A website in Kannada and English for buyers who read both

A borewell contractor's buyers split three ways. Farmers read Kannada. Plot owners from Bengaluru read English. Some read both, then ring anyway to ask what the page says. Build the site in both languages, but not as two copies of the same thing. Decide page by page which language comes first, from who lands on that page. Keep one phone and WhatsApp number on every page in both versions, answered by someone who speaks both. And let the language switch take the reader to the same page in the other language, never back to the home page.

Which language comes first, page by page

Many bilingual sites put one language first everywhere. But buyers in Karnataka can switch language with the subject. A farmer lands on the page about drilling for irrigation; a builder's site engineer lands on the page about borewells for apartments. Each page should open in the language of the person most likely to read it, with the other a tap away.

Here is the decision for a borewell contractor in central Karnataka. Change the pages for your trade, and keep the last column.

The rates row matters most. Both languages read from one table, so a changed rate changes everywhere at once.

Write the Kannada; do not convert the English

A translation plugin turns "casing pipe" into something no driller has ever said. Your customers already use the English words: borewell, casing, motor, HP, feet. Keep those words, and write the sentences around them in the Kannada people speak in Chitradurga, not in a textbook.

Give the writer the facts, not the English page. The English page was written for the plot owner in Bengaluru. The Kannada page is written for a farmer whose first question is whether you have drilled near their village. Those are different pages that happen to share a rate table.

Settle one Kannada spelling of your business name before anything is published. Adapting a campaign into Indian languages explains why three spellings look like three businesses.

The switch, the search and the phone

Give your developer this list; most bilingual-site faults are mechanical.

• The language switch opens the same page in the other language, at the same place.
• Each language version has its own address, such as /kn/ in front of the page name, so search engines can show the right one.
• Page titles and descriptions are written in both languages, not left in English on the Kannada pages.
• Kannada text uses a web font that displays correctly on an old, cheap Android phone. Test it on one before launch.
• Forms accept a name typed in Kannada.
• The WhatsApp button opens a chat with a first line in the language of the page.

Buyers search both ways. Some type in Kannada, some type Kannada words in English letters, some use voice. So a Kannada page title can carry the English words they type beside the Kannada. The pattern for the rate page is: [Kannada title for the drilling rate page, written by your Kannada writer] | Borewell drilling rate, Chitradurga. This post prints no Kannada line itself. The Kannada must be written, or at least checked, by a native speaker who knows your trade, because a title that reads wrongly to a farmer is worse than none.

For example: a borewell contractor in Chitradurga

Take an invented borewell drilling contractor in Chitradurga, details illustrative, with rigs working across Challakere, Hosadurga and Hiriyur, and a steady stream of plot owners from Bengaluru.

The developer made a Kannada version by running the English site through a plugin. The Kannada rate page still showed last season's rate per foot, because nobody had changed it there. Its contact page carried the office landline, while the English site had the owner's WhatsApp. Farmers rang the landline after six and nobody answered.

The owner started again with a real writer and one rule. A Kannada writer, briefed by the owner, wrote the farm, pump and permission pages. Both rate pages now read from one table. Every page in both languages carries the same WhatsApp number, answered by the owner and the site supervisor, who both speak Kannada and English. The permission page says plainly that rules for new borewells differ by area and change. It tells the buyer to check with the local authority before booking.

The rewrite was not tidy. The writer took three weeks over the pages, and the pump page needed a second pass after a farmer read it aloud and found two lines that sounded like an office notice. It cost about ₹15,000 more than the plugin had (an invented figure). Kannada enquiries rose, but the owner could not say by how much, because they had never been counted before.

When one language is enough

Skip the second language when your buyers do not need it. A contractor who drills only for apartment builders in Bengaluru gets little from Kannada pages, though the person answering should still speak it. A dealer who sells only to farmers in two taluks may need only Kannada, with English model numbers.

And do not publish a version you cannot keep up. A Kannada page with old prices costs more trust than no Kannada page. Whatever Kannada goes live should be written or checked by a native speaker, not produced by a tool.

Mark each busy page with its reader's language

Take your five most-visited pages and write beside each one who lands there and which language they read first. A page that opens in the wrong one goes first. Then check that every page carries the same phone and WhatsApp number. Deciding which language leads on which page is website strategy and information architecture, and the copy and build follow it. To talk it through, tell us what you need.