Ranking in Arabic search is not a translation job. Arabic SEO means researching how Saudis actually type their searches, building separate Arabic pages that are written natively, and getting the technical signals right so Google shows the Arabic page to Arabic searchers and the English page to English searchers.
The good news: in many Saudi categories, Arabic content is still thinner and weaker than English content, so a business that does Arabic SEO properly can stand out faster. This guide walks through what an SEO agency in Saudi Arabia should be doing on your Arabic site, and what you can check yourself.
Arabic keyword research is not translation
The most common mistake is taking an English keyword list, translating it and calling it Arabic research. Arabic search behaviour has its own patterns.
Spelling variants
Arabic searchers don't type consistently, and the same word can appear in several forms:
- ة / ه at the end of words (for example شركة and شركه)
- أ / إ / ا at the start of words, often typed without the hamza
- ى / ي at the end of words
Google handles many of these variants, but not always identically, and the results can differ. Check the real search results for each variant of your main terms, and make sure your content uses the most common forms naturally rather than stuffing every spelling.
Dialect vs Modern Standard Arabic
Formal Arabic and everyday Saudi phrasing are not always the same. A customer might search with a colloquial word for a service while your website uses the formal term. Research both, then write your pages in clear Modern Standard Arabic that also includes the phrases people actually use.
English loanwords written in Arabic
Many business terms are searched as English words spelled in Arabic letters: سيو، براندينج، ماركتنج، لوجو. These can be as important as the "proper" Arabic equivalent (تحسين محركات البحث، العلامة التجارية). A good Arabic keyword map includes both.
Saudis search in English too
Plenty of Saudi decision-makers search in English, especially for B2B and technical services. Your keyword research should cover both languages separately, with each list built from real searches in that language, and you should expect the two lists to differ.
Site structure: one URL per language
Separate URLs and hreflang
Each language needs its own URL, such as /ar/ for Arabic and the main path for English. Don't switch language with a cookie or a script on the same URL; Google needs a distinct, crawlable page for each version.
Connect the pairs with hreflang annotations so Google understands that the Arabic and English pages are equivalents, and each version should reference itself and its counterpart. Missing or broken hreflang is one of the most common technical issues on bilingual Saudi sites.
Arabic slugs vs transliterated slugs
You have two reasonable choices for Arabic URLs:
- Arabic-script slugs (for example /ar/تحسين-محركات-البحث/) match the search language and look natural in Arabic results. The downside: when copied and pasted, they often appear as long percent-encoded strings, which look messy in emails and chats.
- Transliterated or English slugs (for example /ar/seo/) are short and share cleanly, but carry no Arabic keyword signal and look out of place to Arabic readers.
Either can rank. What matters more is being consistent, never changing slugs without redirects, and making the page content itself excellent.
RTL structure and Arabic metadata
An Arabic page should be genuinely right-to-left: the dir="rtl" and lang="ar" attributes set, navigation mirrored, and Arabic typography that is readable on mobile. Titles and meta descriptions must be written in Arabic for Arabic pages. An English title on an Arabic page is a wasted opportunity in the search results.
Write natively, don't machine-translate
Machine translation produces Arabic that is technically understandable but reads as foreign. Readers notice immediately, and it rarely uses the phrases people actually search for.
Better approach:
- Brief an Arabic writer with the keyword research, the search intent and the key points, not an English draft to translate.
- Let the Arabic page have its own structure and examples if that serves Arabic readers better.
- Use a natural, professional register: Modern Standard Arabic with familiar Saudi business vocabulary.
- Have someone who understands both the subject and the market review it.
Depth wins where competition is thin
In many Saudi categories, the Arabic results are dominated by short pages, directory listings or poorly translated content. That's an opening. A genuinely complete Arabic page that answers the questions, explains the process, covers what drives the cost, includes FAQs, and is well structured often has a clearer path to the top than its English equivalent.
Build topic clusters: a strong service page in Arabic, supported by Arabic articles that answer the questions customers ask before they buy, all linked together.
Local SEO in Arabic
For businesses serving a city or neighbourhood, local results matter as much as the main organic results. Local SEO in Arabic means:
- Google Business Profile in Arabic. Business name, description, services and posts that read naturally in Arabic, alongside English where relevant.
- Arabic reviews. Encourage happy customers to leave reviews in whichever language they prefer, and reply in the same language. Arabic reviews mentioning your service and area are valuable signals for Arabic searchers.
- Consistent details everywhere. The same name, address and phone across your website, maps and directories.
- Arabic location pages if you serve several cities, each with genuinely local content rather than copies with the city name swapped.
Our guide to local SEO for small businesses in Saudi Arabia covers this in more detail.
Technical basics that apply to both languages
- Indexation. Confirm in Search Console that your Arabic pages are indexed. Arabic sections are sometimes accidentally blocked or left out of the sitemap.
- Speed. Arabic web fonts can be heavy. Load only the weights you need and test on mobile connections.
- Structured data. Add organisation, local business, article and FAQ markup where appropriate, with Arabic content in the Arabic version.
- Internal links. Arabic pages should link to other Arabic pages, not send readers back to English.
- Canonical tags. Each language version should canonicalise to itself, not to the English page.
Measuring Arabic SEO separately from English
Arabic and English performance must be measured separately, or one will hide the other. In Search Console, filter by page path (for example everything under /ar/) to see Arabic impressions, clicks and positions on their own. Track Arabic leads separately in your analytics too.
Watch for early signals first: Arabic pages indexed, impressions growing for Arabic queries, average position improving. Leads follow those, not the other way round.
When Arabic SEO isn't your priority
If your buyers are almost entirely English-speaking (some international B2B niches), or your site can't yet handle Arabic enquiries properly, fix those first. And if you need leads this month, paid search may come first; see our comparison of SEO vs Google Ads in Saudi Arabia.
Work with us: we research, write and build Arabic pages natively, with the technical setup handled. Explore our SEO services for Saudi businesses, and read SEO vs Google Ads in Saudi Arabia to plan your budget.
FAQ
Should my Arabic and English pages target the same keywords? Target the same topics, but research keywords separately in each language. The phrases Saudis type in Arabic are rarely direct translations of the English ones.
Is it better to use Arabic letters in URLs? Both Arabic-script and transliterated slugs can rank. Arabic slugs match the search language; transliterated ones share more cleanly. Pick one approach, stay consistent, and redirect if you ever change.
Can I use machine translation for my Arabic pages? It's fine as a rough internal reference, not as published content. Native writing reads better, uses the terms people actually search, and builds more trust.
How do I see how my Arabic pages are performing? In Search Console, filter the performance report by your Arabic URL path, such as /ar/, and compare it with the English section.