PDF. Chef's picks lead into the full menu, including Chicken Alfaham in seven flavours.
• "Find a table" is in the header of every page and leads to an online reservation form, with phone and email as alternatives.
• Opening hours, the happy hour, the address and directions are easy to find.

Keep your opening hours identical on your website and your Google Business Profile. When they differ, visitors don't know which to trust.

Education, consultancies and portals: a way in for every visitor

EduDirect's visitors arrive at very different stages. Some haven't chosen a country, some know their course, some only want to register for a fair, and employers want something else entirely. The portal gives each of them a direct way in:

• A page for each study destination: Ireland, Australia, Canada, the UK, Sweden and Germany, plus studying in Malta.
• A "Find My Course" tool that lets students build a shortlist before they talk to a counsellor.
• University fairs listed with the date and number of universities, with registration from the listing.
• A separate "For Employers" section with its own login, so it never gets in the way of students.

The lesson applies to any business with more than one kind of customer. Don't make everyone go through the same home page.

The EU rules your website has to follow

We build the technical side of compliance into every site. The legal wording, such as your privacy notice and terms, should come from your adviser. Here is what applies.

GDPR and your privacy notice

Malta's data protection authority is the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC). Under GDPR, your website needs a privacy notice explaining what personal data you collect, why, how long you keep it and who you share it with. Every form, whether reservations, enquiries or event registration, should collect only what you actually need.

Cookie consent

Malta's cookie rules are in Subsidiary Legislation 586.01, which implements the EU ePrivacy Directive, and the IDPC has published a guidance note on cookie consent. Cookies that are strictly necessary for the site to work need no consent. Analytics, advertising and most third-party embeds do. In practice this means:

• No tracking cookies are set before the visitor says yes.
• Rejecting is as easy as accepting, with no pre-ticked boxes.
• Visitors can change their mind later.

Accessibility and the European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act applies in Malta through Subsidiary Legislation 627.03 and has been in force since 28 June 2025. It covers e-commerce and certain other consumer services, so an online shop or a booking and payment flow may need to meet its accessibility requirements. Microenterprises that provide services (fewer than 10 staff and no more than €2 million in annual turnover or balance sheet total) are exempt. Ask your adviser whether it applies to your business.

Even if you are exempt, the basics are worth doing because they help every visitor: readable text contrast, alt text on images, forms with proper labels, and a site that works with a keyboard and a screen reader.

Being found, on the island and abroad

• A Google Business Profile matters most for anyone with walk-in customers: restaurants, shops, clinics, schools.
• A page for each service or destination lets a specific search land on a specific answer, the way EduDirect has a page for each country.
• If your customers come from abroad, plan your search keywords for the countries they come from, not only for Malta.
• A .mt domain signals a Maltese business, and a .com works fine too. We connect whichever you have.

Working with a web team outside Malta

We don't have an office in Malta, and we don't pretend to. Here is how it works:

• Our office hours, 9:30am to 6:30pm India time, are 6am to 3pm in Malta in summer and 5am to 2pm in winter, so calls work best in your morning.
• Meetings are on video, with email and WhatsApp in between.
• You get a fixed written quote after a free call, listing what is and isn't included. The price is open to discussion.
• Most business websites take three to six weeks. Portals with logins take longer. The biggest factor is how quickly your text and photos are ready.
• We deploy to hosting you already own, including EU hosting, or set hosting up for you.
• Three months of free support after launch cover fixes and small changes, and once the project is paid for, the site is yours.

A checklist for a Maltese business website

• Is it clear in the first screen what you offer and where?
• Can a visitor book, register or enquire from any page?
• Are prices shown in euros on the page, not in a PDF?
• Do the opening hours match your Google Business Profile?
• Is there a privacy notice, and does the cookie banner block tracking until the visitor agrees?
• Have you checked whether the European Accessibility Act applies to you?
• Does the site work well on a phone?

See how this worked for The Charcole and EduDirect on our web development page for Malta, or tell us about your project.