For businesses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, a website in both Arabic and English is often essential. But a bilingual site is much more than translated text. Done badly, the Arabic version looks broken on mobile, confuses visitors and never appears in Google. This guide covers what a proper Arabic-English website needs, the common mistakes, and how to plan the project.

Why a Proper Arabic Version Matters

• Trust: Arabic-speaking customers, government entities and larger organisations often expect it.
• Search visibility: many people search in Arabic. Without indexable Arabic pages, you cannot appear for those searches.
• Conversion: visitors are more likely to enquire or buy when they can read details in their preferred language.

What a Bilingual Arabic-English Website Needs

1. Right-to-left (RTL) layout

Arabic reads right to left, so the whole layout should mirror: navigation, columns, icons that imply direction, sliders, forms and breadcrumbs. Simply translating text into a left-to-right layout looks wrong to Arabic readers.

2. Arabic typography

Choose Arabic fonts designed for screens, with suitable line height and weight. Latin fonts with “Arabic support” often render poorly. Test headings and body text on phones.

3. Separate URLs for each language

Each language should have its own URL – for example /ar/ and /en/ folders – rather than switching language with cookies or JavaScript. Google needs a distinct URL to index each version.

4. hreflang tags

hreflang tells Google which pages are translations of each other and which language and region they target (for example ar-AE, en-AE, ar-SA). Without it, Google may show the wrong language to searchers.

5. Translated SEO elements

Page titles, meta descriptions, headings, image alt text and, ideally, URL slugs should be written for Arabic searchers – not left in English or machine-translated.

6. Human translation and keyword research

Arabic keyword research matters: people often search with Gulf or colloquial phrasing rather than formal Arabic. A native-speaking writer who understands your industry will outperform automatic translation.

7. Forms, numbers and dates

Make sure forms accept Arabic input, phone fields work with local formats, and prices, dates and numbers display clearly in both languages.

8. A clear language switcher

Put a visible switcher in the header that links each page to its translation, not just to the homepage of the other language.

Common Mistakes

• Machine-translated Arabic with no review.
• Arabic text in a left-to-right layout.
• One URL for both languages, so only one version gets indexed.
• Missing or incorrect hreflang tags.
• Images containing English text with no Arabic alternative.
• Arabic pages that are much thinner than the English ones.

WordPress or Custom?

For most company websites and stores, WordPress with a multilingual plugin (such as WPML or Polylang) and an RTL-ready theme works well, and WooCommerce supports Arabic checkout. Custom-built platforms give more control for complex web applications. Either way, plan bilingual support from the start – retrofitting Arabic later costs more.

How to Plan a Bilingual Website Project

1. Decide which pages need both languages at launch.
2. Do keyword research in Arabic and English for your key services.
3. Budget for professional Arabic copywriting or translation and review.
4. Design key pages in both directions before development starts.
5. Test on real phones in Arabic and English before launch.
6. Check hreflang and indexing in Google Search Console after launch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Arabic URLs?

They are not required, but Arabic slugs can help click-through from Arabic searches. Language folders (/ar/ and /en/) with correct hreflang are the most important part.

Is Google Translate good enough?

Not for a business website. Automatic translation often misses tone, industry terms and local phrasing, and it can hurt trust.

Does a bilingual website cost much more?

It adds translation, design and testing work. See our guides to website costs in Dubai and website costs in Saudi Arabia.

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