Bilingual Website (Arabic/English) · Websites
Arabic and English website development in Dubai: a real Arabic version, tested enquiries, run after launch
A company website in the UAE usually has to work in two languages: an Arabic version with its own URLs and a proper right-to-left layout, an equivalent English version, an enquiry form you know is working, and someone responsible for the site after it goes live. That is what we build at Schroer Digital, licensed in Meydan Free Zone, Dubai, together with our German sister company Schröer Digital UG: bilingual company websites with a written scope, every account in your company's name, and results counted in enquiries rather than visits.
How it runs
- Written scopePages, inputs and exclusions, agreed before work starts
- Two-language structureOwn URL per language, full right-to-left layout
- Content and reviewSomeone on your side approves the Arabic text
- Enquiry path testedA test enquiry arrives and is logged with its source
- Launch and operationTLS, nightly backup, report on enquiries
Sample run. See Nova Operator run a whole goal
What most web design offers in Dubai leave out
Search for web design in Dubai and the offers look alike: responsive design, SEO-friendly, a content management system, "Arabic support" and a maintenance contract. We build those basics too. Three questions decide whether a bilingual website actually works for your business, and they are rarely answered in writing:
- Is the Arabic version a real version? Or is it a translation layer on top of the English page, without its own URL, so that Google has no Arabic page to index and your team has nothing they can review line by line?
- Does every enquiry arrive? A form that silently loses messages looks exactly like a form that works. You only notice when a week passes without a single enquiry.
- Who looks after the site after handover? Certificates expire, an update breaks a form, and a backup can exist for years without anyone ever restoring it once.
Arabic built into the structure, not added as a plugin
For customers and search engines to treat the Arabic version as its own website, four things have to be in place. We build them into every bilingual site:
- Its own URL per language. For example the English page at /solutions and the Arabic page at /ar/solutions. Each version can be shared, indexed and measured on its own.
- Right-to-left on the whole page. The dir="rtl" attribute sits on the html element itself, so navigation, forms and tables mirror, not only the text alignment. Direction-dependent icons such as arrows are mirrored where they need to be.
- Reciprocal hreflang links for en, en-AE, ar, ar-AE and x-default, with each version pointing to the other. Google's documentation says hreflang annotations are ignored if the other page does not link back.
- A separate content file per language. Someone on your team who reads Arabic can review, correct and approve the Arabic text without touching the English version.
Check it yourself before you decide
Do not take our word for it. Open our Arabic solutions page, view the page source, and you will find dir="rtl" on the html element and five hreflang links pointing to both versions. You can run the same check on any website that is presented to you as bilingual.
We write Arabic copy with care and never publish unreviewed machine translation, but we do not offer proofreading by a native Arabic editor. That is why a person on your side who reads Arabic approves the text before it goes live, especially anything with legal or brand weight. If you need Arabic copywriters as part of the package, we are not the right fit, and we would rather say so now.
What UAE law asks of your website
Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer Protection does not contain an article that says "the website must be in Arabic". It applies to goods and services in the state, free zones included (Article 3). Article 26 requires data, advertisements and contracts related to the consumer to be in Arabic, with other languages allowed alongside, and Article 8(4) requires the invoice to be in Arabic. If you sell to consumers in the UAE, the pages a buyer relies on, the order or booking confirmation and the invoice are where the Arabic belongs.
If you sell through the website, Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 on Trading by Modern Technological Means adds concrete page elements: prices and the fees for logistics and digital payment services have to be published on the site (Article 5, clause 5), and the licence, address, contact numbers and physical address details have to be available (Article 6, clause 9). Article 2 sets out when this applies inside free zones.
We turn this into page elements: an Arabic version of the buyer-facing pages, Arabic order and booking confirmations, and the legal company details written out as text in the footer of every page in both languages. The article numbers and wording are in our guides to the Arabic website requirement in the UAE and the UAE e-commerce website requirements. This is a summary of published text, not legal advice: we build the structure, and the wording and approval of legal texts stays with you or your lawyer.
The enquiry path, tested before launch
The point of a company website is that the right visitor sends an enquiry. So we build the enquiry path first and then measure it:
- A short form whose messages are stored on the server that hosts your site, not with a third-party form service, plus an email confirmation to the sender.
- Every enquiry is recorded with the page it was sent from and the time, and can be passed into your CRM, with obvious test messages filtered out. How enquiries from all channels end up in one place is described on our AI automation page.
- A WhatsApp button with a pre-filled message per page, so your team knows what the enquiry is about before they reply. If WhatsApp is your main channel, the WhatsApp AI Enquiry Desk can answer and qualify those chats in English and Arabic.
- Conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4 or the tool you choose, tested before launch with a real test enquiry sent from a phone on a mobile network.
Hosting and operation after launch, every account in your name
Sites are hosted on the infrastructure our German sister company operates, the same infrastructure that runs the websites and booking and ordering systems it builds for its own clients. TLS certificates are issued and renewed automatically, site files and data are backed up every night to an off-site repository on separate hardware, and the application restarts automatically if its process stops. We write down what is monitored and what is not, instead of promising permanent availability in general terms.
