Websites
Building Arabic and English Websites: What Right-to-Left Really Involves
Building a bilingual Arabic and English website for the UAE and Gulf: right-to-left layout, mirroring, fonts, numbers, forms and translation workflow.
For businesses in the UAE and the wider Gulf, an Arabic version of the website is often expected, not optional. A good Arabic site is more than translated text. Arabic reads from right to left, and the whole interface has to respect that.
Direction is set on the page, not by hand
The page should declare its language and direction, for example lang="ar" and dir="rtl". Modern layouts then use logical spacing, such as "start" and "end" instead of "left" and "right", so the same component works correctly in both languages without a separate stylesheet full of overrides.
Mirror the layout, not everything
In Arabic, navigation, text alignment, progress steps and "next" arrows should follow the reading direction. Some things should not be mirrored: logos, photos, media player controls, charts with time running left to right, and phone numbers. Deciding this list early saves rework.
Fonts made for Arabic
Choose a typeface designed for Arabic script, with proper letter joining and readable sizes. Arabic text often needs a slightly larger size or line height than Latin text to stay comfortable to read. Load the Arabic font only on Arabic pages, so the English pages stay fast.
Numbers, dates and currency
Decide whether to show Western digits (0 to 9) or Eastern Arabic digits, and use the same choice everywhere. Dates, phone numbers and prices need consistent formats. A price such as AED 1,250 should never break across lines or flip the currency to the wrong side.
Forms that work in both directions
Labels, error messages and placeholders should sit on the correct side. Email addresses, website links and phone numbers are usually typed left to right even inside an Arabic form, so those fields need their own direction.
A workflow for translated content
Plan how content will be translated and updated. Every new page, product or policy needs an Arabic version, and someone must review it. Professional translation reviewed by a native speaker reads far better than machine output.
Search visibility in two languages
Each language version should have its own address, its own title and description, and hreflang links that tell search engines which version is which. Without these, the Arabic pages can compete with the English ones instead of supporting them.
