Arabic is not a translation, it is a direction
Adding Arabic to a site is not a matter of swapping words. Arabic reads right to left, which reverses the entire layout: navigation, directional icons, margins, columns, form alignment, button position. It is an architecture decision, not a line on a quote.
That is why a site designed in French and then “translated” into Arabic almost always needs its layout reworked. Translation is the easy part; direction is the structural part.
What breaks when you translate a site designed left to right
The defects are visible and checkable. You can look for them yourself on any site that claims to be bilingual:
- Arrows point the wrong way. A “next” button with a right-pointing arrow makes no sense in an interface that advances leftward.
- Margins stay on the wrong side. Text sits against the opposite edge, or a list indent appears to the right of the text instead of before it.
- Columns keep their Latin order. What was the main column on the left should become the main column on the right.
- Form fields align left while their labels align right.
- Numbers and Latin words inside an Arabic sentence display in the wrong order when direction is not declared properly.
- Typography does not follow. A Latin font with no Arabic set produces uneven fallback rendering that is genuinely harder to read.
None of these show up in a translation file. They only show up when you look at the screen.
One language per intent: not everything needs three versions
The usual instinct is to translate everything. That is not always the right call.
The useful question is not “have I translated this page?” but “is anyone searching for this in that language?” A commercial services page and a technical support page do not necessarily share a linguistic audience.
A reasonable approach: translate what carries commercial intent and what builds trust first, then extend based on what your data actually shows. Your own search statistics will tell you which language people find you in; they are the only source that describes your situation rather than an average.
URLs and hreflang: telling Google which version is for whom
Two technical rules decide whether your language versions work together or compete.
Keep URL segments language-neutral. Translate the content, not the path. If the French version lives at one address and the Arabic version at a differently-constructed one, nothing links the two versions to each other, and each ends up standing alone.
Declare the alternates with hreflang. Each version must announce the others, including an x-default value for visitors whose language matches none of them. Without it two problems appear: the wrong language can be served to the wrong user, and your versions risk being read as duplicate content rather than as translations.
Both points are as much site structure as content, which is why they belong in our SEO services rather than in an add-on bought later.
The real cost of an additional language
The cost is not in the initial translation. It is in what follows:
- Content production, if the copy does not already exist in the target language.
- Review by someone who actually speaks it. Unreviewed machine translation is immediately obvious and costs credibility.
- RTL layout work: once if the architecture anticipates it, and considerably more if it does not.
- Ongoing maintenance. Every new page, every price change, every article becomes work multiplied by the number of languages. This is the line people underestimate most.
It is also why the number of languages should be decided before design. A site built for multilingual from the start absorbs Arabic naturally; a site that discovers it afterwards pays twice. Our web development services start from that decision rather than deferring it.
How to check a provider can actually do RTL
You do not need to be technical to check this. Ask to see an Arabic interface they have delivered, open it, and check three things:
- Does the navigation start on the right?
- Are arrows and directional icons mirrored?
- Are forms aligned on the correct side, labels included?
If the answer is no to all three, they translated a left-to-right site without adapting it. If you are told “the CMS handles that automatically”, ask to see it: automatic handling covers text, rarely the full layout.
That is a fair test to apply to us as well. Luxury.co.ma is a car rental site we built in seven languages, Arabic included, each version at its own address. Open the Arabic one and run the three checks above.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to translate the whole site?
No. Start with the pages that carry commercial intent and build trust, then extend based on what your search data shows.
Modern Standard Arabic or Darija?
Modern Standard Arabic for the site’s written content. Darija appears mostly in search queries, often typed in Latin characters; that affects keyword choice, not the language the pages are written in.
Can Arabic be added later?
Yes, but it costs more than planning for it would have. If Arabic is likely one day, say so at design time: keeping the option open is cheap, retrofitting it is not.
If you are unsure how many languages to plan for, tell us about your project; the answer depends on your market, not on a general rule.