A dental clinic in Jeddah has a clean English website. Its Arabic button switches the menu to Arabic, but the service pages underneath stay in English. A patient searches Google on her phone for عيادة اسنان جدة. The clinic’s site does not come up, and the reason has nothing to do with its dentists. There is simply no Arabic page that answers her search.
The short answer: Arabic SEO is not translating your English site. It means writing separate Arabic pages around the words your customers actually type, with an Arabic title, headings and content on each one. Google works out a page’s language from its visible text, so every Arabic page needs its own URL, one language throughout, and hreflang tags linking it to its English version. Then use Search Console to see which Arabic searches find you.
What is Arabic SEO?
Arabic SEO is the work of making a site’s Arabic pages appear in Google for searches typed in Arabic. It rests on the same foundations as any SEO. What changes is the language of everything the searcher and Google see: the words on the page, the title, the headings, and the way people phrase their searches.
Technical SEO is the set of fixes that let Google crawl, index and understand a site, such as speed, mobile layout and indexing. Local SEO is the work of making a business appear in Google search and Google Maps results for searches made in or about its city. Both apply to Arabic pages exactly as they do to English ones. Our guide on how to rank on Google Maps in Saudi Arabia covers the local side.
Customers in Saudi Arabia search in both languages, so most businesses here need both. The goal is a complete Arabic page for each important service, not an Arabic layer over an English site. If you are still deciding whether to start with SEO or paid ads, read our comparison of SEO vs Google Ads for Saudi businesses first.
How does Google know a page is in Arabic?
Google reads the page. Google says it uses the visible content of a page to determine its language, and that it does not use code-level information such as the attribute or the URL. Its hreflang guide says the same: hreflang tags and the attribute are not used to detect a page’s language.
That has three practical results:
- One language per page. Google advises using a single language for content and navigation on each page, and avoiding side-by-side translations. A page with Arabic and English paragraphs next to each other is also hard to read on a phone.
- Translate the whole page, not the frame. Google warns against translating only the boilerplate text, such as the menu and footer, while the main content stays in one language. An Arabic menu over English service text is still an English page.
- A separate URL for each version. Google recommends different URLs for each language version of a page rather than cookies or browser settings. A toggle that swaps the text on the same URL leaves Google with only one version to find.
Keep the and attributes on your Arabic pages anyway. Browsers and screen readers rely on them, and so does the right-to-left layout, even though Google does not use them to decide the language.
How do you find the Arabic words people search?
Do not translate your English keyword list. A translated keyword is often a phrase nobody types. Customers describe their problem in their own words, and in Arabic the same search can be written in several ways.
| What varies | Example | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Letter forms | اسنان and أسنان, عيادة and عياده | Write the page in correct Arabic, and check the results for the common variants |
| Everyday and formal words | تصليح مكيفات and صيانة مكيفات | Use the words customers use when they call or message you |
| English terms in Arabic script | سيو and تحسين محركات البحث | Mention both if customers use both |
| Mixed Arabic and English | نظام CRM للشركات | Keep the Latin term where customers write it that way |
| Service and city | محامي تجاري جدة | Build one page per main service and name the city on it |
Examples only. Check the searches in your own sector and city.
Three places show you the real words:
- Your own messages. Read the last few weeks of WhatsApp chats and call notes. Write down the exact words customers use for each service.
- Google’s search box. Type the start of a search in Arabic on your phone and note the suggestions. Then scroll to the related searches at the bottom of the results page.
- Search Console. Once your Arabic pages are live, the Performance report in Search Console shows the queries your site appeared for, with clicks, impressions and average position. You can group the data by query, page or country, so you can see which Arabic searches already find you.
Then choose one main phrase for each page. Put it in the title and the H1, and write the rest of the page naturally. Variants belong where they read well, not in every sentence.
What should each Arabic page include?
Write each Arabic page for an Arabic reader. A good Arabic writer will change the order, the examples and sometimes the headings, because a word-for-word copy of the English rarely reads well in Arabic.
- A title in Arabic. Google advises writing the title in the same language and writing system as the page’s main content, and says it may show different text as the title if they don’t match. An English title on an Arabic page wastes the most visible line in the result.
- A meta description in Arabic that says plainly what the page offers.
- One H1 and clear H2 headings in Arabic, built around the page’s main phrase.
- A full right-to-left layout: text, lists, tables, icons and arrows all mirrored.
- Arabic alt text on images, and Arabic text written as real text, not placed inside images.
- Contact options that work in Arabic: a WhatsApp button, a phone number people can tap, and a form with Arabic labels.
- Comfortable reading on a phone: a clear Arabic font, a readable size and enough line spacing.
Some businesses publish machine translation without review. It reads stiffly, gets industry terms wrong, and tells an Arabic reader that nobody checked the page. Use a translation tool for a first draft if it helps, then have a fluent Arabic writer rewrite it.