On server location: Google has retired country targeting in Search Console and kept hreflang, so we do not treat the server's country as a deciding factor for visibility in the UAE. Our own measurements from inside the UAE are in should you host your website in the UAE. If your sector, or a contract with one of your customers, requires data to be stored inside the country, we settle that before building. Either way, the domain, Google Analytics and Search Console are registered to your company, and we work with access you grant and can withdraw.
Schroer Digital is founder-led by Konstantin Schröer. Our sister company builds and operates websites and booking and ordering systems for companies in Germany. Businesses in the UAE and Germany already rely on our next-gen AI technology. Nothing on this page is a UAE case study; the method described here is the one this bilingual website is built with.
Hand-coded or a CMS such as WordPress?
Most of our sites are written directly in code: fewer moving parts, fewer plugins to update, and fast pages on a phone. A content management system such as WordPress, Shopify or Webflow makes sense when your team will edit pages often or runs a shop with a large catalogue. We decide this with you in the written scope, based on who will change what and how often, not on what is easiest for us to sell.
Booking and ordering flows, online payment and connections to your CRM or accounting are possible on either route. They change the size of the project considerably, which is one reason we do not publish fixed packages.
Who this is for, and what we need from you
It fits if your company is newly licensed in the UAE and needs its first bilingual website, if you have an English-only site and want a real Arabic version, or if you sell to consumers and need Arabic pages and confirmations. It does not fit if you need in-person meetings or site visits, native Arabic copywriters, or a large multi-system platform. To start, we need:
- Your trade licence and the legal company name exactly as it appears there, for the footer details.
- The domain registered to your company, or a decision to register it in your company's name.
- A description of what you sell and to whom, and the one step you want visitors to take: an enquiry, a booking or an order.
- A person on your side who reads Arabic to review the texts, and a lawyer if you have terms of sale or a returns policy.
- Your logo and images, or a decision on who provides them.
How it works
Step by step
First conversation
In English or German on a call, or in Arabic in writing on WhatsApp. You describe your business, your customers and what a good enquiry looks like for you.
Written scope
Pages per language, the enquiry path, connections to other systems, what we need from you and what is excluded. Nothing starts before you have agreed to it.
Structure and design
A page map in Arabic and English and a design that starts on the phone screen, with the Arabic version fully mirrored right-to-left.
Keywords and content
We research the terms your customers search for in Arabic and in English, write the pages on that basis, and a person on your side reviews and approves the Arabic text.
Build and test
Forms, tracking, hreflang and the company details in the footer, then a test enquiry from a phone on a mobile network before launch.
Launch and follow-up
We verify the site in Search Console and submit the sitemap, then report enquiries by source, not clicks.
Limits
What we don't do
- No ready-made packages and no published prices; the scope is written for each project.
- No guarantee of a particular Google ranking or number of enquiries; we report what was measured.
- No proofreading by a native Arabic editor, and no drafting or approval of legal texts.
- No translation plugin instead of a real Arabic version, and no machine translation published without review.
- No in-person meetings or site visits; we work remotely.
- No domains or accounts registered in our name instead of your company's.
FAQ
Questions, answered briefly
How much does an Arabic and English website cost?
We do not publish fixed prices, because the number of pages and languages, booking or payment, and connections to other systems change the amount of work a lot. We agree a written scope first, and you know the cost before any work starts.
Does my company website have to be in Arabic?
The Consumer Protection Law has no article saying the website itself must be in Arabic, but Article 26 requires Arabic for data, advertisements and contracts related to the consumer, with other languages allowed alongside. If you sell to consumers in the UAE, the pages a buyer relies on need an Arabic version. Check your own case with a lawyer.
Do you write the Arabic content yourselves?
Yes, carefully, and we never publish unreviewed machine translation. We do not claim native-speaker proofreading, so a person on your side reviews the text before it goes live, and legal texts stay with you or your lawyer.
Can you add an Arabic version to our existing English website?
Often, yes. We first check whether the current site can carry a second language with its own URLs, right-to-left layout and hreflang. If it cannot without workarounds, we say so in the scope and explain the alternative.
Do you use WordPress?
Most of our sites are hand-coded. A CMS such as WordPress makes sense if your team will edit pages often, and we decide that together in the scope.
Who owns the website, the domain and the accounts?
Your company. The domain, Google Analytics and Search Console are registered to it, we work with access you grant and can withdraw, and at handover you get written documentation of what was built and where it runs.
Can we talk to you in Arabic?
Yes, in writing on WhatsApp. Calls are in English or German. Send us your current website or your plans through the contact page or WhatsApp, and we reply with what we would check first.
Who you work with
Konstantin Schröer
Founder & CEO, SCHROER DIGITAL L.L.C-FZ
Schroer Digital is founder-led: you speak with Konstantin directly, not with a sales team. The company is licensed in Meydan Free Zone, Dubai, and our German sister company Schröer Digital UG builds and operates the systems with him. Calls are in English or German, and in Arabic we answer in writing on WhatsApp.
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