Arabic and Bilingual Websites: Best Practices for Professional RTL Design

Plenty of websites that claim Arabic support simply translate the text and flip the page direction. The result is an interface that feels obviously "translated": icons pointing the wrong way, uncomfortable typography, jumbled numbers and dates, and text colliding with UI elements. Arabic-speaking visitors notice these details instantly, even if they cannot name them, and conclude the site was not built for them. This article shares the practices we follow to build Arabic and bilingual websites that feel native in both languages.

RTL Is More Than Flipping the Layout

When you switch from left-to-right to right-to-left, most interface elements mirror: navigation, breadcrumbs, arrows, and column order. But not everything should flip.

What mirrors and what does not?

• Mirror: next and previous arrows, back icons, sidebar placement, and progress bar direction.
• Do not mirror: logos, play icons in video players, many timeline charts, and the digits themselves.
• Decide deliberately: images with a visual direction, such as a person looking toward the text.

Technically, using CSS logical properties such as margin-inline-start instead of margin-left lets one codebase work in both directions, rather than maintaining a separate stylesheet per language.

Arabic Typography: Readability Before Beauty

Arabic calligraphy is a beautiful art form, but decorative typefaces belong in headlines and logos, not in long passages. For body text choose a clear, screen-optimised typeface such as Cairo, Tajawal, IBM Plex Sans Arabic, or Noto Sans Arabic, among other freely available options.

• Size up slightly: Arabic glyphs look visually smaller than Latin at the same size, so Arabic text usually benefits from a small bump.
• Increase line height: dots and diacritics need more vertical room to avoid collisions.
• Never use letter-spacing: it breaks the connections between Arabic letters and distorts words.
• Pair thoughtfully: choose Arabic and Latin typefaces that match in weight and character.

Numbers, Dates and Mixed-Direction Text

Arabic copy frequently includes English words, numbers, and URLs, and that mix can render in the wrong order if it is not handled properly.

1. Pick one numeral system: Western digits are the most common on the web in Egypt; what matters most is using one choice consistently.
2. Dates and currency: format them the way your audience expects, for example "15 September 2026" and "EGP 250".
3. Phone numbers: make sure they display in the correct order inside Arabic text; they are among the elements most often scrambled.
4. Input fields: email and phone fields should be typed left-to-right, even on the Arabic version.

Managing Content on a Bilingual Site

A bilingual website needs a content management system designed for two languages from the start, not a translation plugin bolted on later.

• Separate fields for each language in the admin panel, with a warning when a translation is missing.
• Clear URL structures per language, such as /en/ for English, with correct hreflang tags.
• A language switcher that takes visitors to the same page in the other language, not back to the homepage.
• Remembering the visitor's language choice on future visits.

Good translation carries meaning and tone, not just words. Write for each audience in its own language rather than translating literally.

Performance and Accessibility on the Arabic Version

Arabic font files are usually heavier than Latin ones because each letter has several contextual forms depending on its position in a word. Load only the weights you actually use, serve WOFF2, and consider subsetting so Arabic and Latin glyphs load separately. Remember too that screen readers rely on a correctly declared page language to pronounce text properly, and that sufficient colour contrast matters even more with fine Arabic letterforms and their small dots.

Test With Real Users

Before launch, ask native Arabic speakers to browse the site and complete specific tasks, such as filling a form or checking out. They will uncover issues that neither automated checks nor your design team noticed, like an awkward phrase or a button in an unexpected place.

A well-crafted Arabic website gives your brand instant credibility with its audience. At Kodaya we design and build Arabic and bilingual sites from the ground up, never as an afterthought translation. Explore our web design service or contact us to get started.