If you want to make your website accessible to the Arabic market, you’re in the right place. We'll cover Arabic website translation, RTL language display, and, importantly, the significance of localization services for your new Arabic-speaking markets.  

In this article, we specifically look at how you can use Weglot, our translation management software, to:

• Quickly and accurately translate your site into Arabic. Weglot uses machine translation software from leading providers, including DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft Translate to get you the most accurate translations each time. 

Plus, Weglot can effectively translate a left-to-right language (like English) into Arabic, a right-to-left language, without messing up your site’s design and layout or requiring a developer.

• Website localization. With Weglot you can manually edit your machine translations and perfect them for your new target audiences. You can collaborate with native Arabic speakers directly in your Weglot Dashboard to ensure your website displays accurate translations. This also means you can adapt your content for the specific Arabic dialect you require, such as Moroccan Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, or Syrian Arabic.

• Optimize your new Arabic site for search engines to increase the size of your Arabic-speaking audience. Weglot translates with search engines in mind, creating a unique URL for your translated site, putting hreflang tags in the code, and translating all of your on-page SEO elements (such as alt tags and metadata). 

The entire website translation process—from adding Weglot to your site to having a fully translated Arabic version of your site hosted under a unique URL—can take just a few minutes.

FYI: Below, we provide step-by-step details on how to use Weglot, but you can also start a 10-day free trial and add Arabic language to your site instantly. 

Step #1: Add Weglot to Your Site

Weglot is compatible with all website builders, and our no-code integration means anyone can install it.

Here’s a quick video showing you how simple it is.

‍FYI: We also have ready-to-go tutorials that show you how simple it is to set up Weglot with WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Woocommerce, and more.

Step #2: Utilize Machine Translation

After you make a Weglot account, you will create a new project to translate your site into Arabic.

First, select your original language (the language your site is currently in), and then choose Arabic as your target language.

Once you click “save,” your entire site will be translated into Arabic. You then get two things:

• A fully translated Arabic site where you can access your translations through your Weglot Dashboard.
• A live site hosted under your domain that accommodates Arabic’s right-to-left structure. 

For example, let’s look at https://newbalance.com.sa/. Their main site is in English, so it has an English-speaking, left-to-right orientation. You can see the login, shopping cart, and language switcher in the top right corner.

But here’s that same site in its Arabic version. Not only is all the text in Arabic, but the menu orientation has changed, and that’s automatic with Weglot; you haven’t had to do anything manually to gain that functionality. You can see how the shopping cart, login, and language switcher are on the left side.

Plus, you can customize your language switcher (i.e., that people use to toggle between languages).

You can change how your specific language switcher looks, including:

• Whether or not to display country flags
• Whether you want the switcher in your site’s header or footer

What If You Don’t Want Your Entire Site Translated Into Arabic?

Weglot can exclude specific pages/URLs, works, and blocks/sections (like a header or footer) from getting translated.

For example, if you’re running an ecommerce store, you may only want to translate the product pages that are aimed at/available for your Arabic-speaking audience. 

Or you may not want to translate popular and recognizable brand names like “Nike” or “Adidas.”

Setting up these exclusions in Weglot means you can tailor the translation process to your site’s needs.

What Makes Machine Translation So Accurate?

About ⅔ of our customers rely solely on machine translation. That means they never make any edits to their translated content. 

How is machine translation so accurate?

At Weglot, we have API connections with the best translation providers in the business:

• DeepL
• Google Translate 
• Microsoft Translate

While all these platforms offer accurate translations, some are better suited for specific language pairs (such as translating your site from Spanish into Arabic or translating your site from German into Arabic).

The benefit of using Weglot versus just one of those providers is that: 

• We use the best provider for your specific language pair.
• We automatically update your site with your translated content (you don’t need to worry about setting up API connections or managing documents and files).
• We automatically set up unique language subdomains/subdirectories for your translated sites.
• We give you an easy-to-use management platform where you can edit and customize your translations.

Plus, Weglot Automatically Translates Any New Content

With Weglot, we will automatically update your new Arabic site with any changes made to your original site. Basically, if you make any changes (including adding new content or deleting content) on your original site, Weglot detects those changes and makes sure your translated site is always translated. 

This is perfect for all types of sites, as it reduces the amount of manual work and management required. 

For example, let’s say you’re running an eCommerce store and want to add a new product or revise a product page. All you need to change is your original site, and Weglot will automatically update the Arabic version of your site.

