A client who sells agricultural equipment came to us with a clear problem. Their customers were farmers and dealers across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, but their website was only in English. Most enquiries came through phone calls after a dealer explained things in person. We built Hindi and Marathi versions of the site, and within a few months, nearly half their web enquiries were coming through the regional language pages.
Internet use in India is increasingly in Indian languages, and many businesses are leaving customers on the table by being English-only.
Start with who you're actually serving
Don't translate into every language because you can. Look at where your customers are, which languages your sales team speaks with them, and which languages people search in. One or two well-done languages beat six half-done ones.
Translation, not machine output
Machine translation has improved a lot, and it's a useful starting point. But raw machine translation of marketing copy reads awkwardly, and native speakers notice immediately. Technical terms are especially tricky. Sometimes the English term (like "warranty" or "EMI") is what people actually use, written in Devanagari.
Our approach: machine translation as a first draft, then a native speaker who understands the industry reviews and rewrites it.
Technical setup
Separate URLs for each language. For example, /hi/ for Hindi and /mr/ for Marathi. Don't switch languages based only on cookies or browser settings, because search engines need a distinct URL to index each version.
hreflang tags. These tell Google which pages are translations of each other, so the right version appears in search results for the right audience.
A visible language switcher. In the header, labelled with each language's own name: "हिंदी", "मराठी", "English". Not flags. Flags represent countries, not languages, and India alone has many.
Proper fonts. Make sure your web fonts include the scripts you need. Many popular Latin fonts don't support Devanagari, Tamil, Bengali or other scripts. Google Fonts has good options like Noto Sans for most Indian scripts. Check how text looks at small sizes on cheap phones.
Unicode everywhere. Database tables and connections should use utf8mb4. We've seen old sites store Hindi text as question marks because of a wrong database setting.
Design for different text lengths
Translated text is often longer or shorter than the English version. Hindi text can take up more vertical space because of the shape of the script. Buttons, menus and headings that fit perfectly in English can break in another language. Test every layout with real translated content, not placeholder text.
Don't forget the rest of the journey
A translated homepage that leads to an English-only form, English emails and English-speaking support is a frustrating experience. Think about the full journey:
- Form labels and error messages in the selected language
- Confirmation emails and WhatsApp messages
- Who answers the phone when a Hindi-speaking customer calls
Keeping it maintained
The hardest part of a multilingual site is keeping all versions in sync. When you update a price or add a new product, every language needs updating. Build this into your content process, and choose a CMS that makes it easy to see which translations are out of date.
Done well, a regional language website tells customers something important: we want to talk to you in the language you're most comfortable in. That's a powerful message.
