Arabic Website RTL Checklist
Building an Arabic website is not just about flipping text direction. It requires attention to numbers, phone fields, mirrored navigation, mixed English product names, form errors, mobile layout, real Arabic copy, and bilingual URL and canonical strategy. This guide provides a checklist to help you avoid common pitfalls and ensure a quality experience for Arabic users.
Numbers and Phone Fields
Arabic websites often need to display numbers in both Western Arabic (0-9) and Eastern Arabic (٠-٩) numerals. Decide which to use based on your audience and context. For phone fields, ensure the input accepts both numeral types and formats correctly. Test with local numbers.
Keep the surrounding form RTL, but give the telephone number its own left-to-right direction so its country code and digits stay in a readable order. Direction and digit normalization are separate concerns: test both the visual field and the value the server receives.
Acceptance check: Enter a phone number in Eastern Arabic numerals and verify it is stored and displayed correctly. Fail if the number is rejected or displayed in the wrong order.
Mirrored Navigation and Layout
In RTL layouts, navigation menus, sidebars, and icons should mirror their LTR counterparts. For example, a back arrow should point right instead of left. This is not just about flipping the entire layout; it is about maintaining intuitive directionality.
Use CSS logical properties like margin-inline-start instead of margin-left to simplify mirroring. Test on mobile to ensure that swipe gestures and scroll directions feel natural.
Tradeoff: Full mirroring can be disorienting for users who are used to LTR interfaces for certain elements, such as media controls. Consider keeping universal icons (play, pause) in their standard orientation.
Acceptance check: Navigate through the site using only the keyboard. The tab order should follow the visual RTL flow. Fail if focus jumps unexpectedly.
Mixed English Product Names and Copy
Isolate embedded product names and user-supplied text with appropriate bidirectional markup, such as bdi or a direction-aware isolated span. The correct direction depends on the content. Test names that mix letters, digits and punctuation instead of assuming every embedded name is English.
Have an Arabic-speaking reviewer check the meaning, tone and task instructions, regardless of how the first draft was produced. Review form labels and errors as carefully as marketing headlines.
Hypothetical example: a shop prepares an Arabic checkout alongside its English version. Before launch, a reviewer enters an address, changes a quantity, triggers a missing-field error and reads the confirmation. The team records confusing phrases and corrects them before repeating the same tasks.
Acceptance check: Read a paragraph containing an English product name. The name should appear in the correct order and not disrupt the sentence. Fail if the name is reversed or split.
Form Errors and Validation Messages
Error messages should match the selected language and remain visibly associated with their fields. An error can appear beside or below an input; the important checks are readable placement, programmatic association and a clear instruction for correcting it.
Use ARIA live regions to announce errors to screen readers. Test with Arabic screen readers to ensure compatibility.
Acceptance check: Submit a form with missing fields. The error messages should appear next to the fields in Arabic, and the focus should move to the first error. Fail if errors are in English or misplaced.
Mobile Layout and Responsive Design
Arabic text can be longer than English, so mobile layouts must accommodate text expansion. Test on small screens to ensure no truncation or overlap.
Make touch targets easy to use and test any custom gestures against the platform's RTL behavior. Do not assume one back-swipe direction works across all platforms. Keep visible navigation controls available rather than relying on a gesture alone.
Acceptance check: View the site on a mobile device with Arabic locale. All text should be readable without horizontal scrolling. Fail if any content is cut off.
Bilingual URL and Canonical Strategy
Give each translated page its own stable URL. Use reciprocal hreflang annotations that include the page itself and its real language counterpart, so search engines can discover the relationship.
For distinct English and Arabic translations, keep each page's canonical URL pointed to itself. Do not canonicalize the Arabic translation to the English page merely because English is the default. Provide an explicit language switch that preserves the article being read.
Separate URLs require maintaining and checking both versions. They give readers shareable links in their chosen language, but they do not guarantee rankings or inclusion in AI answers.
Acceptance check: open both language URLs directly, confirm their languages, canonical URLs and reciprocal hreflang links, and switch between them. Treat indexing and search performance as separate monitoring tasks, not as a pass or fail promise about which language ranks.
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