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Home / Services / Multilingual Website Design
Multilingual Website Design

Arabic designed independently, not translated

A translated site is an English site wearing Arabic. Separate keyword research, separate copy, genuine RTL layout and hreflang that agrees with your canonicals — that is the difference between an Arabic page and an Arabic-language page.

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Two content strategies
Arabic keyword research run separately. Saudis do not search translated English.
Genuine RTL
Logical properties throughout, mirrored layout, correct numerals and punctuation.
Correct hreflang
Reciprocal, canonical-consistent, and absent where no twin exists.
Arabic typography
Proper Arabic type at proper sizes — not Latin metrics with Arabic glyphs.
Why it matters

Most "bilingual" Saudi sites are one site with a language toggle

Run any of them through a crawler and the same three faults appear: Arabic pages targeting translated English keywords nobody types, an RTL stylesheet bolted on at the end, and hreflang pointing at URLs that do not resolve. Each one quietly caps how far the Arabic side can rank.

The Arabic page targets a literal translation of the English keyword, not the phrase Saudis actually search.

RTL is a mirrored stylesheet, so icons, form fields and number formats point the wrong way.

hreflang points at URLs that 404, so Google never connects the two language versions at all.

Who this is for

Four situations

A Saudi company whose Arabic side underperforms
English ranks, Arabic does not, and nobody can explain why. It is nearly always keyword strategy plus hreflang.
An international brand entering the Kingdom
A global template that needs a real Arabic experience, not a locale file.
A government-adjacent organisation
Arabic is the primary language and English is secondary — the inverse of how most agencies build.
A business adding a third or fourth language
Urdu, Hindi, Tagalog or French for the workforce and visitor market, without multiplying the maintenance burden.

Frequently asked

Do you use machine translation at all?
As a first draft for internal review, never as published copy. Published Arabic is written by Arabic speakers against Arabic keyword data.
Should Arabic live on /ar/ or a separate domain?
A subdirectory in almost every case — it inherits the domain authority. A separate ccTLD only makes sense with a genuinely separate operation behind it.
Can the two versions have different pages?
Yes, and they usually should. Declare hreflang only where a real twin exists; omitting it is correct and better than pointing at a page that is not there.
Do you handle Arabic content ongoing?
Yes — Arabic content strategy and writing are available as a retainer, separate from the build.
What if we only have English content today?
We start with Arabic keyword research and write from that, using the English as a brief rather than a source text.

Free · No obligation

Get a free 3-point audit of your Google Business Profile

Most Saudi businesses show up on Google Maps and then lose the customer, because there is nowhere trustworthy to send them next. Send us your profile link and we will tell you exactly what is costing you enquiries.

  • What your profile looks like to a customer deciding whether to call
  • The three fixes that would move the needle first, in priority order
  • Whether you need a website yet — and an honest answer if you don't
Or request it by email

Reply within one working day. Arabic or English.

Arabic side not performing?

We will crawl both versions and show you exactly where they diverge — no charge.

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