Most Riyadh websites I review were designed in English and then translated into Arabic at the end, and it shows in search results. I design and build bilingual websites for Riyadh businesses where the Arabic version is planned, written and structured to rank in its own right, with the English version alongside it for expatriate and international audiences.
Arabic first, not Arabic later
In Riyadh, a large share of commercial searches happen in Arabic, often in Gulf phrasing rather than formal Modern Standard Arabic. A customer looking for a maintenance company, a clinic in Al Malqa or office space near King Abdullah Financial District may type a colloquial phrase, mix Arabic with English brand names, or spell the same word in several ways (with or without hamza, with ة or ه at the end). A literal translation of your English keyword list misses most of this.
So I research Arabic keywords separately, with their own intent and phrasing, and plan the Arabic pages from that research. Sometimes that means the Arabic site has pages the English site does not, because the demand only exists in Arabic. That is normal and correct.
A bilingual build checklist for Riyadh sites
These are the technical points I check on every Arabic and English build. Most problems I find on existing Riyadh sites trace back to one of them.
- True right-to-left layout. The Arabic version uses dir=”rtl” at page level, with mirrored navigation, icons, breadcrumbs and form layouts. Flipping text alignment alone is not enough.
- Separate, crawlable URLs per language. Typically /ar/ and /en/ subfolders, never a language toggle that swaps text with JavaScript on the same URL, which leaves Google seeing only one version.
- Correct hreflang. Each page points to its counterpart with ar-SA and en-SA (or broader ar and en tags if you also serve other Gulf countries), plus a sensible x-default.
- Arabic URL slugs where they help. Arabic slugs can work well for search, but they appear percent-encoded when shared. I decide case by case, and keep them short.
- Arabic web fonts that load fast. Arabic font files can be heavy. I subset them and preload only the weights the design actually uses.
- Localised titles and meta descriptions. Written for Arabic search results, not machine-translated from English.
- Numbers, dates and currency. Prices in SAR, a deliberate choice between Western and Arabic-Indic numerals, and Hijri dates alongside Gregorian where your customers expect them.
- Structured data in both languages. Organization or LocalBusiness markup with the Arabic and English business names, Riyadh address and opening hours that reflect the Friday and Saturday weekend.
Forms, data and the PDPL
Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law applies to businesses that collect personal data from people in the Kingdom, and a website is usually the first place that happens. When I build contact forms, quote requests or booking flows, I keep the data collected to what you actually need, add a clear privacy notice in Arabic and English, and make sure consent for marketing messages is a separate, unticked choice. I am not a lawyer, so your legal adviser should review the final privacy policy, but the site will be built so that compliance is straightforward rather than an afterthought.
What Riyadh’s market means for site structure
Riyadh’s growth, with major development projects, new company headquarters and a busy B2B sector, has made search more competitive in categories such as contracting, real estate, corporate services, healthcare and training. A few patterns follow from that:
- B2B companies need service pages, not a brochure. A contractor or consultancy with one “Services” page listing ten things will lose to a competitor with a dedicated, detailed page for each service in both languages.
- Branch and district pages need real substance. If you have locations in Olaya and in the north of the city, each should have its own page with an Arabic address, map, hours and phone number matched to its Google Business Profile.
- Mobile speed is non-negotiable. Most visitors arrive on phones, and decorative animations and oversized hero videos are common on Riyadh corporate sites. I keep them out of the critical rendering path.
- WhatsApp is a primary contact channel. Click-to-chat buttons on every service page, tracked as conversions, alongside phone and form options.
In a Riyadh project built under my SEO web design and development service, the deliverables usually include Arabic and English keyword maps, a bilingual sitemap, RTL and LTR wireframes, the build, hreflang and schema implementation, Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 setup, and a migration plan if you are replacing an existing site.
Planning around two different weekends
I work remotely from Karachi; I have no office in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is two hours behind Pakistan, so my working day covers your entire morning and early afternoon. The main thing to plan around is the weekend: yours is Friday and Saturday, mine is Sunday, so Monday to Thursday is our shared working week, and I schedule review calls inside it. Reports and staging links are shared in writing so your team can review them in their own time.
For Arabic copy, I work with your team or a native Saudi copywriter you trust: I provide the keyword research, page briefs and structure, and a fluent Saudi writer produces or edits the final Arabic before launch. Examples of how I record briefs and decisions are in my case studies.
Questions Riyadh companies ask
Should we launch Arabic and English at the same time?
If you can, yes. Launching both together means hreflang is correct from day one and neither language looks unfinished. If budget or content is tight, I usually recommend launching Arabic first for a business that serves Saudi customers, and adding English once the core Arabic pages are in place.
Do we need a .sa domain?
It is not required for ranking in Saudi Arabia. A .com with clear Saudi signals (Arabic content, a Riyadh address, SAR pricing, a Saudi phone number and hreflang targeting) can rank well. A .sa domain can add local trust, and if you already have one, there is no reason to move away from it.
Can you rebuild our existing English-only site without losing rankings?
Yes. I map every existing URL, keep the English pages at stable addresses or redirect them properly, and add the Arabic section alongside. Adding Arabic usually opens up new searches rather than competing with what the English pages already rank for.
Will the Arabic pages be written by a machine?
No. Machine translation can help with a first draft of technical terms, but every Arabic page that is meant to rank should be written or edited by a native speaker, guided by the keyword brief I prepare.
If your Riyadh site ranks in English but is invisible in Arabic, or the other way round, I can show you where the gaps are. Book a free bilingual audit covering both language versions, your hreflang tags and how fast the Arabic pages load on a phone.