How a Riyadh business tripled their website leads after Ijjad redesigned their site. PageSpeed 42→94, bounce rate -45%, Arabic traffic +250%.
Project Snapshot
A Riyadh business services company watched its website lead pipeline shrink for four years while its competitors' pipelines grew. The site was slow, English-only, and built on a generic WordPress theme that Google had quietly stopped favouring after Core Web Vitals shipped. Six months after Ijjad rebuilt it on Next.js with Arabic-first content, the same business was generating 3x more monthly leads, ranking on page 1 for 15+ keywords, and pulling traffic from Arabic searches that the old site had been completely invisible to. Here's exactly what we changed — and why every Saudi business with a stale WordPress site should pay attention.
The Challenge: A Slow, English-Only WordPress Site Bleeding Leads
The original site had been running on the same WordPress theme for over four years. Technical debt had accumulated quietly, and the business owner only noticed something was wrong when competitors with weaker services started winning more inquiries. By the time we audited the site, every fundamental metric was below the bar:
- Google PageSpeed score of 42 — well below the 70+ threshold where Core Web Vitals stop hurting your rankings
- No Arabic content at all — the site was English-only, ignoring the ~60% of Saudi Google searches conducted in Arabic
- Generic theme design — looked like a thousand other WordPress sites, communicated zero brand differentiation
- Poor mobile experience — cluttered layout, tiny touch targets, slow loads on Saudi mobile networks
- Buried contact form — on a separate page, with seven required fields (a known conversion killer)
- Declining organic traffic — Google's Core Web Vitals update had pushed the site from page 1 to page 3 for its main keywords
Old Site vs Ijjad Rebuild — Side by Side
| Metric | Before (WordPress) | After (Ijjad / Next.js) |
|---|---|---|
| PageSpeed mobile | 42 | 94 |
| Monthly leads | ~12 | 36+ |
| Bounce rate | 72% | 39% |
| Arabic content | None | Full bilingual, native-written |
| Schema markup | None | 6 types (Org · Service · FAQ · Review · Breadcrumb · LocalBusiness) |
| Page-1 Google keywords | 2 | 15+ |
| Contact form fields | 7 required | 3 required |
The Solution: Five Moves That Compounded
This was a complete rebuild, not a patch — but every move was deliberate. Each of the five workstreams below contributed to the 3x lead lift, and they reinforced each other.
1. Modern Tech Stack on Next.js
We replaced the bloated WordPress theme with a custom Next.js build. Server-side rendering, automatic image optimisation, code splitting, and edge caching pulled the PageSpeed score from 42 to 94. That single change improved Google rankings on its own, because Core Web Vitals are a confirmed ranking factor. The Google web.dev team publishes the standard at web.dev/articles/vitals — we engineered the new build against those exact thresholds.
2. Bilingual Arabic / English Content
We commissioned a complete Arabic content strategy alongside the English content. Arabic meta titles, descriptions, headings, and body copy were written by native Arabic speakers — not machine-translated, not afterthought-localised. This opened up an entirely new search audience the old site had been deaf to: Arabic queries from real Riyadh customers actively shopping for the client's services.
3. Conversion-Centred Design
Every page was designed around a single goal: generate an inquiry. Specifically:
- Sticky contact CTAs visible on every page without scrolling
- Contact form simplified from 7 fields to 3 (name, phone, brief description)
- Trust signals above the fold: ministry client logos, headline stats, real testimonials
- WhatsApp click-to-chat button (Saudi customers prefer WhatsApp for business inquiries)
- Service-specific landing pages with CTAs tailored to each service line
4. Full SEO Foundation
We built comprehensive SEO into every page:
- Schema markup:
Organization,Service,FAQPage,BreadcrumbList,Review,LocalBusiness - Internal linking architecture connecting all service and location pages
- Proper heading hierarchy (H1–H4) with target keywords placed naturally
- Google Business Profile optimised and linked to the new website
- XML sitemap,
robots.txt, and structured data validated against the Google Rich Results test
5. Saudi-Specific UX Details
Small details, big cumulative effect:
- Phone numbers formatted for Saudi (+966) and Jordanian (+962) markets
- WhatsApp integration honouring the Saudi preference for messaging over email
- Working hours displayed in AST (Arabia Standard Time) — not whatever the host timezone defaulted to
- Saudi Riyal pricing prominently displayed on every commercial page
Sound familiar? If your site is slow, English-only, or hasn't been touched in years, you're probably losing leads to competitors with worse services but better websites. Run our free website analyzer to see exactly where the gaps are.