With Weglot, we will automatically keep your new Arabic site updated with any changes made to your original site. Basically, if you make any changes (including adding new content or deleting content) on your original site, then Weglot detects those changes and makes sure your translated site is updated. 

This is perfect for all types of sites – as it cuts down on the amount of manual work/management you have to do. For example, let’s say you’re running an eCommerce store and want to add a new product or revise a product page. All you need to change is your original site, and Weglot will make sure the Arabic version of your site is automatically updated.

Step 3: Arabic Website Localization

Weglot is an end-to-end website translation solution, which means you can easily: 

• Review and make changes to your translations.
• Order professional Arabic translation services through your Weglot Dashboard.

Add your own team of Arabic translators to continue the localization process.

Depending on the Arabic country you’re targeting, there can be many differences between Arabic dialects, such as the Arabic spoken in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. Weglot, by default, uses modern standard Arabic (msa), so this might mean you’ll want to involve professional translators to improve your Arabic content and the user experience for your target market. 

With Weglot, you have complete control over your website translations, and adapting the content for different Arab countries is effortless. Let’s look at how you can do that.

Review and Edit For A Localized Website

After your site is fully translated, you can easily manage your Arabic translations. 

Your translations are available through your Weglot interface. You can either edit through the Translations List

or the Visual Editor. 

And it’s here where you can add your own team of translators, edit with teammates, or order professional Arabic translations. 

You can order these translation services directly through your Weglot Dashboard.

First, you pick the content you want to be reviewed.

Then, you pick your industry, the tone of your content, and add any notes or rules/glossaries for your translators to follow, for example here you would want to reference the Arabic-speaking country you’re targeting. 

After paying for the translation services, your content will be reviewed by a professional Arabic-speaking translator. When the translator finishes their review – and makes any changes – your site’s content is automatically updated.

Arabic Website Localization Tips 

Appealing to the Arabic-speaking world is not a one-size-fits-all approach. There’s cultural nuance and dozens of different Arabic dialects, among other things to consider that are more challenging than translating into a Western language. 

Multimedia 

Bear in mind that the imagery, symbols, and even the colors you choose on your original site might not be suitable for every Arab country. 

Your global market approach will need to be evaluated for your localized Arabic site. With Weglot you can swap out images across your translated site and replace them with ones that are appropriate for the Arabic culture you’re targeting. 

Again, different Arab countries have different sensitivities, so a certain level of research is required. 

RTL language displaying 

As we briefly mentioned, your site will need to be displayed from right to left to accommodate the reading format of your new market. 

Web fonts 

You’ll need to consider if the font you’ve chosen for your original content on your site, also supports the Arabic alphabet. This isn’t always the case, and we’ve put together a list of multilingual fonts, many of which also support Arabic. 

Plus, How Weglot Helps With Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You’ve translated your site into Arabic to reach new audiences – and that’s where search engine optimization comes in.

You want the new Arabic version of your site to get in front of your Arabic-speaking customer base. 

Weglot helps you do this by factoring in the best practices of multilingual SEO.

• We create a unique URL for each translated site. This tells search engines which site is meant for which audience. It also creates a structure for your main site and subdomains/subdirectories, so you won’t harm either one’s SEO performance.

• We put tags in your source code to let Google know you have an Arabic version of your site available.  When Google crawls your site, it’ll see that you have an Arabic version available.

We translate alt tags and metadata (and you can edit them). Like all the other content on your Arabic site, we translate on-page SEO elements like alt tags and metadata. You can edit these as necessary to better fit your SEO strategy.

A Quick Recap: Translate Your Site Into Arabic Within Minutes

You can fully translate any site into Arabic today in 3 steps.

• Step #1: Add Weglot to your CMS. Weglot works with any CMS and can be added within minutes.

• Step #2: Let machine translation translate your content. Machine translation and fast and effective. You can get a fully translated site within minutes. Plus, you can customize the process by choosing which sections of your site or even which words do not get translated.

• Step #3: Make edits. About ⅔ of our customers never edit their content. But that means a third of our customers still see the value in manually editing/reviewed translated content. That’s why we give your business an easy-to-use translation management platform where you can a) review and edit any translations and b) hire professional translation services if needed.

Plus, don’t forget that when Weglot translates a site, it does so with search engine optimization in mind, helping you grow your site’s organic traffic.

Are you ready to translate your site into Arabic? Start your 10-day free trial today.