Building an Arabic (RTL) Website: Hosting and Technical Checklist

An Arabic website is not just an English site with translated text. Layout direction, fonts, numbers and search engine setup all need attention. This checklist helps businesses in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf launch a professional Arabic or bilingual site.

1. Choose an RTL-ready theme

Your theme must support right-to-left direction properly. Menus, sliders, icons and arrows should flip, and text should align right. Test the theme demo in Arabic before buying. In WordPress, setting the site language to Arabic switches the admin and front end to RTL when the theme supports it.

2. Fonts that read well

Choose Arabic fonts designed for screens, such as those available in Google Fonts (for example Cairo, Tajawal or Noto Kufi/Naskh Arabic). Load only the weights you use to keep the site fast. Make body text slightly larger than you would in English, as Arabic letterforms need space.

3. Bilingual structure and SEO

• Use separate URLs for each language, such as /ar/ and /en/ folders.
• Add hreflang tags so Google shows the right version to each user (most multilingual plugins do this).
• Translate titles, meta descriptions and image alt text, not just page content.
• Do not auto-redirect users based on IP; give a clear language switcher.

4. Forms and inputs

Make sure forms accept Arabic characters, phone numbers in local formats and both Arabic and Western digits where needed. Test confirmation emails to check Arabic text displays correctly.

5. Mixed content direction

Arabic pages often contain English words, numbers, prices and URLs. Test how these display inside Arabic sentences and fix punctuation that appears on the wrong side.

6. Speed and hosting

Bilingual sites have twice the pages and often more images. Use caching, a CDN and compressed images. Host in or near the region where most visitors are. See web hosting for Saudi businesses.

7. Mobile testing

Test on real Android and iPhone devices in Arabic. Check menus, buttons and checkout flow. Many RTL bugs show only on small screens.

Launch checklist

1. RTL theme tested in Arabic.
2. Screen-friendly Arabic fonts loaded efficiently.
3. Separate URLs and hreflang for each language.
4. Translated SEO titles and descriptions.
5. Forms tested with Arabic input.
6. Mobile tested on real devices.
7. Caching and CDN enabled.