Building a Bilingual Arabic–English Website That Google Can Read

In Iraq and across the Arab world, customers search in both Arabic and English. A website that only works properly in one of them loses half its audience. But "bilingual" is often done in a way that search engines cannot see.

The common mistake: a language button only

Many sites show English by default and swap the text to Arabic when a visitor clicks a button, all on the same web address. Google and AI crawlers load the page once, see English, and never discover the Arabic. The Arabic version effectively does not exist for search.

1. Give each language its own address

Use a separate URL for each language, for example example.com/ and example.com/ar/. Each page should load already in its language, without needing a click or JavaScript.

2. Connect the two versions with hreflang

Each page should declare its other-language twin with hreflang tags (en, ar and x-default), pointing to each other. This tells Google which version to show to which searcher.

3. Right-to-left done properly

• Set lang="ar" and dir="rtl" on Arabic pages before the page paints, to avoid a layout jump.
• Mirror the layout: navigation, arrows, icons and alignment flip, while numbers, code and Latin brand names stay left-to-right.
• Use logical CSS (start/end instead of left/right) so one stylesheet serves both directions.

4. Arabic typography

Choose a font designed for Arabic, not a Latin font with fallback glyphs. Arabic usually needs a slightly larger size and more line height than English to read comfortably.

5. Translate meaning, not words

Write Arabic titles and descriptions for how Arabic speakers actually search. "Website design in Baghdad" and "تصميم مواقع في بغداد" are separate searches with separate wording. Each page needs its own title, description and headings in its language.

6. Check what the crawlers see

Open the Arabic page with JavaScript disabled, or use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. If the Arabic text is not in the HTML, search engines are not seeing it.

3lly builds bilingual websites for federations, institutes and businesses in Iraq, including the Arab Federation of Accountants and Auditors and the Iraqi Union of Accountants and Auditors. Talk to us about yours.