Add Urdu to Your Website: Plugins or Separate Pages, Right-to-Left Layout and Hreflang

Why Add Urdu to Your Website?

Many Pakistani customers are more comfortable reading Urdu than English, especially older buyers, people outside the big cities and customers of trades, clinics, schools and home services. An English-only website can lose these visitors at the first paragraph. Adding Urdu shows respect for them and can improve enquiries from searches written in Urdu script. For a business that already has an English site, the question is how to add Urdu without breaking what works.

If you are planning a bilingual site from scratch rather than adding to an existing one, our guide to Urdu and English bilingual websites covers the full design approach.

Which Pages Should You Translate First?

You do not need to translate everything at once. Start with the pages that lead to enquiries: the homepage, your main service or product pages, prices, the about page and contact. Policy pages such as delivery and refunds matter for stores. Blog posts can follow later, based on which topics Urdu-speaking visitors read. A site with five to ten well-translated Urdu pages is more useful than a full machine-translated copy nobody has checked.

Plugin or Separate Pages?

Whichever you choose, each language version should have its own URL so Google can index it, and a visible language switcher on every page.

How Do You Handle Right-to-Left Layout and Fonts?

Urdu is written right to left. The Urdu pages should set the language and direction in the page code, so the browser aligns text, menus and forms correctly. The W3C explains how to declare language and direction in HTML. Check that icons, arrows and form fields flip sensibly. Choose a font designed for Urdu, such as Noto Nastaliq Urdu or a clear Naskh font, and test on mid-range Android phones, since Nastaliq can render small or cramped. Increase line height for Urdu text so it is comfortable to read.

What Are Hreflang Tags and Why Do They Matter?

Hreflang tags tell Google that an English page and an Urdu page are versions of each other, so it can show the right one to each searcher. Each language version lists itself and the other. Multilingual plugins usually add these tags automatically; on custom sites, a developer adds them. Google's documentation on localized versions explains the format. Without hreflang, Google may treat the pages as duplicates or show the wrong language.

Getting Translation Quality Right

Machine translation can produce a first draft, but it often gets business terms, tone and numbers wrong, and it reads stiffly. Have a fluent person review every page. Decide how to handle technical words: many Pakistani readers expect English words like "website", "online" or "delivery" even in Urdu text. Keep prices, phone numbers and addresses identical in both versions, and update both when anything changes. Our guide to website copywriting costs in Pakistan explains how writing and translation work is usually priced.

What Does Adding Urdu Cost?

The cost depends on the number of pages, the platform and whether translation is included. Adding a multilingual plugin and RTL styling to an existing WordPress site is a moderate job; adding an Urdu section to a custom site takes a little longer. Ongoing updates to both languages can be covered by maintenance from Rs 7,200 a month. See our business website packages or ask us to review your current site.

Frequently Asked Questions