Notes on design, performance and Arabic on the web

Written for the person paying for the website, not for other developers. No fabricated statistics — where a number would depend on your situation, we say so.

Performance
Pricing
Construction
SEO
Choosing a provider

Featured

Performance12 September 20262 min read

Why Arabic websites load slower — and what actually fixes it

It is rarely the hosting. Arabic typography carries costs that Latin-only sites never pay, and most of them are avoidable once you know where they are.

All articles

Pricing14 September 20264 min read

How much does a website cost in Saudi Arabia?

Published Saudi prices run from 500 riyals to well over 100,000. What actually sets the price, what's worth paying for, and how to read a quote.

Construction18 September 20263 min read

Contracting websites: beyond the PDF profile

Search for a contracting company profile and Google offers pdf, ppt and ready-to-edit. Search for a contracting website and it barely completes.

SEO12 September 20261 min read

hreflang for bilingual Saudi sites: done once, done right

Get it wrong and your Arabic page competes with your English one. There is no error message — it simply has no effect, quietly, for as long as nobody checks.

Performance12 September 20261 min read

What a Lighthouse score actually tells you — and what it doesn't

A green 100 is worth having and worth understanding. It is a lab simulation, not a measurement of what your visitors experienced.

Choosing a provider8 October 20264 min read

How to choose a web design company in Riyadh: studio, freelancer or agency

Three kinds of provider, three different risks. What each is good at, where each lets owners down, and the questions that tell them apart before you pay a deposit.