How to Run a Multilingual News Site with Auto-Translation

A multilingual news website lets you reach readers who search in their own language, often with less competition than in English. Auto-translation makes this practical for small teams, but only if you plan the site structure, review quality and do keyword research in each language. This guide explains the choices you need to make and the mistakes to avoid.

Option 1: One language per site, or one multilingual site?

There are two common ways to run news in more than one language.

One site per language

You run separate WordPress sites, for example example.com in English and hindi-example.com in Hindi. Each site has its own domain, categories and audience.

One site with language subdirectories

You run one site with a folder for each language, for example example.com/ for English and example.com/hi/ for Hindi. Usually this is done with a multilingual plugin or WordPress Multisite.

What hreflang does

If the same article exists in English and Hindi, hreflang tags tell Google which version to show to which searcher. A Hindi searcher then sees the Hindi page, and an English searcher sees the English page. Each version should list all versions, including itself.

Hreflang is set up by your multilingual plugin or SEO plugin, or added manually. AI AutoPost does not manage hreflang. It creates translated posts, and you choose how your site structure links them.

For most beginners, one site per language is the easier start. If you already have a strong English site and want to add the same stories in Hindi, a subdirectory setup with proper hreflang is worth the extra work.

Pick languages based on your audience

Do not translate into ten languages because you can. Choose languages where you can actually serve readers.

Ask these questions:

1. Where do my readers live? Check your analytics and Search Console country data.
2. What do they search in? Many Indian users search in Hindi or in their regional language, especially on mobile.
3. Is there enough useful content in that language already? Gaps in local-language coverage are an opportunity.
4. Can someone on my team read it? You need at least one person who can check quality.

Hindi and regional Indian languages such as Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali are a big opportunity. Many readers prefer news in their own language, and local-language coverage of some topics is still thin compared with English.

Start with one extra language. Get it working well, then add another.

Translation quality: always review

Machine translation has improved a lot, but it still makes mistakes. News is especially sensitive because errors can change the meaning of a story.

Common problems to watch for

• Names and places translated literally instead of written correctly.
• Numbers, dates and currencies changed or formatted in a confusing way.
• Idioms and headlines that sound strange or even offensive in the target language.
• Formal vs informal tone that does not match local news style.
• Mixed script, where some words stay in English letters without reason.

A simple review process

1. In the first weeks, publish a small number of translated posts so you have time to check each one.
2. Have a fluent reader review a sample of posts every day.
3. Keep a short glossary of names and terms that must be written a certain way.
4. Update your AI prompt with those rules.
5. Once quality is steady, reduce checks to spot reviews.

A few careful posts do more for your site than many rough ones.

URL slugs: transliterated English or native script?

When your title is in Hindi, what should the URL look like? You have two main choices.

Google can handle both. Keywords in the URL are a very small factor, so this is mostly about user experience and practicality. Many Indian-language news sites use short English or transliterated slugs because they are easier to share on messaging apps and social media.

AI AutoPost creates English, transliterated URL slugs for non-English titles, so your URLs stay clean and shareable even when the title is in Hindi, Gujarati or Japanese.

Whatever you choose, be consistent, and decide before you publish many posts. Changing slugs later means setting up redirects.

Do keyword research in each language

Do not just translate your English keywords. People search differently in each language.

Tips for local-language keyword research

• Search the way locals do. Type your topic in Hindi on Google and look at the autocomplete suggestions and "People also ask" box.
• Check for mixed-language queries. Many Indian users type Hindi words in English letters (Hinglish), such as "petrol ka rate aaj". Others type in Devanagari. Look at both.
• Use Search Console. Once you have some traffic, the Queries report shows exactly what people typed to find you.
• Look at local competitors. See which topics and headline styles local-language news sites use.
• Use keyword tools that support the language. Some tools have limited data for Indian languages, so treat their volume numbers as rough guides.

Put the main keyword in the translated title and the first paragraph, in natural language.

Fonts, encoding and design

Non-Latin scripts need a little extra technical care.

Use UTF-8 everywhere

WordPress uses UTF-8 by default. Also check that your database tables use utf8mb4 collation. Older installs sometimes use latin1, which turns Indian scripts into question marks or broken characters.

Choose fonts that support the script

Many popular Latin fonts do not include Devanagari, Gujarati or Malayalam characters. The browser then falls back to a system font that may look out of place. Pick web fonts built for the script, such as the Noto family, and load only the weights you need so the page stays fast.

Check line height and layout

Indian scripts often need more line height than English. Headlines may be longer or shorter after translation. Test your theme with real translated posts, not just English samples, and check the mobile view.

Set the language correctly

Set the site language in Settings > General. This puts the right lang attribute in your HTML, which helps browsers, screen readers and search engines.

How AI AutoPost's translation fits in

AI AutoPost works at the campaign level. Each campaign reads one or more RSS or Atom feeds and publishes posts into a WordPress category you choose. You can set a campaign to translate content into languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and more.

A typical setup looks like this:

1. Choose sources whose terms allow reuse, and plan to credit them. Our guide on finding RSS feeds covers this.
2. Create a campaign with those feeds and your Hindi category (or your Hindi site).
3. Turn on full-article extraction if the feeds only include summaries.
4. Add a prompt template that asks the AI to translate and adapt the article for local readers, using your glossary rules.
5. Set a minimum word count. Posts below it are saved as drafts for review.
6. Clone the campaign for your next language and adjust the prompt.

Each post's title and content are handled in one AI call, which uses one post credit. You can see the full flow on the how it works page and all settings in the documentation.

Translation alone does not make content original. Add local context where you can, credit the source, and review quality. Our article on whether AI content ranks on Google explains why helpfulness matters more than how the content was made.

Frequently asked questions

Is translated content treated as duplicate content?

Google does not treat a translation as a duplicate of the original, because it serves a different audience. But a low-quality machine translation with no added value can still be seen as unhelpful. Review quality and add context.

Should I use a separate domain for Hindi news?

It depends on your content. If the Hindi site will cover different stories from your English site, a separate site is simpler. If you offer the same stories in both languages, one site with /hi/ and hreflang is usually better.

Are native-script URLs bad for SEO?

No. Google can read them. The main downside is that they turn into long encoded strings when shared in some apps. Many sites prefer short transliterated or English slugs for that reason.

How many languages should I start with?

Start with one extra language that matches your audience and that someone on your team can review. Add more once the first one runs smoothly.

Next steps

Pick one target language, do some keyword research in it, and set up a small test category. When you are ready to automate, check the pricing page for credit packs or download AI AutoPost and try it with the free starter posts.