Which languages does your business need?
Translating a site three times triples the work of keeping it current. Start from who pays you. This table is our opinion, based on the kind of customers each business tends to have, not a market study:
| Business | English | Arabic | Russian |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant, café, beauty salon in a tourist or expat area | Yes | Menu and key pages | If Russian-speaking guests are a visible share |
| Clinic, legal or financial services | Yes | Yes, full | If you have Russian-speaking staff to answer |
| Real estate agency | Yes | Yes | Yes, if you sell to CIS buyers |
| B2B services, tech, agencies | Yes | Key pages | Only with a Russian-speaking sales contact |
| Business serving government or Emirati families | Yes | Yes, full and first | Rarely |
One rule matters more than the table: don't publish a language you can't answer in. A Russian page that leads to a WhatsApp where nobody reads Russian loses the lead and the review.
One URL per language
Google recommends different URLs for each language version rather than switching language with cookies or browser settings. If the language changes on the same URL, Googlebot sees one version and the others don't exist for search.
Structure options Google lists:
| Structure | Example | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Subfolders | example.ae/ar/, example.ae/ru/ | Most Dubai businesses: one domain, one hosting, low maintenance |
| Subdomains | ar.example.ae | Separate teams or platforms per language |
| Country domains | example.ae, example.sa | Separate operations per country |
Google decides the language of a page from its visible text. It says it doesn't use "any code-level language information such as lang attributes, or the URL". So the whole page must be translated, not just the menu and footer: Google warns that translating only the boilerplate creates a poor experience.
hreflang, done right
hreflang tags tell Google that /en/services/, /ar/services/ and /ru/services/ are the same page in different languages, so it shows the right one to each searcher. Google's rules:
- Every version lists every version, including itself. If the English page points to the Arabic one but the Arabic page doesn't point back, the tags are ignored.
- Codes follow ISO. Language from ISO 639-1, optional region from ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2. ar, ar-AE, en, ru are valid. ar-UAE, en-UK and ru-RU-AE are not.
- Add x-default for the version shown when no language matches, usually English.
- Pick one method: <link> tags in the page head, HTTP headers, or the XML sitemap.
For a three-language page, the head of each version carries the same four link tags, with rel="alternate":
| hreflang | href |
|---|---|
| en | https://example.ae/en/services/ |
| ar | https://example.ae/ar/services/ |
| ru | https://example.ae/ru/services/ |
| x-default | https://example.ae/en/services/ |
A page that exists only in English gets no hreflang to Arabic. Point tags only at real equivalents, never at the Arabic home page as a catch-all.
Arabic is a different layout, not just a different text
Arabic reads right to left. The W3C's guidance is to set dir="rtl" on the html element of Arabic pages, so the browser mirrors the text flow. The design has to follow:
- Mirror the layout: navigation and logo move to the right, arrows and "next" buttons flip. Write CSS with logical properties (margin-inline-start, not margin-left) so one stylesheet serves both directions.
- Keep some things left-to-right: phone numbers, prices in AED, email addresses, product codes and embedded English brand names.
- Use an Arabic typeface designed for screens, and check line height: Arabic needs more vertical room than Latin text.
- Test forms: text fields must accept Arabic input and phone numbers must still validate.
Translation: what to do by hand
Google's spam policies list content generated "through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating" to create many pages as scaled content abuse. Machine translation is fine as a first draft. What you publish should be edited by a native speaker, at least on the pages that sell.
| Page | Arabic | Russian |
|---|---|---|
| Home, services, prices, contact | Native-written or fully edited | Native-written or fully edited |
| Menu, product names | Edited, with consistent terms | Edited |
| Blog articles | Translate only the ones your audience asks for | Same |
| Legal pages | Translated by someone qualified | Same |
What nobody tells you
Auto-redirects hide pages from Google. Google advises "don't redirect based on what you think the user's language may be". A site that sends every visitor with a Russian browser to /ru/ can also send Googlebot somewhere it didn't ask for.
The WhatsApp button must change language too. A prefilled message in English on the Arabic page tells the customer which language you really work in. Set the prefilled text per language.
Every update now costs three times. Prices, opening hours and offers change. Keep them in one place, a shared data file or the CMS, so all three versions update together.
Vladimir Chernyshev, GM: a good Russian page beats a bad Arabic one, and the reverse. Launch the languages you can serve well, add others when you have someone to answer the messages. For the legal side of Arabic, read our guide to Arabic language requirements in the UAE; for how fonts and scripts affect speed, see Core Web Vitals for Dubai sites.
