Multilingual WordPress Websites: Hindi, English and Regional Languages

On this page

1. When a multilingual site makes sense
2. How multilingual WordPress sites work
3. Translation options
4. SEO best practices
5. Real examples
6. Start small

India has hundreds of millions of internet users who prefer to browse in Hindi or a regional language, and many Indian businesses also sell abroad. A multilingual website can reach customers your competitors miss. Here's how to decide if you need one and how to do it properly.

When a multilingual site makes sense

• Your customers are more comfortable in Hindi or a regional language (common for temples, NGOs, local services, agriculture and education)
• You sell to international markets that search in other languages
• Competitors in your area only offer English

If your customers mostly search in English, a well-written English site may be enough. Add languages when there's real demand.

Running many separate regional sites instead? See when WordPress Multisite makes sense.

How multilingual WordPress sites work

A translation plugin (such as WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress or Weglot) lets you create a version of each page in every language, with a language switcher. Each language gets its own URLs, for example /hi/ for Hindi, so search engines can index them separately.

Translation options

• Professional or native-speaker translation: best quality, essential for key pages
• Machine translation with human review: faster and cheaper, fine for large volumes if someone fluent checks it
• Pure machine translation: risky. Awkward wording damages trust, especially in religious, legal or medical contexts.

SEO best practices

• Separate URLs per language, not automatic switching based on location
• hreflang tags so Google shows the right language version to each user (most multilingual plugins add these)
• Translate titles, descriptions and image alt text, not just body content
• Research keywords in each language. People search differently in Hindi than in English, and often in Hinglish.
• Fonts that support Devanagari and regional scripts properly

For URL structures, hreflang codes and checking that Google shows the right version, see hreflang and multilingual SEO for Indian websites.

Real examples

The Our Temples directory includes Telugu content for regional devotees. Manufacturers targeting export markets often add languages for their key buyer countries; see getting more export enquiries.

Temples, trusts and NGOs often need Hindi or regional versions first; see the guide to temple and NGO websites.

Start small

You don't have to translate everything at once. Start with the homepage, key service or product pages and the contact page, then expand based on traffic and enquiries.

Need a site in more than one language? It can be planned in from the start as part of community and manufacturer websites, or added to an existing site.