Many businesses in Egypt and the Gulf add Arabic to their website and discover months later that Arabic visitors leave faster than English ones. The cause is usually a handful of Arabic website mistakes that nobody notices, because nobody on the team reads the Arabic version on a phone every day. Here are the ten we see most often, and how to fix each one.
Key takeaways
- Arabic is not a translation layer. It needs its own layout direction, typography, keywords and tone.
- Most problems are visible in ten minutes: open the Arabic pages on your phone and try to contact yourself.
- Fixing the Arabic experience often lifts enquiries from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt without spending more on ads.
Table of contents
Why Arabic website mistakes cost you real customers
Arabic speakers judge a website the same way everyone else does: in seconds, and mostly on a phone. If the page feels awkward, reversed or machine-made, they assume the business behind it is careless too. For a clinic, a law firm or an online store, that doubt is enough to send them to a competitor whose site feels native.
The good news is that these problems are rarely expensive to fix. They are mostly decisions that were skipped when the Arabic version was added at the end of a project.
1. An English layout with Arabic text pasted in
The most common pattern is a site designed in English, with Arabic copy dropped into the same boxes. Headlines break in odd places, buttons are too narrow for the Arabic wording, and images face the wrong way for a right-to-left reader.
Arabic needs its own layout pass. Text lengths change, the reading path starts from the right, and visual weight should follow it. Proper Arabic website design treats both languages as first-class versions of the same brand, not one original and one copy.
2. Broken RTL mirroring of menus, icons, forms and sliders
Setting the page direction to RTL is only the start. Menus should open from the right, "next" arrows should point left, form labels should sit on the right of their fields, and sliders should move in the reading direction. At the same time, some things must not flip: logos, play buttons, phone numbers and charts.
The W3C guidance on structural markup and right-to-left text explains how to set the dir attribute correctly, so the browser handles most of the mirroring for you instead of patching it with CSS later.
3. Arabic fonts that are hard to read
Many themes fall back to a default system font for Arabic, or use a decorative typeface for body text. Arabic letters also need more line height than Latin text, because of dots and diacritics above and below the line. Cramped lines are tiring to read on a small screen.
Choose a modern Arabic web font designed for screens, set body text a little larger than the English version, and give it generous line height. Pair it with an English font of similar weight so the two languages feel like one brand.
4. Machine translation nobody reviewed
Automatic translation has improved, but it still produces sentences that are grammatically correct and culturally wrong. Readers notice immediately, and it signals that the business did not invest in them. Service names and calls to action suffer the most.
Write the Arabic version for the reader, not word for word from the English. Our content writing services start from the message, then adapt examples, tone and keywords for the Arabic audience, so the page reads as if it was written in Arabic first.
5. Phone numbers and emails that flip direction
When Latin characters and numbers sit inside Arabic sentences, the browser can reorder them. Phone numbers appear backwards, plus signs jump to the end, and email addresses break. A customer who copies a wrong number will simply give up.
Wrap phone numbers, emails and URLs in elements marked with left-to-right direction, use clickable tel: and mailto: links, and test every contact detail on both iOS and Android.
6. No hreflang and no separate URLs
Some sites switch language with a cookie or a script, so English and Arabic share one URL. Search engines then see only one version, usually English, and your Arabic pages never appear in Arabic results.
Give each language its own URL, for example /ar/ for Arabic, and add hreflang tags that link each page to its translation. Make the language switcher link to the matching page, not back to the Arabic homepage.
7. Ignoring how people search in Arabic
Translating your English keywords rarely matches what people actually type. Arabic searchers mix Modern Standard Arabic, dialect and English brand names, and spelling varies. Ignoring that is one of the quieter Arabic website mistakes, because the site looks fine but gets no Arabic search traffic.
Research Arabic keywords separately and build pages around them. A clear SEO website structure with dedicated Arabic pages for each service helps search engines understand and rank both versions.
8. Mixing dialects and tones
One page sounds like formal news Arabic, the next like a casual social post, and the buttons use a third style. The mix feels unprofessional. Decide on one voice for the brand: formal Arabic for legal pages, and a clear, friendly tone for marketing pages, consistent across the site.
9. Forms that reject Arabic names
Validation rules copied from English templates often allow only Latin letters in name fields. An Arabic speaker types their name and gets an error. Some forms also reject Arabic-Indic digits in phone fields. Allow Arabic characters, accept both digit styles and convert them on the server.
10. No WhatsApp contact
In Egypt and the Gulf many customers prefer WhatsApp to forms or email. A site without a visible WhatsApp button loses enquiries from people who were ready to talk. Add a clear WhatsApp button with a pre-filled Arabic message on every key page.
A 10-minute check for Arabic website mistakes
- Open the Arabic homepage on your phone. Does it read naturally from right to left?
- Tap the menu, a slider and a form. Do they move and align correctly?
- Check every phone number and email. Do they display and work properly?
- Switch language on an inner page. Do you land on the same page in the other language?
- Fill in the form with an Arabic name. Does it submit?
- Search for your service in Arabic. Does your Arabic page appear?
Frequently asked questions
Is it enough to translate my English website into Arabic?
Usually not. Translation covers the words, but Arabic website mistakes are mostly about layout direction, typography, keywords and tone. Plan the Arabic version as its own experience that shares the same brand.
Should Arabic be the default language for a Gulf audience?
It depends on your customers. Many Gulf businesses serve both Arabic and English speakers, so the best approach is a clear language switcher, separate URLs and both versions given equal care.
Can these mistakes be fixed without a full redesign?
Often yes. Fonts, form validation, number direction, WhatsApp buttons and hreflang can be fixed on the existing site. A layout built only for English may need a deeper rework.
How long does it take to fix Arabic website mistakes?
Small fixes can take a few days. Rewriting content and restructuring pages for Arabic SEO takes longer, depending on the number of pages.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your bilingual site, send us the link through our contact page and get a free quote with a short list of what to fix first.
