Building a website in Arabic takes more than translation. Arabic website localisation covers layout, search, typography and cultural fit, and getting any one of them wrong is what makes a site feel translated rather than built. Here are the key tips for designing Arabic websites, backed by insights and statistics, to help you succeed in this region.
RTL (Right-to-Left) design caters to languages like Arabic and Urdu, which are written and read from right to left. These languages are spoken across the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, and they carry unique design requirements. RTL design adjusts a website’s user interface, layout, and design elements to align with the natural reading direction of these languages.
While an Arabic website may appear as a mirrored version of its English counterpart, ensuring proper display demands considerable effort, including precise alignment of text, images, and navigation elements. Many platforms, including HubSpot, offer built-in RTL support, simplifying the process of adapting layouts and styles. A McKinsey study found that trust in digital platforms alone doesn’t guarantee user satisfaction. Ease of use and cultural alignment matter just as much. An RTL layout keeps your website accessible, culturally relevant and easy to use.
HubSpot offers practical solutions for handling RTL layouts:
Platforms with built-in multilingual support like HubSpot simplify the design process and keep your visuals RTL-compliant. Get text alignment, image placement and navigation right, and the result is a site that reads as though it was built in Arabic. This is where working with an experienced website design and development team pays off, as RTL issues are far cheaper to prevent than to retrofit.
Pro Tip: Always test your RTL design thoroughly on multiple devices to ensure consistency and usability.
The Middle East has some of the highest internet penetration rates in the world, with the UAE and Qatar reaching 100% and 99% respectively. With an audience that size, optimising your website for Arabic search engines is essential, and it is one of the shifts we cover in the future of digital marketing in the UAE. Effective SEO for Arabic websites goes beyond standard SEO practice. It needs tools and techniques built for Arabic keyword research and rankings.
Ahrefs can be a powerful tool for researching Arabic keywords. You can track competitors, find high-performing keywords, and optimise content accordingly. It also allows you to conduct keyword research specific to Arabic-speaking countries. This feature enables you to discover which keywords your competitors are targeting in different Arabic regions and optimise your site for the keywords that matter most in these markets.
Arabic Keywords on AHREFS
Actionable Tip: Use a combination of short and long-tail Arabic keywords, and make sure to optimise your meta descriptions, alt text, and URL structures for Arabic search terms.
Choosing the right domain extension can impact your website’s visibility and credibility. A .ae domain is ideal for businesses focused on the UAE market, signalling local relevance and building trust with regional audiences. Conversely, a .com domain offers international appeal, making it the preferred choice for companies with a broader, global reach. Understanding the distinction between these two options will help you make a more informed choice that aligns with your business goals and growth aspirations.
By opting for a .ae domain, you’re also signalling to your visitors that your business is based in the UAE, which adds an extra layer of credibility. Local consumers tend to trust websites with regional domains as they feel more relevant and tailored to their specific needs. It creates a sense of connection and reliability, which matters when you are building long-term trust.
While a .com domain has global recognition and is ideal for international businesses, it doesn’t always provide the same SEO and local engagement advantages as a .ae domain when targeting UAE customers. A .com extension may not rank as high in local searches, meaning your website might be less visible to potential customers in the UAE compared to competitors using a .ae domain.
To get the most from a .ae domain, pair it with content built for your target audience. Simply registering a .ae domain won’t guarantee success. Your website should feature localised Arabic content that caters to the cultural preferences and expectations of UAE users. This means using Arabic, highlighting local customs, and addressing region-specific needs and interests.
Typography does much of the work in delivering a good user experience, especially on Arabic websites. Proper Arabic typesetting affects readability, visual appeal and accessibility. Here’s what to keep in mind:
When translating from English to Arabic, it’s important to plan for changes in text length. Arabic often uses fewer words than English to express the same idea, so word counts can drop. The rendered text, however, frequently takes up more space rather than less, because Arabic characters extend above and below the baseline and need a larger font size to stay legible.
Handling Text Length: The practical result is that an English layout rarely holds as it is. Fixed-height containers can overflow, buttons and menu items resize unpredictably, and short strings shift the most, since a two-word English label can become a single Arabic word that cannot break across lines. Experienced Arabic language web designers and content creators are aware of this and will adjust the layout and design as needed to maintain a balanced, professional appearance.
Pro Tip: Ensure adequate line height and spacing to avoid a cluttered appearance, improving readability and user experience.
A successful Arabic website takes more than translation. Arabic website localisation works when cultural relevance, design and search all point the same way. Adopt an RTL layout, optimise for Arabic SEO, choose the domain that matches your market and give Arabic type the space it needs, and you end up with a site that Arabic-speaking audiences can actually use.