Arabic RTL Website QA Checklist for Saudi Arabia & UAE 2025 | Hamrix

Arabic is the 4th most spoken language on the internet and the primary language of 420 million people across 22 countries. Saudi Arabia and the UAE together represent a digital commerce market worth over $10 billion annually. Yet most Arabic websites launched by international agencies fail basic RTL checks that any native user spots immediately.

This checklist was built from QA sessions on real Arabic website launches in Riyadh, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. It covers every layer: content, CSS, typography, UI components, and region-specific requirements for KSA and UAE separately.

Section 1 — Language & Content Quality

Critical: Machine-translated Arabic destroys brand credibility faster than any design failure. Gulf Arabic users will leave a website with bad translation within seconds. Budget for native review — it costs less than a lost deal.

All Arabic copy reviewed by a native Arabic speaker — Google Translate is not acceptable for any client-facing content
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) used for formal/business content — MSA is understood across all Arab markets and appropriate for B2B contexts
Gulf dialect considered for consumer-facing, informal content if specifically targeting KSA or UAE local audiences
No machine-translated strings remaining in production — search for contextually wrong phrases, inconsistent formality levels, and grammatically correct but meaningless sentences
Dates formatted correctly: KSA uses Hijri calendar in formal/government contexts, Gregorian in most commercial contexts — check which your client requires
Currency: SAR ر.س for Saudi Arabia, AED د.إ for UAE — positioned correctly after the number in RTL context
Phone numbers in local format: +966 XX XXX XXXX for KSA, +971 X XXX XXXX for UAE
Both language versions (Arabic + English) are equal in depth and quality — bilingual sites often have thin Arabic content compared to English

Section 2 — RTL Layout & CSS

Developer Note: dir="rtl" on the <html> element is the foundation. Everything else flows from this. Setting it on individual containers instead of the root causes cascading layout failures.

dir="rtl" set on the <html> element for Arabic pages — not on individual containers
lang="ar" attribute set correctly on the <html> element — required for correct font rendering and screen reader behaviour
CSS logical properties used throughout: margin-inline-start instead of margin-left, padding-inline-end instead of padding-right
direction: rtl and text-align: right set in base CSS for Arabic version
Flexbox and Grid layouts tested in RTL — flex row direction reverses automatically, verify your specific layout renders correctly
All directional icons mirrored: chevrons, arrows, back/forward buttons, pagination arrows, progress indicators — icons that imply direction must point the other way in RTL
Navigation menu flows right to left
Breadcrumbs read right to left with correct separator direction
No hardcoded left or right CSS values — use logical properties throughout the codebase
Tables: column order reverses in RTL — first column appears on the right
Form labels aligned right, input text entry starts from the right, placeholder text is RTL

Section 3 — Arabic Typography

Typography Error #1: Positive letter-spacing on Arabic text breaks character connections and renders the text illegible. This is one of the most common Arabic web typography errors made by non-Arabic developers. Set letter-spacing: 0 or negative for Arabic text.

Arabic-optimised web font selected and loaded: Noto Naskh Arabic, Tajawal, Cairo, or IBM Plex Arabic — not system fonts. Our UI/UX Design team specializes in Arabic typography.
Font size 15–18% larger than your Latin equivalent — Arabic script requires more space at the same visual weight
Line height minimum 1.8 for body text — Arabic ascenders and descenders require significantly more vertical space than Latin
letter-spacing: 0 or negative for all Arabic text — positive letter-spacing breaks Arabic character connections, making text unreadable
Numerals decided: Eastern Arabic numerals (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) or Western (0123456789) — Gulf digital products typically use Western Arabic numerals for clarity
Bold Arabic rendering tested — many Arabic web fonts render heavier bold weights poorly. Test at font-weight: 700 and adjust if glyphs degrade.
Mixed Arabic-English lines tested for baseline alignment — mixed scripts on the same line often produce uneven baselines that look broken
Content overflow tested: Arabic words are frequently 30–40% longer than English equivalents — button labels, navigation items, and headings overflow in Arabic versions of designs built to English proportions

Section 4 — UI Components in RTL

Modal close button positioned top-left in the DOM — which appears visually top-right in RTL (where users expect it)
Progress bars fill right to left
Range sliders move right to left
Image carousels swipe in the correct direction for RTL
Date pickers: calendar week starts on Saturday in KSA, Sunday in UAE — not Monday as in European defaults
Search input: search icon appears on the left side of the input in RTL (which is visually the trailing end)
Toast notifications and alerts appear on the correct side of screen (typically right side in RTL = top-right)
Dropdown menus open in the correct direction (to the left in RTL contexts)
Tabs flow right to left with active indicator on the correct side
Tooltips appear on the correct side relative to their trigger element

Section 5 — KSA-Specific Requirements

Arabic content reviewed for cultural appropriateness — religious sensitivities are a genuine concern in KSA market; conservative review is required
Human imagery complies with Saudi cultural standards — conservative dress, no inappropriate physical contact
Payment methods include: Mada (dominant debit network), STC Pay, Apple Pay — not just Visa/Mastercard
VAT (15%) displayed correctly on pricing pages for B2C and B2B transactions
ZATCA e-invoicing requirements reviewed if this is a transactional platform — ZATCA mandates specific invoice formats
Saudi address format: district, city, postal code — different from Western address formats
If government or semi-government client: SDAIA and NCA data localisation requirements reviewed with client's legal team. Hamrix provides Digital Consulting for KSA market entry.
Hijri calendar option available where date selection is required

Section 6 — UAE-Specific Requirements

Payment methods include: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Network International, Tabby (BNPL extremely popular with UAE consumers) — not just Visa/Mastercard
VAT (5%) displayed correctly — UAE introduced VAT in 2018, most B2C and B2B transactions require it
Dubai and Abu Dhabi address formats correct — emirate name included in all address fields
Both Arabic and English versions equal in depth and quality — UAE audiences frequently switch languages mid-session; a thin Arabic version signals you don't take the market seriously
WhatsApp contact option — extremely high business communication usage in UAE; not having WhatsApp contact is a significant missed conversion
TRA compliance checked for any app distributed in UAE via App Store or Google Play

Section 7 — Final QA Before Launch

Full site walkthrough completed by a native Arabic speaker on a mobile device — most Arabic web browsing in Gulf is mobile-first
Tested on Safari iOS — dominant browser in KSA and UAE
Tested on Samsung Internet — significant Android market share in Gulf markets
Language toggle switches correctly and persists across page navigation and sessions
URL structure for language versions decided: /ar/ subdirectory is recommended — and hreflang tags implemented correctly
No broken Arabic encoding — no ? characters, boxes, or garbled text appearing instead of Arabic glyphs
Page titles and meta descriptions written in Arabic for Arabic version — do not leave English meta tags on Arabic pages
Arabic language sitemap submitted to Google Search Console separately from English sitemap

Why This Matters for Your Business

Arabic-language websites built with genuine care for RTL UX, native copy quality, and local payment methods consistently outperform their English-only counterparts in KSA and UAE markets. The gap is not small — it is typically 3–5x more engagement from Arabic-speaking visitors on properly localised sites versus machine-translated English sites with cosmetic RTL.

Hamrix builds bilingual Arabic-English websites for the KSA and UAE markets. Contact our Gulf team if you need this done right.

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The Arabic RTL Website QA Checklist — KSA & UAE