Running Arabic and English content side by side: a workflow for marketing teams

Why “write in English, translate later” fails

Translation produces a document that is accurate and rarely persuasive. The structure, examples and rhythm of the English carry over, and a native Arabic reader feels it immediately. It also creates a delay: the Arabic waits for the English to be final, then for the translator, then for review, and by the time it is published the English has changed again.

Search makes the problem worse. Arabic searchers use different words and ask different questions from English searchers. A translated page targets the English query in Arabic words — which is often not what anyone types. Our guide to Arabic keyword research explains the difference.

A workflow that keeps both languages equal

1. One brief. The purpose of the piece, the audience, the key messages, the facts and figures, the call to action — and the Arabic and English search terms researched separately.
2. Two writers, in parallel. Native writers produce each version from the brief at the same time. They share facts and structure, not sentences.
3. Cross-check facts. An editor compares both versions for factual consistency: numbers, names, claims, dates.
4. Native review. Each version is edited by a native speaker for tone and correctness.
5. Approve together. Stakeholders approve both versions in one round. Legal and compliance review both.
6. Publish together. Both go live the same day, linked with hreflang and the language switch.

Terminology and style

Keep one shared document listing how key terms are written in each language: product and service names, job titles, technical terms, and the words you deliberately avoid. Decide once whether a term stays in English, is transliterated, or has an Arabic equivalent — and stick to it. Add style decisions too: formality, how numbers and dates are written, whether to use Western or Arabic-Indic digits, how to write the company name in Arabic.

This list saves more review time than anything else, and it keeps chatbots, brochures and the website saying the same thing.

Track pages as pairs

Maintain a simple content inventory — a spreadsheet is enough — where each row is a pair: the English URL, the Arabic URL, the last update date of each, and the owner. When one version changes, the row shows the other is now behind. Review it monthly. Pages with no counterpart should be a deliberate decision, not an accident; if an Arabic page has no English equivalent, the language switch should say so rather than dropping the visitor on the homepage.

Using AI tools responsibly

AI writing tools are useful for drafting, summarising research and suggesting alternatives in both languages. They are not a substitute for native writers and editors, and they do make factual errors confidently. Use them inside the workflow — for a first draft from the brief, or to check consistency between versions — and keep a human responsible for every published word. Never publish machine output in either language without review.

Set up the CMS to help

• Link each page to its counterpart in the CMS, so editors can jump between them.
• Show a warning when one language is updated and the other is not.
• Let each language have its own title, description, URL slug and images — not just translated fields.
• Generate hreflang automatically from the linked pairs.