A website that reads naturally in Arabic, not like a mirror image

Setting a page direction to right to left changes the text flow, but it does not fix the design. A well-built Arabic interface mirrors the navigation order, the position of sidebars, the direction of progress bars and carousels, and the side on which back and next arrows point. It also keeps some things unmirrored: media controls, charts with a time axis, and phone numbers stay as they are.

We build a component library where each element declares its direction behaviour. Spacing uses logical properties such as start and end, not left and right, so one stylesheet serves both languages without a pile of overrides. That keeps the Arabic and English editions in step as the site grows.

Every component is then tested in both directions, on real phones, before it is accepted. The common failures are small: an icon that points the wrong way, a dropdown that opens off-screen, a table whose numeric columns align on the wrong side. Catching them one by one is what makes the finished site feel native.

Arabic letters connect and change shape by position, so fonts matter more than in Latin text. We choose typefaces designed for screen reading, with several weights, then set a larger line height than English needs because Arabic carries marks above and below the line. Body text that looks tidy at one size in English often feels cramped in Arabic.

Numbers need a decision. Western digits are standard in Saudi business documents, prices and phone numbers, and we apply one rule across the whole site rather than mixing two systems on a page. We format currency in riyals consistently, and place the symbol where Saudi readers expect it.

Dates are another choice. Many Saudi organizations show both Gregorian and Hijri dates, and some government-facing sites lead with Hijri. We build date components that can show either or both, and we test that they stay readable when the page flips between languages.

The strongest Arabic sites are written in Arabic first. We work with a native writer to draft or edit your copy in Modern Standard Arabic with a Saudi business register: direct, polite, without the stiff phrases that give away a translation. English then becomes the second edition, adapted rather than mirrored.

For search, Arabic pages need their own work. Each page has an Arabic title and description, language and alternate-language tags so search engines connect the two editions, and URLs that make sense in either language. On-site search is configured to treat letter variants as equivalent, so a visitor who types without hamza still finds the page.

Forms follow the same care. Name fields accept Arabic, validation understands Saudi phone formats, and error messages are written in Arabic that a person would actually say. Where forms collect personal data, the Personal Data Protection Law applies, and we state the purpose in Arabic on the form itself.