Top Ten Tips For Designing and Translating an Arabic Website - Creative Word

Localising your branding and website for an Arabic market may sound like more effort than it is worth, but there are many motivating factors that you should consider, including;

•    Arabic is the world’s fifth most common language with nearly 3 billion speakers worldwide
•    Internet penetration rate of the Middle East is almost 60%
•    Currently less than 1% of websites are written in Arabic

The following tips will assist with developing an Arabic website and Arabic translation.

1.    Know your audience

Cultures, lifestyles and beliefs differ widely from one country to another. Understanding the ethos of the Arabic world will help you to make informed decisions about content such as, iconography, images and lexical choices.

2.    Top translations

To create effective content in a secondary language it will be likely that you employ the services of a translator. Check they can offer what you require and it is within your budget. An outstanding Arabic translation will make all the difference to your customers and your business.

3.    Layout

Arabic can be a difficult language to design digital content for due to reading from right-to-left. When considering an exclusively Arabic site this is not an issue, however, if you plan to have a dual language site that can switch from right-to-left (RTL) or left-to-right (LTR) it will be necessary to ensure the layout does not have any conflicts when switching from one language to another.

4.    Visual considerations

Arabic characters are shorter and wider than Latin characters which means consideration must be given to design and visual appearance. When translated from English to Arabic the length can be as great as 25% more than the original document. The visual difference must be considered especially if offering a dual language site.

5.    Typesetting

A website that is visually pleasing, and also easily legible, is important in any language. Unfortunately, there are limits to the number of options available at present for fonts capable of Arabic. This will restrict the choices of typesetting you have to Ariel, Verdana, and Tahoma. Most commonly, Tahoma is used as it is the most legible. If operating a dual language site remember to use the same font so there is a parallel between the two.

6.    Numbers

As you have taken the time and effort to translate the words in your web content, you should also translate the numbers. This will ensure visual uniformity and also shows consideration for your Arabic readers. However, depending on what your website is about, English numbers may also be appropriate so check first.

7.    Mobile option

Research suggests that more than half the world’s population now own a smartphone, and in the Middle East up to 40% of internet users access the web via their smartphone or tablet. Making your website mobile-friendly is essential.

8.    Select the right platform

There are limits to which platforms can successfully cope with a right-to-left language such as Arabic, so it is important to choose a platform that supports both your original content and your translated content, especially if you are operating a dual language site. Platform research, prior to translation, will ensure you can keep shared content and switch between languages easily.

9.    Images

When selecting images for a dual language site it is worth selecting different images for the LTR and RTL scripts. Due to way the page is flipped in a horizontal fashion, because of the complexities of the RTL issue, the images are likely to be distorted when changing from LTR or vice-versa.

10.     HTML Prototypes

Ensure your first major clickable is a clickable HTML prototype as this will guarantee changes can be made easily without too much expense. Investigate different prototyping tools to check they work for you.

Need help with your Arabic website translation? Come and talk to us!