Bilingual Website in Urdu and English: Cost, Right-to-Left Setup, Fonts and SEO

A bilingual website in Urdu and English needs a right-to-left layout for Urdu pages, a carefully chosen Urdu font, separate URLs for each language with hreflang tags, and properly written Urdu text. Nastaliq fonts look traditional but are heavier; Naskh is lighter. Expect bilingual work to add 2 language versions of every page to the scope.

Who Needs a Bilingual Website in Urdu and English?

Most Pakistani business websites are in English, yet many customers are more comfortable reading Urdu, especially outside major cities and in sectors such as health, education, agriculture, government services and religious organisations. A bilingual website in Urdu and English serves both groups. It is also more work than translating a few headings, because Urdu reads right to left, uses a different script and has its own font challenges on the web.

This guide belongs to our content series led by the homepage content guide. For Arabic sites, see our Arabic RTL guide, which covers similar technical ground.

Full Urdu, Partial Urdu or Roman Urdu?

Roman Urdu is not a substitute for Urdu script for readers who prefer Urdu, but it is how many people type on WhatsApp and search. Choose based on who your customers are, not on what looks impressive.

What Does Right-to-Left Layout Involve?

Urdu pages need the HTML direction set to right-to-left, so text, menus, columns and alignment flip. The W3C's internationalisation guidance explains setting the direction on the page and handling mixed text, such as English brand names or numbers inside Urdu sentences. Icons with direction, such as arrows, must also flip, while logos and phone numbers should not. Forms need right-aligned labels and correct input direction. Test every page type in Urdu, not only the homepage.

Nastaliq or Naskh: Which Urdu Font?

Nastaliq is the traditional script style most Urdu readers expect in newspapers and books, and many find Naskh-style Urdu text unfamiliar. Nastaliq web fonts, however, are complex and can be large files, which slows pages on mobile data, and their tall letterforms need extra line height. Naskh-style fonts are lighter and simpler to set but look less natural to many readers. Practical steps: use a well-supported Nastaliq web font with only the weights you need, load it efficiently, increase line height, and test on mid-range Android phones over mobile data before deciding.

How Should Search Be Set Up?

Give each language its own URL, for example /en/services and /ur/services, rather than switching language on the same address. Google's documentation on localized versions explains using hreflang annotations so search engines know the pages are equivalents and can show the right one; the language code for Urdu is "ur". Each version should be fully translated, with its own title and description. Search behaviour also differs: some customers search in Urdu script, many in Roman Urdu, so check Search Console to see which terms bring visitors.

How Do You Get Good Urdu Content?

Machine translation gives a rough draft but often produces stiff or wrong Urdu, especially for technical or legal terms. Ask a fluent writer to adapt the content, not translate word for word, and to keep terms consistent. Decide which English terms stay in English, such as "website" or "AC", because that is how customers actually talk. Have someone from your target audience read it before launch.

What Does a Bilingual Site Cost?

Bilingual work adds design for right-to-left layouts, font set-up, a language switcher, separate URLs and content entry in two languages. We scope it on top of our base packages: starter websites from Rs 40,500 and business websites from Rs 85,500. Translation or writing is quoted separately unless you supply the Urdu text. Our content writing guide covers who writes it.

Are There Privacy Considerations?

Your privacy policy and form notices should exist in both languages, so Urdu readers understand what they are agreeing to when they submit details.

Building in Two Languages

See business websites for our bilingual builds.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. W3C — Structural markup and right-to-left text in HTML
2. Google Search Central — Localized versions of your pages
3. Google Fonts — Noto Nastaliq Urdu
4. web.dev — Best practices for fonts

How we researched this: Right-to-left and hreflang guidance reflect W3C and Google Search Central documentation. Font advice on Nastaliq and Naskh is editorial, based on common experience with Urdu web fonts; no file sizes are quoted because they vary by font and subset. Our prices come from the published list.