Bilingual website checklist for UAE businesses: Arabic and English done properly
What an Arabic and English website needs in the UAE: separate URLs, right-to-left layout, Arabic fonts, hreflang, forms and review. A practical checklist.
By Farhan Memon · · 7 min read · Bilingual websites
A bilingual website in the UAE needs a separate URL for each language, a genuine right-to-left layout for Arabic, an Arabic typeface chosen on purpose, hreflang tags that pair each page with its translation, and Arabic text written or reviewed by a native speaker. Get those five right and both audiences can find and use the site; miss one and the Arabic version quietly fails.
Adding Arabic to a website looks simple from the outside: translate the text, flip the layout, add a language button. In practice most of the problems appear after launch, when an Arabic-speaking customer opens the site on a phone and the menu still reads left to right, the phone number is scrambled, and Google keeps showing the English page. This checklist covers what to get right, in roughly the order it matters.
It is written from building this website, which is published in English and Arabic, and from the right-to-left work I do for clients. It is not a translation guide: the Arabic words themselves should come from a native speaker.
Why bother with Arabic at all?
Arabic is the UAE's official language, and while many business-to-business sites are English-first, consumer-facing businesses are a different case. UAE consumer protection rules require Arabic, at minimum, for much of the information and advertising given to consumers, including information shown by e-commerce providers (u.ae consumer protection). If you sell to consumers, check your position with an adviser; a bilingual site is the safe default. For B2B, Arabic is a choice, but a well-made one signals that you take the market seriously.
1. Give each language its own URL
Google recommends a separate URL for each language version rather than switching content on one address with cookies or browser settings (Google: managing multi-regional sites). The usual patterns are a subfolder (example.com/ar/), a subdomain (ar.example.com) or a separate domain. For most businesses a subfolder is simplest: one site, one hosting account, shared authority.
- Never redirect automatically by location or browser language. Google's crawler doesn't send a language preference, so an automatic redirect can hide one version from search entirely. Let visitors choose, and remember their choice if you like.
- Keep the same slugs in both languages. Google detects language from the visible content, not the URL, and Arabic URLs become long encoded strings when pasted into WhatsApp or email. /ar/services/seo is fine.
- Translate everything on the page, including navigation, footer, buttons, form labels and error messages. A page with Arabic body text and English menus is a mixed-language page, and Google advises against it.
2. Pair the pages with hreflang and canonical tags
hreflang is a tag that tells search engines "this page has a translation, and here it is". Canonical tells them which URL is the main version of a page. On a bilingual site, each language version should list itself and its translation with hreflang, and point its canonical at itself, not at the English page (Google: localized versions).
| Rule | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Return links are mandatory | If the English page points to the Arabic page, the Arabic page must point back. One-way tags are ignored. |
| Self-referencing canonicals | The Arabic page's canonical is the Arabic URL. Pointing it at English tells Google to drop the Arabic page. |
| Language codes | Use "en" and "ar". Add a region (en-AE) only if you have different versions for different countries. |
| x-default | A fallback for visitors whose language you don't serve. Usually the English URL. |
| Only pair live pages | Don't point hreflang at Arabic pages that are unpublished, redirected or set to noindex. |
3. Right-to-left is more than flipping the layout
Setting dir="rtl" on the Arabic page is the start, and it belongs in the HTML rather than in CSS (W3C: structural markup and right-to-left text). The rest is detail work that a stylesheet flip doesn't do for you.
- Layout: build with direction-aware spacing (start and end, not left and right) so columns, margins and alignment mirror automatically.
- Icons and arrows: "next" arrows, chevrons and back buttons mirror. Logos, play buttons, media controls and charts do not.
- Sliders and carousels: swiping and auto-advance should run right to left in Arabic.
- Mixed-direction text: phone numbers (+971 50 123 4567), AED prices, email addresses and product names stay left to right inside Arabic sentences. Isolate them in the markup or they reorder and become unreadable.
- Animation: anything that slides in from one side should come from the other side in Arabic.
4. Choose Arabic typography on purpose
If you don't pick an Arabic font, the browser picks one, and it rarely matches your brand. Choose an Arabic typeface that sits comfortably beside your English one in weight and tone, then set sizes and line spacing for Arabic separately: Arabic usually needs a slightly larger size and more generous line height to read comfortably on a phone. Load only the weights you use, so the Arabic pages are as fast as the English ones.
5. Agree the translation workflow before the build
The most common failure is not technical. It is that nobody owns the Arabic text. Decide early who writes it (your team or a professional translator), who reviews it (a native speaker who knows your business), and that pages only go live once both versions are approved.
Machine translation is a useful first draft, not a finished page. Google's spam policies list translating content automatically without adding value as a form of scaled content abuse (Google: spam policies). An unreviewed Arabic site can do more harm than an English-only one.
Practical tip: keep both languages side by side in the content system or a shared file, so a change to an English page visibly needs a matching Arabic change. Pages that are waiting for review should be kept out of search (noindex) and out of the hreflang pairs until they are approved.
6. Make forms and WhatsApp work in Arabic
- Arabic labels, placeholders, error messages and success messages, not just translated headings.
- Phone fields that accept UAE formats (05x, +9715x, 009715x) and international numbers, since many enquiries come from overseas.
- A WhatsApp link with an Arabic pre-filled message on Arabic pages, labelled "Message on WhatsApp" rather than "Call", because WhatsApp calls are not available in the UAE.
- An unticked consent checkbox in both languages, in line with the opt-in standard in the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, and a privacy notice available in Arabic.
- Emails and auto-replies in the language the visitor used.
7. Mark structured data with the right language
If your pages use structured data (schema markup for your organisation, articles or products), the Arabic version should describe the Arabic page in Arabic, with its language set to Arabic. Structured data must match what is visible on the page, so don't reuse the English values. The same goes for social sharing titles and descriptions, which show up every time an Arabic page is shared on WhatsApp.
8. Test before launch
| Check | How |
|---|---|
| Each language has its own URL and returns a normal page | Open both versions directly; no redirect should happen |
| hreflang pairs point both ways | Crawl the site with an SEO crawler and check return links |
| Canonicals are self-referencing | View the page source on a sample of English and Arabic pages |
| Right-to-left layout holds on a phone | Test on a real phone, not only a resized desktop browser |
| Numbers and prices display correctly | Check every page with a phone number, price or date |
| Forms validate and reply in Arabic | Submit a test enquiry from the Arabic page |
| Language switcher lands on the same page | Switch from several deep pages, not just the home page |
| Arabic text approved by a native reviewer | Record who approved each page and when |
Where to start
If you are planning a new site, decide on both languages at the start: retrofitting right-to-left into a site that was never built for it costs more than building it in. If you already have an Arabic version, run the testing table above on five important pages; it will tell you quickly whether the problems are technical, editorial or both. If you would like help, I build bilingual Arabic and English websites with the engineering and SEO side handled and the Arabic reviewed by a native speaker.
Do I need a separate website for Arabic?
No. A subfolder such as /ar/ on the same domain is usually the simplest option, as long as each language has its own URL and the pages are paired with hreflang.
Is Arabic required on a UAE business website?
No general rule requiring Arabic on every business website was found, but UAE consumer protection rules require Arabic for much consumer-facing information and advertising. Consumer-facing businesses should check with an adviser.
Can I use Google Translate or a translation plugin?
As a draft, yes. As the published Arabic version, no: unreviewed machine translation reads poorly and can count as scaled content abuse under Google's spam policies.
Should Arabic pages have Arabic URLs?
It isn't necessary. Google detects language from the page content, not the URL, and English slugs under /ar/ are easier to share on WhatsApp and email.