Arabic, English or Both? Bilingual Websites for Lebanese Businesses

A Lebanese business website should be in the languages its customers search and read in, and for many businesses that's more than one. Choose by customer, not by location: a clinic in Achrafieh may need French first, a shop in Tripoli may need Arabic first, and a business selling to the diaspora needs English. Whatever you choose, every page has to exist in every language, and Arabic needs a real right-to-left layout. Our websites in Lebanon are built this way from the start.

How do you decide which languages you need?

Look at your customers, not your preferences. Three quick checks:

1. What language do customers message you in? Your WhatsApp history is the best data you have.
2. What do they search? Search Console shows the queries you already appear for. If Arabic queries appear, there's demand.
3. Who are you trying to reach next? A business moving into the Gulf needs Arabic and English. One selling to the diaspora needs English and often French.

Most Lebanese businesses end up with two languages, and some with three. More than three is rarely worth the upkeep for a small business.

Should both languages be on the same page?

Sometimes, and it's worth deciding per type of content.

Same page, side by side works for short, scannable content. A restaurant menu with the Arabic name directly under the English, in the same card, lets everyone read without choosing a language first. We built a Beirut burger shop's menu this way.

Separate language versions work for anything longer: service descriptions, articles, policies. Mixing paragraphs of two languages on one page is tiring to read and confuses search engines about what the page is.

Most sites use both: bilingual product cards and labels, separate versions for long text.

Why does every page need translating?

Because visitors don't stop at the homepage. A common setup translates the homepage and a few main pages, and leaves everything else in one language. A visitor who switches to Arabic, clicks through to a service page and finds it in English has just been told the Arabic version was decoration.

If a full translation isn't possible yet, launch the second language with fewer pages, all fully translated, rather than many pages half done.

What does a proper Arabic layout involve?

Far more than typing Arabic into the existing design. Arabic reads right to left, and the whole page has to mirror:

• Text aligns to the right, and paragraphs flow right to left.
• Navigation starts on the right. The logo and menu swap sides.
• Directional icons flip. A "next" arrow points left.
• Numbers, phone numbers and Latin brand names stay left to right inside Arabic text, which needs handling so they don't scramble.
• The font has to suit Arabic. Many Latin fonts have no Arabic characters, and the fallback looks out of place.

A site built for both directions from the start handles all of this in its structure. Adding it afterwards to a site built only for English is usually a rebuild.

How should a bilingual site be set up for Google?

Give each language its own address, for example /en/services/ and /ar/services/, and mark the pages as translations of each other. Google then shows Arabic searchers the Arabic page and English searchers the English one.

Avoid sites that switch language without changing the URL, using a toggle that only changes what's displayed. Google usually sees one language, and the other effectively doesn't exist in search. Technical SEO basics covers the underlying setup.

Can you rely on automatic translation?

Not for the pages that sell. Machine translation has improved, but Arabic output in particular often reads stiffly to native speakers, and it misses the tone of your business. A customer who notices the translation was done by a machine wonders what else was.

Use it as a first draft if it helps, then have a fluent speaker rewrite each important page. For a small site that's a few days of work, not weeks.

What about Lebanese Arabic written in Latin letters?

Many Lebanese customers search and message in Arabic written with Latin letters and numbers. You won't usually write your website that way, but it's worth knowing for search and ads: people may search a product or service in that form. Check your search data before assuming everyone types in formal Arabic or English. Local SEO in Lebanon goes into how the same customer searches three different ways.

What does a bilingual site cost?

More than a single-language site, because each page is written, laid out and maintained twice, and Arabic layouts need their own design attention. We include the language setup in the fixed price we quote after the first call, so there are no surprises later. What a custom website costs has the general ranges.

If you're not sure which languages your customers actually need, tell us who they are. We'll look at your search data and messages and give you a straight answer.