Real estate consultancy
Sunlink Properties
Dubai Marina, UAE
Growth ring: Websites and apps
Bilingual Arabic and English websites
Two languages, each one treated as the main one.
Many Arabic versions are an afterthought, and Arabic-speaking customers notice straight away. We build both languages into the site from the start, so each one reads naturally and can be found on its own in search. This website is a working example.
Custom websites, online stores and web apps in English, Arabic or both, with proper right-to-left layouts. This is the heartwood everything else grows from.
Who this is for
A bilingual website serves complete Arabic and English versions, each on its own URL, with a proper right-to-left layout, Arabic typography and hreflang tags that tell search engines which version to show. It is for UAE businesses whose customers read in both languages. We engineer the right-to-left layout and the multilingual SEO, and every Arabic page is written or reviewed by a native speaker before launch.
- Consumer-facing UAE businesses adding Arabic to an English site
- Real estate developers and brokers marketing to Arabic- and English-speaking buyers
- Clinics, restaurants and retailers whose customers expect Arabic
- Companies whose current Arabic pages are machine-translated or break on mobile
Problems we solve
- The Arabic pages look mirrored but feel wrong.
- Right-to-left is more than reversing the layout. Navigation, arrows, sliders and form fields mirror properly, while logos, media controls, phone numbers and prices stay left to right where they should.
- Arabic text is hard to read.
- Arabic needs its own typeface, sizes and line spacing, chosen to sit comfortably beside your English font, not a fallback the browser happens to pick.
- Google shows the English page to Arabic searchers.
- Each language gets its own URL, matching hreflang tags in both directions and its own titles and descriptions. We avoid automatic redirects by location, which hide pages from search engines.
- Nobody owns the translation.
- We agree a workflow before the build: your team or a professional translator writes the Arabic, a native speaker reviews it, and pages go live only when both versions are approved.
What's included
- Right-to-left engineering
- Direction-aware layouts, mirrored icons and animation, and isolated mixed-direction text, so phone numbers, AED prices and product names display correctly inside Arabic sentences.
- Arabic typography
- An Arabic typeface paired with your English one, with sizes, weights and spacing set for Arabic and loaded efficiently so pages stay fast.
- Separate SEO for each language
- Per-language URLs, canonical tags, hreflang with an x-default, Arabic titles and descriptions, and structured data marked with the right language.
- Translation workflow
- Both languages side by side in a shared content file or CMS, native-speaker review built into sign-off, and a rule that unreviewed pages are not indexed.
- Bilingual forms and messages
- Arabic labels, error messages and success messages, phone fields that accept UAE and international formats, and WhatsApp links with an Arabic pre-filled message.
- A language switcher done right
- A plain link to the same page in the other language, labelled in that language, that never forces a visitor into one version.
How it works
- 1
Content audit
Which pages need both languages at launch, which can follow, and who writes and reviews the Arabic.
- 2
Bilingual design
Key pages designed in both directions at once, so the Arabic layout is decided, not improvised.
- 3
Build
Both versions built on a private preview link, with right-to-left checked on real phones.
- 4
Review and launch
Native-speaker review, hreflang and canonical checks, then both languages go live together.
Related work
All workView project
Questions
Who writes the Arabic copy?
Every Arabic page is written or reviewed by a native speaker, either your team or a professional translator, before it goes live. Our part is making sure it displays and indexes correctly, in both directions, on every device.
Is Arabic legally required on a UAE website?
We are not aware of a general rule that every business website must be in Arabic, but UAE consumer protection rules require Arabic for much consumer-facing information and advertising. If you sell to consumers, check with your legal adviser; bilingual is the safe default. This is not legal advice.
Can't we just use automatic translation?
Machine translation makes a useful first draft, not a finished page. Unreviewed translations read badly to native speakers, and thin auto-generated pages can fall foul of Google's spam policies.
Should Arabic pages have Arabic URLs?
Usually not. Google detects language from the visible content, not the URL, and Arabic URLs turn into long encoded strings when shared on WhatsApp or by email. We keep the same slugs under an /ar path.
Can you add Arabic to our existing site, and what does it cost?
Often, yes, depending on how the site was built. We start by reviewing how well the current code handles right-to-left. Cost depends on that review, the number of pages and who handles the translation, so pick a budget band in the contact form and we will scope it from there.
Tell us what you need
Send a few lines about your business and the project. Our team will reply with questions or a time for a video call.