Localize your website into Urdu
Reach roughly 230 million Urdu speakers, mainly in Pakistan and India, plus significant diaspora in the UK, US, and the Gulf. Urdu shares its grammar and spoken form with Hindi, but is written in the Perso-Arabic Nastaliq script, right to left, and needs the same RTL treatment as Arabic and Farsi. MotaWord translates directly into Urdu with linguists fluent in Nastaliq's specific typographic needs.
230M+
SPEAKERS, NATIVE AND SECOND-LANGUAGE
2
COUNTRIES, OFFICIAL OR SCHEDULED STATUS
RTL
NASTALIQ SCRIPT, RIGHT TO LEFT
A national language with reach well beyond its home country
Urdu functions as Pakistan's lingua franca even where it isn't the majority mother tongue, and it carries real weight in India and among South Asian diaspora communities.
National language
of Pakistan and its primary lingua franca
Scheduled language
one of India's 22 constitutionally recognized languages
Established
diaspora communities in the UK, US, and Gulf states
Rich literary
tradition that carries real cultural weight for its audience
Urdu-speaking markets
Urdu's official status doesn't track population of native speakers directly, a similar dynamic to Punjabi's situation in the same region.
Cultural and technical considerations
Urdu localization mistakes usually come from underestimating the script's typographic demands or confusing it with Hindi.
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Never substitute Hindi content for Urdu, or vice versa
Despite sharing spoken grammar, the script difference alone makes a direct substitution unreadable to the wrong audience.
Nastaliq needs more vertical space than standard Arabic fonts
Its sloping, cursive style requires font metrics tuned specifically for Urdu, not generic Arabic-script fonts, or ligatures will overlap and become unreadable.
Full RTL layout applies here too
Navigation, forms, and icons need the same mirroring treatment as Arabic and Farsi.
What Urdu localization does for search and reach
Standard SEO tooling applies, with RTL and font handling as the main technical checkpoints.
Full layout mirroring affects both usability and mobile-first ranking, the same consideration as Arabic and Farsi.
ur-PK and ur-IN let you target Pakistan and India separately if needed.
Broken or generic Arabic-script fonts hurt both readability and how search engines evaluate mobile page quality.
Translating and localizing a website into Urdu
They share spoken grammar but use completely different scripts and have diverged in formal vocabulary. They need separate translations.
Yes. Generic Arabic-script fonts weren't designed for Nastaliq's cursive style and will render Urdu text incorrectly.
Cost is driven by word count and file format. MotaWord quotes per word with no subscription or platform fee, and turnaround is typically 12 to 24 hours.
What sets our Urdu localization apart
Translators who never substitute Hindi content and understand Nastaliq's typographic requirements.
The same layout mirroring capability we use for Arabic and Farsi applies directly to Urdu projects.
Instant machine-first localization with professional post-editing layered on top, so you can launch fast and refine over time.
Our collaborative translation model gets full-site projects done in hours, not the weeks a traditional agency needs.
Direct access to your project team throughout, with no ticket queue.
Not sure where to start?
Tell us about your site in the chat. Answer one quick question and we'll point you to the right next step.
Need Urdu beyond your website?
MotaWord supports Urdu beyond website localization, from official document translation to live interpretation.
Live on site
USCIS-accepted certified translation for birth certificates, diplomas, transcripts, and other official Urdu documents.
View certified translation → →
Coming soon
In-person interpreters for legal proceedings, medical appointments, school meetings, and business events.
Learn more → →
Coming soon
On-demand VRI and OPI interpreters for remote Urdu-language support, available 24/7.
Learn more → →