Common mistakes on Arabic websites: RTL, fonts, translation, forms and numbers
The mistakes we see on Arabic websites in Saudi Arabia: broken RTL, weak fonts, mixed text, translation, forms and numbers.
Many Saudi business websites have an Arabic version that technically exists and quietly loses customers. The text is there, but the layout is slightly off, the font is hard to read, the form rejects an Arabic name, and the phrasing sounds translated. Visitors rarely complain. They leave.
These are the mistakes we see most often, how to spot them, and how to avoid them. They apply whether you are building a new site or reviewing an existing one.
1. Flipping the layout instead of designing it
Right-to-left is more than text alignment. A flipped English layout often leaves:
- Navigation and the logo on the wrong side.
- Arrows, chevrons, back buttons and progress bars pointing the wrong way.
- Sliders, carousels and timelines that move in the unexpected direction.
- Images with a subject looking out of the page rather than into it.
- Icons that include text or directional meaning, left unchanged.
How to avoid it: design the Arabic layout as its own version. Decide which elements mirror (most do), which do not (media players, charts with time axes in some contexts, phone numbers), and document the rules.
2. Poor Arabic fonts and sizing
Arabic letters join, have dots above and below, and need more vertical room than Latin. Common problems:
- A default system font with weak weights.
- Text that is the same size as English but reads smaller.
- Tight line height that crushes the dots.
- Faux bold or italic, which distorts Arabic. Arabic has no true italic.
- Letter-spacing that breaks the joins between letters.
How to avoid it: pick an Arabic typeface that suits your Latin one, give it larger sizes and more generous line height, never add letter-spacing to Arabic, and check the font’s web licence.
3. Mixed-direction text that jumbles
Arabic sentences often contain English names, product codes, phone numbers and prices. Without care, punctuation moves to the wrong end, numbers and brackets flip, and parts of the sentence come out in the wrong order.
How to avoid it: use proper bidirectional handling in the code, test with real content that includes brand names, URLs, prices, percentages and dates, and isolate inline English where needed. Test the same sentences in every browser your customers use.
4. Translation instead of transcreation
Literal translation sounds stiff, and sometimes changes the meaning. Slogans, button labels and headlines suffer most. A good Arabic page may use a different structure, different examples and a different tone than the English one.
How to avoid it: have a native Arabic writer write or rewrite the key pages with the English as a briefing, not a script. Use one Arabic term per concept across the site, and decide the register: formal for corporate and legal pages, more conversational for retail and social.
5. Machine translation plug-ins
A widget that translates the page on the fly often gives awkward text, breaks layouts, and produces pages that search engines cannot index as proper Arabic content.
How to avoid it: write real Arabic pages with their own URLs and tags. See our guide to getting a website live fast for what to prepare so the Arabic content is ready on time.
6. Forms that do not understand Arabic
- Name fields that only accept Latin letters.
- Validation that rejects Arabic characters or diacritics.
- Phone fields that do not handle local formats or Arabic digits.
- Address fields built around Western formats, with no room for district names or a national address.
- Error messages left in English.
How to avoid it: test every form with an Arabic name, an Arabic address and a phone number typed with Arabic digits. Keep forms short, and write the labels, hints and errors in Arabic.
7. Inconsistent numbers, dates and currency
Arabic pages may show Western digits, Arabic-Indic digits or a mixture. Dates may appear in Gregorian or Hijri form. Currency can be placed before or after the number. Inconsistency feels careless and can cause real confusion on prices.
How to avoid it: choose a convention for digits, dates and currency, apply it site-wide and across your social media and printed material, and format values with the platform’s locale tools rather than by hand.
8. English leftovers
Cookie banners, error pages, email confirmations, PDF downloads and the date picker are often forgotten and stay in English.
How to avoid it: make a checklist of every system-generated message, and read the whole customer journey in Arabic from the first click to the confirmation email.
9. Search and sharing details
Missing page titles, descriptions and social preview images for Arabic pages, one URL for both languages, and hreflang left out are common causes of Arabic pages not being found.
How to avoid it: give each language its own address, set titles and descriptions in Arabic, link the language versions properly, and check what your pages look like when shared in WhatsApp.
10. Mobile blind spots
Most Saudi visitors arrive on a phone. Long Arabic words in buttons, narrow columns and fixed-width cards often break on small screens.
How to avoid it: design and test Arabic at phone width first. Allow buttons to grow, and let text wrap rather than being cut off.
A quick review you can do today
- Open your Arabic site on a phone.
- Read the home page aloud. Does it sound like a person wrote it?
- Switch the language on three different pages and see where you land.
- Submit your contact form with an Arabic name.
- Share a page on WhatsApp and look at the preview.
- Look at a price and a phone number in a sentence.
If three or more of these feel wrong, the site needs more than a translation pass.
Get your Arabic site reviewed or rebuilt
Our website development and design teams in Riyadh build Arabic and bilingual sites with right-to-left layout designed from the start. Send your site address and what bothers you through the start a project form, and we will tell you what we would fix first.
Questions
Is it enough to flip an English layout for Arabic?
No. Mirroring the layout is the starting point, not the finish. Icons with direction, images, charts, numbers, mixed English and Arabic text and spacing all need individual decisions and testing.
Which Arabic font should we use on a website?
One that matches the character of your Latin typeface, has the weights you need, renders well at small sizes on phones, and is licensed for web use. Test headings, body text and numbers in the real layout before you decide.
Should we use Arabic or Western digits?
Both are used in Saudi Arabia, and many websites and businesses use Western digits (0 to 9) for prices, phone numbers and dates. Choose one approach, apply it everywhere and test it with your audience.
What is the difference between translation and transcreation?
Translation moves the words from one language to another. Transcreation rewrites the message so it carries the same intent and feel in the second language, often changing structure, idioms and examples. Marketing and brand copy usually needs transcreation or original Arabic writing.
Do Arabic pages need their own URLs for search?
Yes. Give each language its own address and link them with hreflang, so search engines can show the right version. A language switch that changes text on the same URL makes it hard for Arabic pages to be found.
How do we test an Arabic site properly?
Test on real phones, in the browsers your customers use, with real Arabic content and long names. Ask native Arabic readers who were not involved in the build to complete tasks and tell you what felt wrong.