If your customers are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia or the Gulf, many of them would rather read your site in Arabic, and others, including partners and expats, in English. A bilingual site can double your reach, but only if the Arabic version feels native rather than translated. Here is what I check on every Arabic and English site I build, including this one.
Give each language its own address
Each language needs its own URL, for example / for English and /ar/ for Arabic. Avoid switching the language with JavaScript on the same URL: search engines will index only one version, and visitors cannot share a link in their language.
Link the two versions of every page with hreflang tags so Google shows the Arabic page to Arabic searchers and the English page to everyone else. Most multilingual plugins, such as Polylang or WPML on WordPress, add these for you once the pages are linked as translations.
Right to left is more than flipping the text
In Arabic the whole layout reads from right to left: the logo moves to the right, menus and icons are mirrored, arrows point the other way, and forms align to the right. Check every section, not just the text. Sliders, galleries, timelines and progress steps are where RTL most often breaks.
Watch out for mixed content. An Arabic sentence that contains an English brand name, a phone number or a list of technologies can scramble its word order. Isolating these parts so they keep their own direction fixes it.
Choose an Arabic font on purpose
Many site themes are designed only for Latin fonts. When Arabic text falls back to a default system font, it looks out of place next to your English typography. Pick an Arabic font that matches the character of your Latin font, and give Arabic headings a little more line height, because Arabic letters reach higher and lower than Latin ones.
On this site, Arabic uses IBM Plex Sans Arabic beside Inter Tight for English, and the Arabic version of my name is written in Ruqaa calligraphy.
Write the Arabic, do not just translate it
Word-for-word translation is the fastest way to lose trust. Headlines that work in English often sound stiff in Arabic. Decide on a tone your customers recognise. Formal Arabic suits government and corporate clients. Simple, warm Arabic that both Egyptians and Gulf readers understand suits most brands. Then rewrite each page in that voice.
Short slogans need the most care. A phrase that works as an English tagline may need a different idea in Arabic, not the same words.
Translate everything around the text too
- Page titles and meta descriptions in Arabic, so search results show Arabic.
- Image alt text in Arabic on Arabic pages.
- Forms: placeholders, error messages and the thank-you message.
- WhatsApp buttons with an Arabic pre-written message.
- Buttons, menus and footer, including small labels such as “Read more” and “Next”.
- Social sharing image, so a shared Arabic link shows an Arabic preview.
Keep both versions in sync
The most common problem appears months after launch: an offer or a price changes in English and nobody updates the Arabic page. Agree on who owns each language, and update both together. Keep numbers such as prices, counts and phone numbers identical in both versions.
A quick checklist
- Separate URLs per language and hreflang links between them.
- Every section tested in RTL, on desktop and mobile.
- Mixed Arabic and English lines displayed in the right order.
- An Arabic font chosen to match the brand.
- Arabic copy rewritten in one consistent tone.
- Titles, descriptions, alt text, forms and WhatsApp messages in Arabic.
- A language switcher on every page that opens the same page in the other language.
Planning a bilingual site?
Most of the sites in my work are Arabic, English or both, such as Farhan Almarsomi with its language switcher, and my own skincare store Lev`N, which runs in Arabic and English on Shopify. If you want your site in both languages without the Arabic version feeling like an afterthought, tell me about your project.
