Should a Kerala business website use subdirectories or subdomains for separate English and Malayalam language versions?

For most Kerala businesses, subdirectories are the better choice. A structure like example.com/ml/ for Malayalam and example.com/ for English keeps all link equity consolidated under one domain. Every backlink you earn to either language version counts toward the authority of the whole site, not a separate subdomain. Subdomains (ml.example.com) split your domain authority — a significant disadvantage if your site is still building its overall presence. The only scenario where subdomains make sense for Kerala businesses is if the Malayalam and English audiences are genuinely separate business operations with different branding and content teams. Otherwise, subdirectories are preferable from both an SEO and maintenance standpoint.

Does auto-translated content from Google Translate count as original content for Indian language SEO?

No. Google explicitly identifies machine-translated content as a quality signal issue, and since the 2024 Helpful Content and subsequent spam updates, auto-translated pages are treated as low-quality or potentially spam content. For Malayalam and Hindi SEO specifically, auto-translated pages typically fail on two counts: the translation quality is poor enough that native readers immediately recognise it as machine output (increasing bounce rates), and Google's language models are capable of detecting the structural patterns of machine translation. A real-world example: a Kerala news site that published auto-translated Hindi content saw that entire section deindexed within three months. Their competitor who invested in genuine Hindi writers grew to 80,000 monthly sessions from that language version. Auto-translation is not a shortcut — it's a risk.

How do hreflang tags work for a website targeting both Indian English and Malayalam-speaking audiences?

Hreflang tags tell Google which version of a page to serve to which audience based on language and region. For an Indian website with English and Malayalam versions, each page must include hreflang annotations in the HTML head pointing to all language variants, including itself. For Indian English, use 'en-IN' as the language-region code. For Malayalam, use 'ml' — there is no Malayalam-specific region code since Malayalam is primarily spoken in Kerala. The self-referencing requirement is critical: the English page must have a hreflang pointing to itself (en-IN), a hreflang pointing to the Malayalam version (ml), and vice versa. If this is not reciprocal — both pages pointing to each other — Google ignores the entire hreflang set. Implement them in the HTML head as link tags: and .

Multilingual SEO India: English, Malayalam & Hindi on One Site

Indian websites serving multiple language audiences face unique technical SEO challenges — this guide covers hreflang implementation, URL structure choices, and content quality standards for each Indian language version.

March 15, 2026 10 min read Rajesh R Nair

Insights

Multilingual SEO India: English, Malayalam & Hindi on One Site

Indian websites serving English, Malayalam, and Hindi readers need correct hreflang implementation, a deliberate URL structure choice, and genuine content in each language — because Google now identifies auto-translated pages as low-quality content, and a single misconfigured hreflang tag can cause all language versions to be ignored.

Rajesh R Nair

IT Consultant based in Trivandrum with 12+ years helping Indian businesses with technology, SEO, and digital delivery. Learn more →

Rajesh R Nair

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