Korean Website Localization Checklist (2026)

Localizing a website for Korea means more than translating it. The Korean version needs its own URLs with hreflang, Korean line breaking and fonts, local address and payment forms, a privacy notice written for Korean law, and registration with Naver as well as Google. This checklist covers each item in the order we would work through it on a project, with links to the official rules behind it.

What does Korean website localization include beyond translation?

Translation changes the words. Localization changes everything a Korean visitor touches: how the URL looks, how a line wraps, which address form appears, how they pay, where they ask a question and which search engine finds the page in the first place.

A useful way to scope the work is to split it into five layers:

If a quote for "a Korean version" only covers the second row, the other four will turn up later as change requests. If you are still deciding whether you need a Korean site at all, start with do you need a Korean website?.

Subfolder, subdomain or .kr domain?

Pick the URL structure before anyone translates a page, because every later step depends on it. Google's guidance on multi-regional sites lists three workable options: a country-code domain, a subdomain, or a subdirectory on a generic domain. It advises against URL parameters such as ?lang=ko.

The .kr point catches foreign companies most often. KRNIC, which runs the .kr registry, states in its FAQ that registrants must have a local presence in Korea. If you do not have a Korean entity or address, a subfolder on your existing domain is usually the practical choice, and it keeps all your existing links and authority in one place.

Whatever you choose, give each language its own URL. Google recommends separate URLs per language rather than switching text with cookies or browser settings, and it advises against automatically redirecting visitors by IP or browser language. Let people choose with a visible language switch.

How should hreflang be set up for a Korean and English site?

hreflang tells search engines that two pages are the same content in different languages. The rules that matter most, from Google's documentation:

1. Every language version lists itself and every other version. If page A points to B but B does not point back, Google ignores the annotations.
2. Use ISO 639-1 language codes, optionally with a region: ko, ko-KR, en, en-GB. A region code on its own is invalid.
3. Add an x-default entry for visitors whose language you do not serve.
4. You can declare hreflang in the HTML head, in HTTP headers or in the XML sitemap. Pick one method and keep it consistent.

A Korean page and its English twin would carry the same three lines in the head:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ko" href="https://example.com/ko/about" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/about" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/about" />

Also translate the title, meta description and Open Graph tags for each language. A Korean page with an English title tag looks broken in Korean search results and in KakaoTalk link previews.

Korean fonts and line breaking

Two technical details make Korean pages look either native or obviously imported.

Fonts. The Unicode Hangul Syllables block alone holds 11,172 precomposed syllables (U+AC00 to U+D7A3), so a complete Korean web font is far heavier than a Latin one. Load a Korean font only on Korean pages, subset it or split it with the CSS unicode-range descriptor, and check that bold weights actually exist in the font you choose. A Latin font with no Hangul glyphs falls back to whatever the visitor's system has, which is how mixed-font pages happen.

Line breaking. Korean puts spaces between words, but browsers will still break a line in the middle of a Korean word by default. The CSS rule word-break: keep-all stops that: MDN describes it as preventing word breaks in Chinese, Japanese and Korean text while leaving other text unchanged. Apply it to Korean headings and body text, then check narrow phone screens for long unbroken strings such as URLs, which may need overflow-wrap: anywhere.

Text length. Korean copy is often shorter than English on the page, so buttons and cards designed around English may look empty, and the reverse happens when an English site is built from a Korean design. Review layouts with real translated text, not placeholder text. For the visual side of a Korean site, see our Korean web design guide.

Address, phone and name fields

Forms built for Western addresses frustrate Korean users.

• Addresses. Korean shoppers expect to search for their address rather than type it into street, city and state fields. Kakao's free postcode service is a common way to do this: its developer guide states that it needs no API key, has no usage limit, can be used commercially at no charge and returns road-name addresses and English addresses from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety database. Store the postcode, the base address from the search and a separate free-text field for the unit or floor.
• Names. Korean names are written family name first. A single "full name" field avoids forcing people to split their name into first and last in the wrong order.
• Phone numbers. Accept numbers with or without hyphens and normalize them on the server. If you also serve international customers, store the country code separately rather than guessing.
• Dates and prices. Korean pages usually write dates as year, month, day and prices in won with no decimals. Format both from data rather than hard-coding them into the translation.

The address search options, including the government Juso API, are compared in Korean address search API: Juso vs Kakao.

Payments, KakaoTalk and Naver

A Korean visitor who is ready to buy or ask a question expects local tools.

Payments. If the site sells anything, Korean card payments and easy-pay wallets are usually handled through a Korean payment gateway (PG), and the contract terms depend on whether you have a Korean business registration. We cover this in detail in Korean payment gateway integration and Toss Payments integration. If you plan to sell to Korean consumers, read Selling online in Korea before you build a checkout, because the mail-order business rules affect what the store must display.

