Multilingual Website in French, Arabic and English: Best Practices

In Algeria, a French-only website misses part of its audience; in France, a business targeting North Africa, the Middle East or international customers has every reason to speak Arabic and English too. But a multilingual website in French, Arabic and English takes more than translation: Google must understand which version to show to whom, and the Arabic version must read flawlessly from right to left. Here are the best practices I apply, including on this very site, published in all three languages.

A separate URL for each language

Each language needs its own URLs that Google can crawl separately. There are three options:

• Subfolders (your-site.com/en/, your-site.com/ar/): the easiest to manage, and they benefit from the main domain’s authority. This is my default choice.
• Subdomains (en.your-site.com): possible, but heavier to maintain.
• Country domains (.fr, .dz): relevant when the content genuinely changes from one country to another (offers, prices, contact details), not just the language.

Avoid switching languages with a cookie or a script on a single URL: Google then sees only one version. Also avoid automatic redirects based on country or browser language: a French speaker in Algiers or an Arabic speaker in Marseille must be able to choose. Offer a visible language switcher that leads to the equivalent page, not the home page.

Hreflang tags: telling Google which version to show

hreflang tags link the different versions of the same page and declare their language. The rules to follow:

• each version lists all the others and itself (fr, en, ar);
• links are reciprocal: if the French page points to the English one, the English page must point back to the French one;
• an x-default value names the version to show when no language matches;
• codes are valid language codes, optionally with a country: fr, ar, en, or fr-DZ to target French speakers in Algeria specifically.

Each version also needs a canonical tag pointing to itself, not to the French version: otherwise Google may ignore the translations.

Arabic and right-to-left reading

An Arabic version is more than translated text. The page must declare lang="ar" and dir="rtl", and the whole layout must be mirrored: menu, alignment, arrows, directional icons, breadcrumbs, forms. Points to watch:

• use CSS logical properties (margin-inline-start rather than margin-left) so that one stylesheet serves both directions;
• choose a font designed for Arabic that stays legible at small sizes, rather than the system fallback font;
• check mixed text: a brand name, price or phone number in Latin characters in the middle of an Arabic sentence can display out of order;
• do not mirror what should not be mirrored: logos, screenshots, video players.

Human or machine translation?

Machine translation has improved a lot and saves time. But publishing machine-translated pages without review causes two problems: errors that damage your credibility, especially in Arabic where register matters, and an SEO risk, since Google treats mass-produced content with no added value as spam. The right method: a machine or AI-assisted first draft, then a review by someone who knows both the language and your trade. For Algeria, favour clear Modern Standard Arabic that everyone understands, keeping the usual technical terms.

Multilingual website: translate what you cannot see too

A complete version also translates page URLs, title tags and meta descriptions, image alt text, form messages, automatic emails and legal pages. Finally, adapt what needs adapting: currency, date and phone number formats, and preferred contact channels in each country.

Planning or fixing a multilingual website? I build websites in French, Arabic and English with a clean structure and correct hreflang tags: see the showcase website offer or, for an existing site, an SEO audit that checks the setup of each language.