The PageSpeed Story: 42 → 94
PageSpeed isn't just a vanity number — it's a documented ranking factor and a documented bounce-rate driver. Here's how the four Core Web Vitals shifted between the old site and the rebuild:
The Results — Six Months Live
Ijjad completely transformed our online presence. Our new website generates 3x more inquiries than the old one, and we finally rank on the first page of Google for our main keywords. The team understood our market and delivered exactly what we needed.
— Sarah J., Business Owner, Riyadh · Ijjad client
The Pattern: Why So Many Saudi Business Sites Look Like This
This case study illustrates a pattern we see constantly: businesses with stale WordPress sites are leaving leads on the table — and they don't know how much. The combination of poor Core Web Vitals, missing Arabic content, generic theme design, and zero conversion optimisation creates a compounding problem. None of those issues alone would be fatal, but together they make your site nearly invisible to the local market.
The good news: a modern rebuild doesn't fix one issue, it fixes all of them simultaneously. That's why the results multiply rather than add up. The 3x lead increase wasn't three separate wins of 33% each — it was four overlapping improvements that each unlocked the next one.
From understanding to leads
You've now seen exactly how a slow, English-only WordPress site becomes a 3x lead engine. The question is whether you want to spend a year experimenting on your own site — or work with a team that has shipped this exact transformation in production for businesses across Riyadh, Jeddah, and Amman.
Talk to Ijjad about your websiteFAQ
How did Ijjad triple the client's leads?
Three drivers compounded over six months: (1) the Next.js rebuild lifted PageSpeed from 42 to 94, cutting bounce rate by 45% and improving Google rankings via Core Web Vitals; (2) an Arabic-first content strategy and bilingual SEO captured organic traffic from Arabic queries the old English-only site had zero visibility for; (3) conversion-optimised CTAs, trust signals, and a streamlined three-field contact form increased visitor-to-lead conversion by 180%. Combined, these produced a 3x increase in monthly leads.
How much does a website redesign cost in Saudi Arabia?
A professional Saudi business website redesign ranges from 10,000 SAR (~$2,700) for a focused services site to 50,000+ SAR (~$13,500+) for sites with many pages, custom features, or e-commerce. Ijjad provides a detailed quote after a free audit. The investment is typically recovered within 3–6 months through increased qualified leads — and after that, the new site is a long-running asset, not a cost.
Will a redesign hurt my existing Google rankings?
Not when it's done properly. Ijjad implements 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones, preserves meta data on pages that are already performing well, monitors Google Search Console daily during migration, and validates structured data before and after launch. In this case study, rankings actually improved significantly because the new site was faster, better structured, and shipped with complete schema markup.
Why does Arabic content matter for a Riyadh business?
Roughly 60% of Saudi Google searches are conducted in Arabic. An English-only site is invisible to that majority of the local market. Adding professionally written (not machine-translated) Arabic content with proper Arabic meta tags, headings, and schema effectively doubles the addressable organic search market overnight. For this Riyadh client, Arabic organic traffic went from zero to a 250% increase against an Arabic baseline within six months.
What does Ijjad include in the free website audit?
The free audit covers PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, schema markup coverage, internal linking structure, current Google Search Console rankings, conversion path analysis, Arabic SEO gap analysis, and a prioritised list of fixes. You get a clear written report — no obligation, no pressure. If you choose to work with us afterwards, the audit findings are folded straight into the rebuild scope.
Is your website holding your business back?
If your site is slow, English-only, or not generating leads, you're in the same place this Riyadh business was. Ijjad offers a free website audit — we'll tell you exactly what's wrong, what to fix first, and what it would take to fix it. Saudi-aware rebuilds start from 10,000 SAR.
Get Your Free Website Audit →Keep exploring: Ijjad Web Design Services · Free Website Analyzer · Saudi National Design System Case Study · Jeddah E-Commerce Case Study
Karam Abd Al Qader
Founder & Product Consultant at Ijjad