Dubai search is bilingual. A site that only works in LTR English leaves Arabic-intent traffic — and often higher-trust local buyers — on the table. This checklist is what we run before shipping EN+AR sites for clinics, restaurants, hotels, and B2B services.
Quick answer
A production Arabic site needs: proper dir=rtl on Arabic routes, Arabic-capable fonts with subsetting, mirrored UI (nav, icons, forms), hreflang EN/AR pairs, translated metadata and schema, and QA on real iPhone Safari + Chrome Android — not only desktop Figma. Partial Google Translate overlays are not a strategy.
Layout and typography
- Set `dir="rtl"` and `lang="ar"` on Arabic documents/pages
- Use fonts that support Arabic (e.g. Noto Naskh / Tajawal) with subsetting for performance
- Mirror flex/grid layouts — do not only flip text
- Check iconography: chevrons, progress steppers, carousels
- Line height and paragraph width — Arabic needs more breathing room
SEO and AI search
- Unique Arabic title + meta (not machine paste of English)
- hreflang en-AE / ar-AE (or en / ar) with reciprocal links
- Separate Arabic URLs or path prefixes — avoid one URL swapping language via JS only
- FAQ and LocalBusiness schema in the language of the page
- Answer-first blocks in Arabic for AEO / AI Overviews
Forms, WhatsApp, and conversion
RTL forms break when labels, error messages, and placeholders stay LTR. WhatsApp deep links should open with an Arabic greeting option. CTAs that say 'Call now' need culturally natural Arabic equivalents — literal translations feel off to native speakers.
Device QA checklist
- 1iPhone Safari AR homepage + service page
- 2Android Chrome AR contact form submit
- 3Mixed EN↔AR language switcher without losing scroll position badly
- 4PDF menus / price lists if linked (common for F&B)
- 5Lighthouse mobile on AR page (fonts often bloat LCP)
Need a bilingual rebuild?
We design and engineer EN+AR sites with RTL QA on real devices — WordPress, Shopify, or Next.js.
