Launch a business website in Dubai: a step-by-step guide

To launch a business website in Dubai, work through nine steps in order: choose a domain (.ae, .co.ae or .com), pick hosting that is fast for UAE visitors, point the domain at it, install WordPress with Arabic and English, switch on HTTPS, set up business email with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, add a WhatsApp click-to-chat button, check eligibility and, if eligible, create your Google Business Profile, and run a go-live checklist. With your content ready, a small business site can go live in a weekend.

A made-up example. Layla has just received the trade licence for her interior design studio in Al Quoz. Her first enquiries come through Instagram, and half of them ask the same three things: "Do you have a website?", "Can I see your work in Arabic?" and "What is your WhatsApp?" A simple bilingual site with a chat button answers all three before the customer even messages her.

By the end of this guide you will have a launched site: domain, hosting, bilingual WordPress, HTTPS, working email, a WhatsApp button and, if eligible, a Google listing, plus a checklist to make sure nothing was missed.

What launching a business website involves

Think of it like opening a shop on a Dubai street. You need a name on the sign (the domain), a rented unit (hosting), a way for people to find the unit (DNS), a bilingual signboard (Arabic and English pages), a lock on the door (HTTPS), a phone line (email and WhatsApp), and, for eligible businesses, a listing in the directory (Google Business Profile). The profile is optional when your business does not qualify; the website can still launch.

Before you start

• Business registration details and exact trade name. A UAE trade licence or qualifying UAE trademark may be needed for a .co.ae application. Google Business Profile is separate: follow its eligibility rules and the verification method offered for your profile; a trade licence is not a universal prerequisite.
• Your content in both languages: a short About text, your services, contact details and some photos. Translation always takes longer than expected, so start it first.
• A logo in a format that works on light and dark backgrounds.
• The mobile number you will use for WhatsApp, ideally a business number your team controls.
• A decision on email: mailboxes on your hosting plan, or a service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
• Time: one to two days of focused work once the content exists.

Step 1: Choose your domain

You have three common options for a Dubai business: .ae, .co.ae and .com. The .ae domains are run by the .ae Domain Administration (aeDA), which operates under the UAE's telecommunications regulator.

According to aeDA's published domain name eligibility policy:

• .ae is unrestricted: applicants do not need to provide documentary evidence or meet extra eligibility requirements, beyond the general naming rules and the registrant's warranties.
• .co.ae is restricted to qualifying commercial entities trading in the UAE: the policy includes a valid UAE trade licence, licensing in a UAE free zone, or an application for or registration of a UAE trademark.
• .co.ae names must have the policy's required connection to a qualifying company, trading name, trademark or organisation. Ownership/control conditions also apply; ask an accredited registrar to check the proposed name and your documents against section 11.
• Length and characters: between 2 and 63 characters, with no hyphen at the start or end and no spaces.
• Reserved names: aeDA keeps a reserved names list, and those names need authorisation.

The TDRA-hosted policy linked below is version 1.1, dated 22 September 2010. Confirm the policy and current application requirements with an aeDA-accredited registrar before registering; this is not a legal eligibility determination.

Quick tips for choosing the name:

• Make it easy to say on the phone in both English and Arabic, and easy to spell after hearing it once.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers that people forget.
• Consider registering both the .ae and the .com of your name if both are available, and point one at the other.
• Register it in your company's name, with your own email as the contact. Our UAE hosting company vetting guide explains why this matters when you change providers later.

Step 2: Pick hosting that is fast for UAE visitors

For most Dubai business sites, shared hosting with free SSL, daily backups and a WordPress installer is enough to start. The important part is that pages load quickly for visitors in the UAE.

You can test that yourself before buying. This command times one request to a host's demo site and shows when the first byte arrives:

curl -o /dev/null -s -w "connect: %{time_connect}s  first byte: %{time_starttransfer}s\n" https://example.com/

Google's web.dev guidance suggests most sites should aim for a time to first byte of 0.8 seconds or less. If you are not in the UAE yourself, our UAE hosting pillar guide shows how to run the same test from probes in Dubai with Globalping.

Full disclosure: Hostlelo runs this blog. At the time of writing (3 October 2026), its UAE hosting page says "Your site is served from Dubai" and lists free SSL and NVMe SSD storage. Test any provider, including Hostlelo, the same way.

Step 3: Point the domain at your hosting

You have two ways to connect the domain:

• Change the nameservers at your registrar to the ones your host gives you in the welcome email. The host then manages all your DNS records.
• Keep your current DNS and add an A record for the domain and a CNAME or A record for www, pointing at the server address your host gives you.

