Arabic, English or French? Choosing Your Website's Languages in Lebanon

Ask a Lebanese business owner which languages their new website should be in and the answer usually comes back instantly: "all three". Arabic, English and French, because that is how the country talks, and because leaving one out feels like leaving someone out.

It is an understandable reflex and often the wrong brief. Every language is not a toggle on a website; it is another version of the site that has to be written, designed, checked, found in search and kept up to date. A website with one excellent language beats one with three uneven ones, and a stale French page that still lists last year's prices does more harm than no French page at all.

This guide is about making that decision on purpose: how to choose, what each extra language really involves, how search works across them, what it costs and whom to hire.

Decide by customer, not by habit

Start with the people who pay you, not with the country's languages in general.

Where are they? Neighbourhood customers in your area, clients across Lebanon, diaspora customers in the Gulf, Europe, Africa or the Americas, or companies abroad? What language do they search in when they look for what you sell? And — the most honest test of all — what language do they write to you in on WhatsApp today?

Look at your last hundred messages, emails or enquiries. If nearly all of them are in English, or in Lebanese Arabic typed in Latin letters, that tells you more than any assumption about what "a Lebanese website" should be. If a meaningful group writes in French, that group is real and worth serving. If none does, a French version is a cost with no audience.

Some rough patterns hold, but check them against your own messages rather than taking them as rules. Businesses serving local households often find that Arabic, or English with Arabic contact options, matters most. Firms selling to companies, abroad or in tech, often run in English first. Businesses whose clients include francophone families, schools or partners in France, Canada or West Africa may genuinely need French. Hospitality and tourism businesses often need whichever languages their guests book in.

One primary language, done properly, then add

The practical answer for most small businesses is to launch with one primary language, done thoroughly, and add a second when there is evidence it is needed and a plan to keep it current.

"Done thoroughly" means every page, form, confirmation message, error message and email the site sends exists in that language. Half-translated sites, where the homepage is in Arabic but the contact form answers in English, feel careless to exactly the visitors you meant to welcome.

When you do add a language, add all of it. Partial language versions are one of the most common defects on Lebanese business sites.

Search works one language at a time

People search in their own words, not in your translation of your own words. Someone looking for your service in Arabic may type it in Arabic script, in Lebanese Arabic written in Latin letters, or in English, and each of those is a different search with different competitors. The phrase you would translate your English keyword into is often not the phrase anyone types.

That has consequences for how the site is built and written:

• Each language version needs its own address — a separate URL for each page in each language — rather than one page that swaps text with a button. Search engines need to see each version as a page in its own right.
• The versions should be marked as translations of each other, so search engines show the right one to the right person. This is a technical step your developer should confirm is in place.
• Do not automatically redirect visitors by location or browser. A diaspora visitor in Paris may want the Arabic page; let people choose, and remember their choice.
• Each version needs its own titles and descriptions, written for how people search in that language, not translated word for word.

An SEO content writer who works natively in the language can research what people actually type and write the pages around it. For the broader question of what search work costs, see our guide to SEO services in Lebanon.

A real Arabic version is also a design job

If Arabic is one of your languages, the site's design has to be built for it, not merely filled with it.

Arabic reads right to left, so the whole layout mirrors: navigation, menus, arrows, sliders, the alignment of text and the order of form fields. Arabic needs web fonts chosen for it — many fonts that look good in Latin letters have poor or no Arabic — and it needs line heights and sizes set for Arabic script. Mixed text, such as an Arabic sentence with an English product name and a phone number, has to be tested so it displays in the correct order. Buttons sized for short English words often break with their Arabic equivalents.

None of this is exotic; a competent developer knows how to do it. But it has to be in the brief from the start, which is why our guide to writing a website brief asks for languages on page one. Retrofitting right-to-left support onto a finished site is slow and expensive. The same logic applies to printed material; our guide to bilingual company profiles covers it for brochures.

Translate, adapt or write fresh

Not every page needs the same treatment, and choosing the right one for each saves money.

Translate text that must say exactly the same thing in every language: terms and conditions, privacy notices, product specifications, anything legal or technical. Faithfulness matters more than flair. An Arabic–English translator is the right hire.

Adapt marketing pages — the homepage, service pages, the about page. A literal translation of confident English marketing copy often reads stiff or odd in Arabic or French. Adaptation keeps the message and rewrites the expression. Some translators do this well; many copywriters do it better.