Should Arabic page URLs use Arabic words?
Either approach works. Google’s URL guidelines recommend using words in your audience’s language in the URL, and they also allow transliterated words. The same guidelines say characters outside the ASCII range should be percent-encoded in links. So an Arabic slug such as /ar/تنظيف-الاسنان/ is valid, but when someone copies it into a message it often turns into a long string like
A common alternative is to keep the same short Latin slug for both versions and add a language folder, for example and . It keeps URLs short and makes each pair easy to manage. Whichever you choose:
- Separate words with hyphens, not underscores. Google recommends hyphens.
- Keep each URL stable once it is live.
- If you must change a URL, redirect the old one to the new one with a 301 redirect.
Google’s guide to multilingual sites lists subdirectories such as as easy to set up and low maintenance, compared with separate domains. For most Saudi businesses, one domain with an folder is the simplest setup.
How do you connect the Arabic and English versions?
hreflang tags tell Google that two pages are the same content in different languages, so it can show each searcher the right one. Each page lists every language version in its , including itself:
| Tag | Points to |
|---|---|
| The English page | |
| The Arabic page | |
| The page for everyone else, usually the English one |
Both pages carry the same three tags.
The rules that matter most, from Google’s guide to localized versions:
- Each language version must list itself as well as all other language versions.
- If two pages don’t both point to each other, Google ignores the tags.
- Language codes follow ISO 639-1, so Arabic is . You can add a region, such as , but you can’t use a country code on its own.
- is the fallback when no other language matches the visitor’s browser setting.
Two more points from Google’s multilingual guidance. Avoid automatically redirecting visitors to another language version based on what you guess they speak. And add visible links to the other language version, so people can switch themselves. The link should go to the matching page, not to the homepage.
Common Arabic SEO mistakes
Most problems with Arabic pages come from treating Arabic as an add-on to the English site. Each mistake below has a simple fix:
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| An Arabic button that only translates the menu | Build full Arabic pages for each main service |
| Arabic and English text side by side on one page | One language per page, linked to its twin with hreflang |
| Machine translation published without review | A fluent Arabic writer rewrites each page |
| An English title tag on an Arabic page | An Arabic title that matches the page’s content |
| Translated keywords that nobody searches | The words from customer messages and Search Console |
| hreflang tags on one page of the pair only | Both pages list themselves and each other |
| Visitors redirected by browser language | A visible language link to the matching page |
| Arabic text placed inside images | Real text on the page, with Arabic alt text on the image |
How do you check that your Arabic SEO works?
- Search like a customer. On a phone, in a private window, search for your main Arabic phrases. Note which of your pages appears, and whether its title shows in Arabic. Results differ by person: Google’s Search Console help notes that search results are specific to the time, place, device and recent history of the person searching.
- Test the language switch. Open each Arabic page and its English twin. The switch should take you to the matching page in the other language.
- Read the queries in Search Console. Group the Performance report by query, then by page. Arabic searches should lead to Arabic pages. If an Arabic search keeps landing on an English page, the Arabic page is missing, thin or not linked properly.
- Check the sitemap. Every Arabic page should be listed in your XML sitemap, next to its English version.
Frequently asked questions
Is Arabic SEO different from English SEO?
The foundations are the same: a fast site Google can crawl, useful pages and local signals. What differs is the keyword research, the writing and the right-to-left layout. Arabic pages need their own research, because translated English keywords are often not what people type.
Can I use machine translation for my Arabic pages?
Only as a first draft. Unreviewed machine translation reads stiffly, gets industry terms wrong and loses the reader’s trust. Have a fluent Arabic writer rewrite each page around the words your customers actually search for.
Do I need a separate domain for my Arabic site?
No. Google lists subdirectories such as example.com/ar/ as easy to set up and low maintenance. One domain with an /ar/ folder, a separate URL for each page, and hreflang tags linking each pair is enough for most Saudi businesses.
Should I build Arabic or English pages first?
Start with the language your customers use when they call or message you. If both are common, build the Arabic and English pages for your main service together, then add your other services in both languages.
How long does Arabic SEO take to show results?
Google Business Profile and local fixes can show movement within weeks. New Arabic pages typically take 2 to 4 months to show first movement in organic rankings, because Google needs time to crawl them, trust them and rank them.
The bottom line
Arabic SEO comes down to three things: real Arabic pages written for Arabic readers, built around the words your customers actually type, and connected cleanly to their English versions. None of it needs tricks. It needs each Arabic page to be as complete as its English twin.
Kyvo Media builds bilingual Arabic and English websites for businesses in Saudi Arabia, and our SEO service covers Arabic keyword research, Arabic pages and hreflang setup. If your Arabic pages need rebuilding rather than fixing, see our website development service. Book a free audit and we’ll check your Arabic titles, pages and tags, and the Arabic searches you already appear for.