Our guide to connecting a domain to hosting walks through both methods with screenshots of what to fill in.

After the change, this checks which nameservers the world now sees for your domain (replace example.com with yours):

dig +short NS example.com

And this shows the address the domain points to, which should match your server:

dig +short example.com

Heads up: if you change nameservers and your email is hosted somewhere else, copy the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records into the new DNS zone first, or email stops arriving.

Step 4: Install WordPress and set it up for Arabic and English

Install WordPress

On a cPanel host, Softaculous installs WordPress in a few minutes. Our Softaculous install guide explains every field, including why you should use https:// and a username other than "admin".

Set the basics

In Settings > General, set the Site Language to your main language and the Timezone to Dubai, so contact form timestamps and scheduled posts use UAE time.

Choose a theme that supports right-to-left text

Arabic is written right to left, so the whole layout should mirror on Arabic pages: menus, text alignment and arrows. Not every theme does this well. The WordPress.org theme directory has a filter called RTL language support; start your search there and preview the theme with Arabic content before committing.

A theme without proper right-to-left styles can leave Arabic text aligned to the left with punctuation in the wrong place, which looks careless to Arabic-speaking customers.

Install Polylang for two languages

Polylang supports bilingual and multilingual WordPress sites and right-to-left scripts. Check the current WordPress.org listing for WordPress/PHP compatibility, release notes and supported features before installing, rather than relying on an older version or popularity count.

Install it from Plugins > Add New Plugin by searching for "Polylang", then activate it.

Add your languages

Go to Languages > Languages and add each language. Polylang asks for:

• Full name: how the language appears in the admin and the language switcher.
• Locale: which WordPress translation files load, for example ar for Arabic or en_GB for British English.
• Language code: used in your URLs, for example ar and en.
• Text direction: choose RTL for Arabic and LTR for English.
• Flag and order: how the language appears in the switcher.

The first language you add becomes the default. You can change it later with the star icon on the same screen, but Polylang's documentation notes that changing the default does not change the language of existing content, so pick your main language first.

Choose how the URLs look

In Languages > Settings, open the URL modifications module. A common, clear choice is to set the language from the directory name, which gives addresses such as /en/services/ and /ar/services/. You can also hide the language code for the default language if you prefer shorter English addresses.

Translate your pages

In Pages, Polylang adds a column for each language. Click the plus icon in the Arabic column next to an English page to create its Arabic translation; once a translation exists, the icon changes and opens the translation for editing. In the block editor, the Languages panel lets you link an existing page as a translation or create a new one.

Add the language switcher

For a classic menu, go to Appearance > Menus, find the Language switcher box, add it to your main menu and save. You can choose whether it shows language names, flags or both, and whether to hide the current language. Polylang also offers a switcher through widgets.

Test the Arabic pages properly

Open an Arabic page on your phone and check that text aligns to the right, the menu mirrors, and numbers, phone numbers and email addresses still read correctly. Choose fonts that include Arabic characters, otherwise the browser falls back to a default font that may clash with your design.

Step 5: Turn on HTTPS

Most hosts issue a free certificate automatically once the domain points at the server. Check that it covers both example.com and www.example.com, then redirect every visitor to HTTPS. Our HTTPS redirect guide covers the cPanel toggle, .htaccess rules and how to fix redirect loops.

This confirms the redirect works; you should see a 301 and a location: header pointing at the https:// address:

curl -sI http://example.com/

Step 6: Set up business email that reaches inboxes

Create your mailboxes (for example info@ and your own name), then publish the three records that prove your messages are genuine:

• SPF: lists the servers allowed to send email for your domain.
• DKIM: adds a digital signature to every message.
• DMARC: tells receiving servers what to do when a message fails those checks, and sends you reports.

Our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide has the exact records and steps for hosting email, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

Once published, these two commands show your SPF and DMARC records as the world sees them:

dig +short TXT example.com
dig +short TXT _dmarc.example.com

Step 7: Add a WhatsApp click-to-chat button

Many UAE customers would rather send a WhatsApp message than fill in a form. WhatsApp's official help centre documents the link format:

• Basic link: https://wa.me/ followed by the full phone number in international format.
• No formatting: use digits only, with the country code and no plus sign, spaces, brackets or dashes. For a UAE mobile number, use 971 and drop the domestic leading zero; keep any zeroes that are part of the remaining subscriber number.
• Pre-filled message: add ?text= followed by URL-encoded text, where spaces become %20.