Write fresh where search is the point: articles, guides and the pages you want found in that language. These should be researched and written in that language from the start by someone who writes natively in it, such as an Arabic content writer. Our guide to hiring an Arabic content writer covers choosing between Modern Standard Arabic and dialect for different kinds of pages.

The upkeep nobody budgets

Every language multiplies every future change. A new service, a price update, a new team member, a holiday closing notice, a new photo caption: each now has to happen in two or three places, correctly, at the same time.

Before adding a language, decide who will keep it current, and how quickly. If the honest answer is "nobody, really", do not add it yet. A language version that falls behind sends visitors wrong information, and it signals to exactly the audience you wanted to reach that they were an afterthought.

A simple rule helps: no change goes live in one language until it is ready in all of them.

What it costs

On Furrsati, typical prices for the pieces are:

• A 3–5 page small business website: typically $350 to $900.
• Website page copy from a copywriter: typically $30 to $150 per page.
• Arabic general content: typically $0.02 to $0.05 per word.
• Arabic–English translation: typically $0.04 to $0.12 per word, with specialist subjects costing more.
• An SEO article of 1,000 to 1,500 words: typically $50 to $120.

So for a five-page site, having the copy written in one language at those page rates comes to roughly $150 to $750 before any second language is added, and each additional language adds either translation or adaptation on top — plus the right-to-left design work if that language is Arabic, which belongs in the developer's quote from the start. Our website cost breakdown covers the rest of the budget.

Checking a language you do not read well

Many owners will sign off a version of their site in a language they do not fully read. That is fine, as long as someone who does read it checks it before it goes live.

Ask a native reader who was not involved to go through every page on a phone, not just a laptop, and to report anything that reads as translated, anything that displays wrongly, and anything that is simply out of date compared with the main version. Our guide to checking translation quality in a language you cannot read sets out a process that works.

Hiring and paying safely

Hire for the language, not just for the job. Ask each writer or translator for published samples in the specific language and register you need, and ask how they would handle your main keyword in that language — a good one will tell you the phrase people actually search, not a dictionary translation.

This is where Furrsati removes the risk. You post your project, compare proposals from verified freelancers, fund a milestone, and release payment only once you've approved the work, with milestone funds held by Stripe until you release them. The service fee comes off the freelancer's side, so only standard card processing is added to your bill, and wallet-funded milestones carry none. Freelancers verify their identity before they can withdraw; as a client you need no verification. Payouts reach the freelancer inside Lebanon by OMT, Whish, bank transfer or USDT.

Your next step

Read your last hundred customer messages and count the languages. Choose one primary language and, if the evidence supports it, one second language, and name who will keep each current. Put both in the brief before any design starts. Then hire a website copywriter for the primary language, an Arabic content writer or translator for the second, and a developer to build the site with every language planned in from day one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Lebanese business website need to be in Arabic, English and French?

Not automatically. Choose by your customers: where they are, what language they search in, and what language they already message you in. Many small businesses do best launching one language thoroughly and adding a second when there is evidence of demand and someone to keep it current. Three uneven versions serve visitors worse than one good one.

Is it better to translate my website or write each language separately?

It depends on the page. Translate text that must be identical, such as terms, policies and specifications. Adapt marketing pages so they read naturally rather than literally. Write fresh, natively, for pages meant to be found in search in that language, because people search in their own phrasing, not in a translation of yours.

How much does it cost to add Arabic to a website in Lebanon?

On Furrsati, Arabic general content is typically $0.02 to $0.05 per word and Arabic–English translation typically $0.04 to $0.12 per word, while website page copy from a copywriter is typically $30 to $150 per page. Add the developer's work for right-to-left layout, which should be included in the build quote from the start rather than retrofitted.

What makes an Arabic website version different from a translation?

Arabic reads right to left, so the entire layout mirrors, including menus, arrows, sliders and form fields. It needs fonts designed for Arabic, text sizes and spacing set for the script, and testing of mixed Arabic, English and numbers. These are design and development decisions, so they belong in the original brief.

How do I make each language version show up in Google?

Give each language version of each page its own URL, mark the versions as translations of each other so search engines show the right one, avoid automatic redirects by location, and write titles, descriptions and key pages for how people actually search in each language. A native-language SEO writer can research those search phrases.

Who should keep the different language versions up to date?

Name a person for each language before you launch it, and adopt a simple rule: no change goes live in one language until it is ready in all of them. If nobody can own a language's upkeep, wait before adding it, because an outdated version gives visitors wrong information.