Website questions from UAE businesses

Magnetic Keys' websites start from AED 35,000 excluding VAT for a full marketing site built in around eight weeks. Our fixed-scope Conversion Site Build starts from AED 48,000. Arabic, written content, integrations and the number of page templates raise the price, and hosting and changes keep costing after launch. Treat any quote that doesn't list what's excluded as incomplete.

Around eight weeks for a full marketing site, which is our usual timeline: two weeks on structure and plan, four on design and build, and two on content load, testing and launch. What stretches a timeline is usually late content and slow approvals, so agree who supplies each page's content, and by when, before the clock starts.

Yes, with a smaller job: a template site on a builder you can edit, a handful of pages and your own photos. You give up custom design, speed tuning and properly built Arabic. That suits a site whose job is to be found and checked, not one carrying paid traffic. Test any live example on your phone, then run it through Google's PageSpeed Insights.

Get three things in writing before you compare prices: the page list with what's excluded, dates for each stage with your approval points, and who owns what at handover. Then ask what they'd cut if your budget were lower. A good answer names features. A bad one names quality, such as testing, speed or Arabic.

Pick by who will change the site after launch. If your own team will edit pages, Webflow is built for that. If a developer or agency will keep it running, WordPress works. If customers pay on the site, add a shop platform to the shortlist. Go custom, for example in Next.js, only for features the others can't do, because every custom feature is something you maintain.

If any of your buyers read Arabic first, yes, and that means real Arabic pages rather than a translation plug-in. The UAE government portal names Arabic as the official language. A proper Arabic site needs right-to-left layouts, Arabic typography, native copy and hreflang links between each English and Arabic page. Start with the pages buyers see first, then extend.

You should, through your company and not the designer. Start with the domain, because it's the one that can lock you out: it should be registered to your business, with your email as account holder. Then check the hosting, CMS admin, analytics and code repository. With Magnetic Keys, code, domain and content are yours, and the repository is transferred at handover.

Expect four running costs on top of the build: domain renewal, hosting, maintenance and security updates, and changes you request later. Our Conversion Site Build excludes ongoing hosting and maintenance and includes 30 days of post-launch support. Ask every company to price those four lines per year in writing, so you can compare total cost over several years.

Fix it if the structure and content are sound and the problems are speed, tracking or a weak call to action. Rebuild if you can't edit it, can't make it fast on a phone, have no proper Arabic, or its pages don't match what buyers search for. Either way, never change URLs without a redirect map, or you'll lose the rankings the old pages earned.

Core Web Vitals are three measures of real visits. Google's web.dev says a good experience means Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, judged at the 75th percentile for mobile and desktop separately. Start with the biggest image on your home page, then third-party scripts.

Enough to answer the questions a buyer asks before contacting you, and no more: home, one page for each main service, proof, about, contact and a privacy policy. Our Conversion Site Build covers up to 12 page templates, and one template can serve many pages, such as a single service layout. Add a page only when you can name the search or question it answers.

Yes, in the UAE. GWI's Q2 2026 survey found 84.1 per cent of UAE internet users aged 16 and over had used WhatsApp in the past month, ahead of every other platform it listed. Put the button next to the phone number, prefill the message with the page name, and count taps as a conversion, so you can trace each chat to the page that earned it.

An obvious, low-effort next step: one main action per page, visible on a phone without scrolling, with proof beside the claim, such as a licence number, named people and prices you can publish. Offer the contact routes people use here, WhatsApp, a call button and a short form. Then change one thing at a time and compare enquiries before and after.

A privacy policy is sensible for any site that collects names or numbers. The federal law is Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021, but Morgan Lewis reported in June 2026 that its implementing regulations had still not been issued, so ask a UAE lawyer about the current position. DIFC and ADGM have their own laws. Google's consent-mode policy names the EEA, UK and Switzerland, not the UAE.

Yes, if you want customers to find you by searching and to trust you before they message. A website is the one place you control: you decide the page for each service, the proof, the price list and how enquiries are counted. Instagram can send people to it, but platform rules and algorithms change, and your domain doesn't. Six pages and a WhatsApp button is enough to start.