A company website is judged in seconds. A visitor arriving from a search, an ad or a recommendation opens the page and asks themselves, without realising it: Does this company offer what I need? Does it look serious and trustworthy? What do I do now? If they can’t find the answer quickly, they go back to the search results. That’s why a website isn’t measured by its looks alone, but by its ability to answer these questions — then by its speed, then by how easy it is to manage and grow alongside the company.
These standards help whether you’re planning a new website or evaluating your current one, with a focus on Arabic websites and the Saudi market.
Standard one: a clear message on the first screen
What appears without scrolling should answer three questions: What do you offer? For whom? What’s the next step? Generic lines like “We build the future” or “Integrated solutions” answer none of them. Compare:
| Vague message | Clear message |
|---|---|
| Innovative solutions for your business | Design and installation of central air-conditioning systems for commercial buildings in Riyadh |
| Your partner on the road to success | Accounting and tax returns for small and medium-sized businesses |
| Excellence without limits | A children’s dental clinic with evening appointments in Al Narjis |
Then one clear button for the most important action: book, request a quote, chat on WhatsApp. More than two competing buttons on the first screen distract the visitor.
Standard two: a page structure that serves the visitor
A typical services company website needs: the home page, a page for each main service, a work or projects page, about us, contact, and policy pages. It may also need branch pages, a blog or articles, careers, and FAQs.
- A page per service: instead of one page listing every service in bullet points. Each page explains the service, who it’s for, how it’s delivered, examples and recurring questions. That helps visitors and search engines alike.
- A short navigation menu: five to seven main items, with names customers understand rather than internal jargon.
- A clear path for every visitor: from the home page to the service to contact in two or three clicks.
Standard three: genuinely Arabic right-to-left design
Many Arabic websites are built on English templates whose direction is then flipped. The result shows in the details: arrows pointing the wrong way, icons that don’t mirror, inconsistent spacing, and an Arabic typeface chosen as a fallback rather than as part of the design. The standards:
- Full direction: menus, arrows, galleries, sliders and forms all follow right-to-left reading.
- An Arabic typeface designed for screens: clear at small sizes, with enough weights for headings and body text, and compatible with the Latin typeface used.
- Line height: Arabic needs more line height than English because of its ascenders, descenders and diacritics.
- Numerals: a clear decision between Western and Eastern Arabic numerals, applied consistently.
- Bilingual sites: each version entirely in its own language — no mixing Arabic and English in menus, buttons and footer — with a language switcher that takes the visitor to the equivalent page.
And the foundation for all of this is a clear visual identity applied to the site: colours, typefaces and style.
Standard four: genuinely mobile-first
A large share of visits to company websites in Saudi Arabia come from mobile, and Google indexes the mobile version. A responsive design isn’t enough if it’s just a squeezed version of the desktop site. What must be true:
- Buttons large enough to tap, with space between them.
- A visible, easy-to-reach call or WhatsApp button.
- Text readable without zooming.
- Short forms with mobile-friendly fields (a number keypad for phone fields).
- No pop-ups covering the screen the moment the site opens.
Standard five: speed
A slow site loses visitors before they see anything, and its search ranking suffers. Google’s Core Web Vitals measure three aspects: how fast the main content appears (LCP), how quickly the page responds to interaction (INP), and how stable it is without elements jumping around (CLS). The most common causes of slowness:
- Huge, uncompressed images, or images uploaded larger than needed.
- Too many plugins and scripts, especially on WordPress.
- Multiple typefaces with many weights.
- Heavy autoplaying background video.
- Weak or geographically distant hosting without a content delivery network.
Test your site in PageSpeed Insights, and look at real-user data where available, not just the lab score.
Standard six: accessibility
A site that’s accessible to everyone includes people who use screen readers or keyboards only, or who have low vision or colour blindness. The essentials:
- Enough contrast between text and background, especially in dark designs.
- Alt text for important images.
- Keyboard navigation through the site, with a visible focus indicator.
- Logically ordered headings (H1, then H2, then H3).
- Clear labels on form fields, and understandable error messages.
- Respecting the operating system’s reduced-motion setting for users who find animation uncomfortable.
Standard seven: the technical SEO foundation
- A unique title and description for every page.
- Clean, short URLs.
- An XML sitemap and a properly configured robots.txt.
- Structured data for the organisation or local business and the breadcrumb trail.
- hreflang tags for bilingual sites.
- A helpful 404 page that guides the visitor instead of leaving them stranded.
- Search Console and Analytics connected from launch day.
The full details are in our guide to SEO in Saudi Arabia.
Standard eight: security and regulations
- HTTPS on every page.
- Regular updates to the system, theme and plugins, plus periodic backups whose restoration is actually tested.
- Form protection against spam without burdening the user.
- The Personal Data Protection Law: a clear privacy policy explaining what data you collect and why, explicit consent when collecting data for marketing, and not collecting what you don’t need.
- Asset ownership: the domain, hosting and admin accounts in the company’s name — not the developer’s or an employee’s.
Standard nine: content that persuades
Design attracts; content persuades. A beautiful site with generic copy is no different from dozens of others. What persuades a company website visitor:
- A specific description of the services, the way you work and the stages involved.
- Real work with images and details — the problem, the solution and the result — where client confidentiality allows.
- Information about the team and its experience, with real photos.
- The company’s official details and clear contact methods.
- Genuine client testimonials, shared with permission.
Don’t display figures, client logos or certificates you can’t prove. Experienced visitors notice exaggeration — and so might competitors.
Standard ten: easy to manage and ready to grow
A website your team can’t edit without going back to the developer will age quickly. Ask before building: Can a service, project or article be added easily? Can text and images be changed without breaking the design? Can the structure accommodate new services and branches? Choosing the right platform is part of this, and the options are compared in our article on WordPress, Shopify, Salla and Zid.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages does a company website need?
It depends on the number of services and branches. A sensible minimum: home, services (a page for each main service), work, about, contact and policies. Most importantly, each page should have a clear role.
Does a company website need an English version?
If some of your clients or partners don’t read Arabic, yes. But an incomplete or machine-translated English version is worse than none. Start with an excellent Arabic version, and add English when you can deliver it in full.
Is a dark design suitable for company websites?
It can be very suitable if it’s part of the brand identity and implemented with enough contrast to keep text easy to read. What matters is that it serves clarity, rather than being a stylistic choice that makes text harder to read.
How often should a website be redesigned?
There’s no fixed interval. A well-built site can be developed gradually for years. A full rebuild becomes necessary when the site no longer reflects the company, is hard to edit, or has fallen behind technically in ways that affect performance and security.
Conclusion
A good company website isn’t just the most beautiful one; it’s the clearest, fastest and easiest to use and manage. A direct message on the first screen, a structure that serves the visitor, genuinely Arabic design, a real mobile experience, speed, accessibility, a technical SEO foundation, security and regulatory compliance, and honest content that persuades. Use these standards as a checklist for your current site, or as requirements when commissioning a new one.
If you’re planning your company website, explore the WordPress websites service, read how to choose the right web designer, or get in touch.
