SEO in Kannada, Hindi and Tamil: should your site have a second language

A second-language page earns its place when your buyers ask for it in their own words. They phone and speak Kannada, Hindi or Tamil, or they write to you in it. Or the dealers and shopkeepers who decide are more comfortable reading it. Translation that merely feels inclusive does not earn a page. Start with the few pages that answer a regional buyer's questions, find out how those buyers actually type, and decide who will keep the pages current before you publish.

How do you tell if your buyers need it?

Your calls, WhatsApp messages, enquiry form and Google Business Profile questions record the language in which people approach you. Take the last fifty enquiries and mark each by the language the first message arrived in, not the language you answered in. If a clear share of enquiries open in a regional language, or if the buyer who decides is not the one who writes in English, you have a case. If nearly all arrive in English, even from small-town buyers, a second language may add cost without adding enquiries.

Fill this tally from your phone log and chat history:

The last column matters more than the counts. If the person who decides is the one reading the regional language, a few enquiries can justify a page. Ask your sales team as well: a dealer who says "the owner reads Hindi, the son reads English" is telling you which page to write for which person.

How do people search in these languages?

Not always the way a textbook would write it. Searchers type in the native script, in English letters ("transliteration"), or in a mix of both. They also speak into the phone, which can produce different spellings from typing. The trade word for a part, a machine or a service may be an English word written in Kannada script, or a local word no dictionary lists. Only a customer can tell you which. A Tamil search for a pump, for instance, might use the English term "mono block" written in Tamil letters.

You find the words by listening and by trying. Type the search yourself in the script and in English letters. Ask three customers what they would call the product. Look at the suggestions Google offers as you type. Then write the page using the words your buyer uses.

What is the real cost of keeping it current?

The first translation is the small part. The cost is the second month, when the English page changes and the Tamil one does not. A regional page with an old price, a closed branch or a discontinued product can cost you the trust of the exact buyer you were trying to reach.

Before you commission a page, name the person who will update it, and write down which pages change when the English page changes. A table helps:

If nobody can own it, publish fewer pages, not weaker ones.

Which pages first?

Choose the pages that win or lose the enquiry:

1. The page for your main product or service.
2. The contact page, with the address in the regional language and a click-to-call button.
3. A page of the questions your regional buyers ask, written in their words.
4. The Google Business Profile description, if the buyers use Maps.

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How should the pages be built?

Give each language its own page and address, such as a folder for each language, and link each page to its other-language version so a reader can switch. Mark the page language correctly in the page settings. Avoid tools that translate the page automatically in the reader's browser, since the result is not a page you have checked.

Write the regional version from the buyer's question, not from the English sentence. A good Kannada page for a hardware dealer does not translate "We offer a wide range"; it says what a customer in the town would ask. Have a native speaker edit it who knows the trade. Google's advice on multilingual sites changes, so check the current help pages before you finalise the setup.

A lorry body builder in Salem

An invented example. A body builder in Salem sells to transport owners across western Tamil Nadu. The site is in English. Enquiries are mostly phone calls in Tamil from owner-drivers and small fleet owners, and a few emails from fleet managers in English.

The first move is to put the full site through an online translator and publish it. The Tamil read stiffly. The word for "chassis" came out as a textbook term no driver used. Calls did not change, and two customers ask why the Tamil page quotes a body length the shop does not build.

The builder scraps it, writes down the words customers use on the phone and has a Tamil-speaking friend in the trade read the draft. Three pages go up: the main page for truck bodies, a contact page with the workshop's address, and a page of five questions drivers ask. One person in the office updates them whenever the English page changes. The friend's reading takes two evenings, and the drivers' questions page still needs a second pass after the first calls show what was missed.

When one language is enough

Skip the second language if your enquiries arrive in English, if your product is bought by specifiers and importers, or if you cannot keep the pages current. A strong English site with a regional-language phone answer and WhatsApp reply may serve better. Judge regional pages by the calls they bring, since search volumes in these languages are harder to measure. See how a Kannada and English site can share the work for a worked case in one language pair.

Choose the three pages and the one person

Write down the three pages, the buyer each is for, and the name of the person who will keep it current. Then fill the tally from your last fifty enquiries. Do it before you write a word of translation. A second language is one more way into your wider marketing, and it only pays if the first message really arrives in that language. For planning help, see SEO strategy, or tell us what you need; the final text in each language needs a native speaker to write it.