Dubai · Web development
Web development agency in Dubai
An Arabic site is not an English site with different words in it. It is a mirrored layout, and templates that were never designed for that cannot simply have Arabic poured into them.
Get a free site reviewWhat does a web development agency in Dubai do?
A web development agency in Dubai designs, builds and maintains the site your business sells from. Here the job carries a specific technical requirement: if Arabic is in scope, the site has to be built bidirectionally from the first template rather than translated at the end.
Translating a site is not the same as building for Arabic
This is where most Dubai bilingual projects go wrong, and the cost of discovering it late is high. The two columns are genuinely different pieces of work.
Translation dropped into an English build
The layout fights the language
- Text reads right to left inside a layout that flows left to right
- Navigation, icons and arrows point the wrong way for the reader
- Latin fonts fall back to a system Arabic face that does not match the brand
- Line height and letter spacing tuned for Latin script render Arabic cramped
- Forms, breadcrumbs and progress indicators run in the wrong direction
- Mixed English and Arabic strings break in unpredictable ways
Built bidirectionally from the start
The layout mirrors with the language
- Direction handled at the document level so the whole layout mirrors correctly
- Logical CSS properties used throughout instead of hardcoded left and right
- A proper Arabic typeface chosen and paired deliberately with the Latin one
- Typography tuned separately for each script rather than shared between them
- Interface elements and iconography mirrored where meaning requires it
- Mixed-direction text handled predictably where numerals and names appear
The difference is almost entirely in when the decision is made. Built in from the start it is a modest increment; retrofitted it means reworking every template you already paid for.
What we build and why
Four requirements. The first only applies if Arabic is in scope — but that decision has to be taken before the build, not during it.
Bidirectional from the first template
Direction handled properly at the document level, logical CSS properties rather than hardcoded sides, and typography tuned separately for each script. Cheap to design in and close to a rebuild to add afterwards.
Decide before you buildSpeed measured on real visits
Core Web Vitals are assessed on the devices and connections your visitors actually use. Most slow sites got that way through accumulation — scripts, tags and embeds added over years and never collectively reviewed.
Usually a subtraction problemA conversion path that was designed
The route from landing to enquiry, deliberately shortened, and working equally well in both directions of text. Usually inherited rather than chosen, and consistently the cheapest lever available on the whole site.
Cheapest lever you ownA CMS your team can run in both languages
Publishing without a developer ticket, and without the Arabic side becoming a permanently outdated copy of the English. Bilingual sites fail through neglected translation workflow far more often than through technical shortcomings.
Workflow, not just build
How a build runs with us
Review, and settle the language question
Field performance, accessibility, structure and conversion path — plus an explicit decision on whether Arabic is in scope now, later or never. That answer shapes the architecture more than anything else in the brief.
Templates first, pages second
Get the templates carrying the site right on speed, structure, accessibility and direction handling, then populate. Templates are what stop a site degrading as your team publishes into it.
Launch, then measure
Redirects mapped, language and regional markup verified so search engines know which version serves whom, analytics confirmed from day one, and performance judged on real visits.
If you cannot support Arabic-speaking customers after they enquire, do not build the Arabic site. A well-built bilingual site that produces enquiries nobody can answer properly is worse than an English-only one, and this is an operational commitment before it is a build decision.
Questions
- How much more does an Arabic version cost?
- Far less if it is designed in from the start than if it is added later. Building direction handling, logical layout properties and dual typography into the templates at the outset is a modest increment. Retrofitting it means reworking templates you have already paid for, which approaches the cost of building them again.
- Can we use automatic translation for the Arabic site?
- For a site representing your business commercially, no. Machine translation produces text that reads as translated, which undermines the credibility the Arabic version exists to build. It also cannot handle the layout mirroring, which is where most of the technical work actually is. Use it for a first draft, never for publication.
- Do we need a .ae domain?
- It reads as local and can help conversion with UAE buyers, but the effect on rankings is modest. The more consequential decision is not splitting the same content across a .com and a .ae, which divides your authority between two properties competing with each other.
- What happens to our rankings when we relaunch?
- It can if redirects and content are handled carelessly, which is the most common way a rebuild loses money. With URLs mapped, structure retained and content moved across whole, rankings generally hold and often rise, because the technical base is stronger.
- How long does a bilingual build take?
- Eight to fourteen weeks for a focused marketing site, longer where a second language is in scope — not because of the development, but because producing genuinely good Arabic content takes time. Projects slip on content and approvals rather than on engineering, so we agree who signs off what before the first sprint.
Sources
- Semrush AE database, September 2026 — the KD 29 difficulty figure cited above.
- W3C internationalisation guidance on authoring bidirectional text and right-to-left layout.
- Google Search Central documentation on hreflang and managing multilingual sites.
- Google web.dev documentation on Core Web Vitals and field versus lab measurement.
Related
Find out what your site is costing you
A free review: how it performs on real connections, whether it could hold Arabic without a rebuild, and where visitors give up before contacting you.
Yours to keep, whether or not Arabic turns out to be in scope.