KakaoTalk. Many Korean businesses offer a KakaoTalk Channel as their main chat contact. A channel button next to your contact form, and order or booking notifications through AlimTalk, are covered in KakaoTalk Channel and AlimTalk for business.

Login. If your site has accounts, consider Kakao and Naver login alongside email. See Kakao and Naver login integration.

Privacy notice and consent (consult counsel)

This section is orientation, not legal advice. Korean privacy law has specific requirements for websites, and you should have a Korean lawyer or privacy specialist review your notice and forms before launch.

What the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) text itself says, in summary:

• Privacy policy. Article 30 requires a personal information processing policy that covers, among other items, the purposes of processing, retention periods, third-party provision, outsourcing, how data subjects exercise their rights, and the contact details of the person responsible for privacy. It must be published so people can find it easily.
• Separate consent. Article 22 requires each consent item to be presented separately so people can recognize it clearly, and it lists cases that need their own consent, including processing personal data to promote or sell goods or services. In practice that means separate checkboxes rather than one "I agree to everything" box.
• Overseas transfer. Article 28-8 restricts transferring personal data abroad, which includes overseas storage and outsourced processing, unless one of the listed conditions applies, such as separate consent or disclosure in the privacy policy where the transfer is needed to perform a contract. If your forms post to servers outside Korea, raise this with counsel early.

Keep the Korean privacy notice as its own page, linked from every form and from the footer, rather than a translated copy of your global policy.

Naver Search Advisor and Korean metadata

Google is not the only search engine that matters for Korean visitors. Naver runs its own crawler, called Yeti, and its own webmaster tool, Naver Search Advisor. Registering the site, verifying ownership with a meta tag or HTML file, submitting the sitemap and allowing Yeti in robots.txt are steps Google Search Console does not cover. The full procedure is in Naver SEO for foreign websites.

Two localization details feed into this:

• Write Korean titles and descriptions for Korean pages. Naver's own guide warns against repeated keywords and titles that are identical across pages.
• Make sure the Korean text is in the HTML the server sends. Naver's guide notes that pages whose content loads entirely through JavaScript may not be reflected in search, so server rendering or static generation is the safer choice for the Korean pages.

Mobile-first review

Korean visitors will check your site on a phone first, often after tapping a link inside KakaoTalk or the Naver app, which open pages in their own in-app browsers. Before launch, test the Korean pages in those in-app browsers as well as Safari and Chrome: the language switch, the address search popup, the payment window and any file downloads. In-app browsers handle popups and downloads differently from regular browsers, and that is where checkout and form problems usually show up.

Launch checklist

How we build bilingual sites

NQ Solution is a two-person studio in Korea; the CEO and a director design and build each project themselves. Bilingual structure is part of work we have already shipped:

• EMECS: a Korean and English technical website with hreflang, completed in 2025.
• UNESCO i-WSSM: a Korean and English platform rebuild with language-based routing, now in operation.
• This website: every public page exists in Korean and English with hreflang between them, a sitemap that lists both, and robots.txt rules that allow Naver's Yeti and Google's crawlers.

We do not guarantee rankings in Naver or Google. What we can do is build the structure that lets both engines find, read and correctly pair your Korean and English pages.

Frequently asked questions

What is website localization?

Website localization is adapting a site for a specific market, not just translating its text. For Korea that includes separate Korean URLs with hreflang, Korean fonts and line breaking, local address and payment forms, a privacy notice under Korean law and registration with Naver Search Advisor.

Do I need a .kr domain for a Korean website?

No. KRNIC requires .kr registrants to have a local presence in Korea, so many foreign companies use a subfolder such as example.com/ko/ instead. Google treats country-code domains, subdomains and subfolders as valid options when each language has its own URL.

What are the most popular Korean websites to plan around?

For a localization project, the services that matter most are Naver for search, KakaoTalk for messaging and customer contact, and Korean payment wallets at checkout. Plan Naver Search Advisor registration, a KakaoTalk contact option and local payment methods from the start.

Should the Korean site use a separate CMS?

Usually not. One CMS with language fields side by side makes it obvious when the Korean text falls behind the English. A separate CMS only makes sense when a separate Korean team runs different content.

Can I use machine translation for the Korean pages?

It works as a first draft. Prices, legal notices, product specifications and the privacy policy should be reviewed by a fluent human, and the privacy notice by Korean counsel.

Sources

All checked October 2026.

• Google Search Central, Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites
• Google Search Central, Tell Google about localized versions of your page
• KRNIC (Korea Internet & Security Agency), .kr domain FAQ
• MDN Web Docs, word-break
• Unicode Consortium, Hangul Syllables code chart (U+AC00 to U+D7A3)
• Kakao, Postcode service developer guide
• Korea Ministry of Government Legislation, Personal Information Protection Act (Articles 22, 28-8, 30)
• Naver Search Advisor, Search engine optimization basics

Planning a Korean version of your site? Send us your project details, see how we build websites on the web development in Korea page, or start from the Korea market entry overview.