Here is the pattern with a placeholder number (replace the X characters with your real digits):

https://wa.me/9715XXXXXXXX
https://wa.me/9715XXXXXXXX?text=Hello%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote

In WordPress, add a Buttons block to your contact page or header, type "Chat on WhatsApp", and paste the link. If your theme lets you add custom HTML, this is the equivalent code:

<a href="https://wa.me/9715XXXXXXXX?text=Hello%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chat on WhatsApp</a>

Test it on your own phone and on a colleague's phone. A pre-filled message in Arabic also has to be URL-encoded; if you are unsure, keep the pre-filled text in English or leave it out.

Step 8: Create your Google Business Profile

First check eligibility. Google generally requires in-person contact with customers during stated hours, with limited exceptions listed in its guidelines; online-only businesses are not eligible. If your business qualifies, a Business Profile can help customers find it in Search and Maps. Follow these steps:

1. Go to business.google.com/add.
2. Click Add your business to Google.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to add your business details.
4. Complete the verification method or methods Google offers for your profile. Available methods are determined by Google and vary; a trade licence is not a universal requirement.

Follow Google's guidelines while you fill it in:

• Name: use your real-world business name, as on your sign, website and stationery, with no taglines, phone numbers or extra keywords.
• Address: a precise, accurate address or service area. P.O. boxes are not acceptable.
• Service-area businesses: if customers do not visit you, set a service area and hide your address, especially if you work from home.
• Phone: a number that reaches your business directly and stays under your control.
• Categories: as few as possible, describing what your business is.

Add your website address to the profile and use consistent business names and phone numbers. A service-area business that hides its home address should not expose that address on its website merely for consistency; describe the service area instead.

Step 9: The go-live checklist

Before you announce the site, tick off each of these:

• Both example.com and www.example.com open the site over HTTPS, with a padlock.
• Every page has an Arabic and English version, and the language switcher works on mobile.
• The contact form sends to the right mailbox, and a reply from that mailbox reaches Gmail and Outlook inboxes.
• The WhatsApp button opens a chat with the right number.
• Phone numbers are tappable on mobile.
• If your business is eligible, its verified Google Business Profile should show the website link and consistent public business details. Do not publish a hidden residential address merely to match a website footer.
• A privacy page explains what the contact form collects and why.
• Backups are running, and you know how to restore one.
• Search engine visibility is switched on: in Settings > Reading, the box that discourages search engines must be unticked.

How to check everything worked

• HTTPS: curl -sI http://example.com/ returns a 301 to the https:// address.
• DNS: dig +short NS example.com shows your host's nameservers, or your DNS provider's.
• Email: send a test message to a Gmail address, open it, and use Show original to check that SPF, DKIM and DMARC say PASS.
• Speed: run the homepage and one Arabic page through PageSpeed Insights on mobile.
• WhatsApp and phone links: tap them on a real phone.
• Google: after verification, search for your business name and check the profile.

Troubleshooting

The .co.ae registration was rejected

The name probably does not match your trade licence or trade mark closely enough. Ask the registrar which document they need, or choose a name that matches your licensed trade name, or register the unrestricted .ae instead.

Arabic pages are aligned to the left

The theme does not include proper right-to-left styles, or the Arabic language in Polylang is set to LTR. Check Languages > Languages first, then test a theme from the RTL language support filter.

The language switcher does not appear

It has not been added to a menu or widget area. Add it in Appearance > Menus or through a widget, and check the menu is assigned to the theme's main menu location.

The WhatsApp link says the number is not on WhatsApp

The number is almost always in the wrong format. Remove the plus sign, spaces, dashes and the leading zero, and keep the 971 country code.

Emails from the site land in spam

Your domain is missing SPF, DKIM or DMARC, or the contact form sends through PHP instead of an authenticated mailbox. Fix the records with our email guide and send form mail through SMTP.

The browser still shows the old site or a default page

DNS changes take time to reach every network. Our DNS propagation guide explains how to check the new records and flush caches.

The one message worth forwarding

If a developer or agency is building the site for you, send this:

"Please register the domain in our company's name, host the site with fast response times from Dubai, build it in WordPress with Arabic (RTL) and English pages using Polylang and a theme that supports RTL, enable HTTPS with a redirect, publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC for our email, add a WhatsApp click-to-chat button in the wa.me format, and hand over all admin logins when the site goes live."

The takeaway: a Dubai business website works when the basics are done in the right order, from a domain in your own name to bilingual pages, verified email, a WhatsApp button and a matching Google listing where eligible.