Salla CSS and JavaScript customization: seven things to settle before you hire anyone

Before you hire anyone to customise a Salla store with CSS or JavaScript, settle three things in writing: the work happens on a duplicate of your theme, the helper gets access through a request you can revoke, and you keep every line of code and every outside file. Judge the result by what Google can still read.

This guide is for owners of Salla stores in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf who are about to pay for code. On 5 November 2026 we downloaded the code box files of 22 live Salla stores, read nine of Salla’s own help pages (eight about code and hired help), opened three Google pages, ran 56 autocomplete searches and read four Google results pages from a Riyadh location.

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The short answer: five findings and what to do

What we found	What to do
Salla says code needs the Pro or Special plan, a custom domain and Store Design permission.	Check all three before you pay anyone.
Of 8 Salla pages about code and hired help, 0 mention search or page speed, and 0 say what happens to your code when a theme changes.	Put those points in the brief yourself.
17 of 22 stores carry a code box stylesheet and 12 a script. The median script is 13.9 KB, the largest 156 KB.	Ask for the size of every file the job adds.
3 of the 12 scripts write or hide headings, titles or FAQ markup.	Ask for a list of what the code adds, hides or rewrites.
Merchant Services completes an order automatically after 7 days without your approval or rejection.	Decide within 7 days, and keep your own copy.

What owners search, and what they find

We ran 56 autocomplete searches on 4 November with the Saudi setting (24 English and 32 Arabic, from a machine in Egypt, capped at ten suggestions). Twenty-two returned anything. The hiring question barely appears: «مبرمج سلة», «تصميم متجر سلة css» and «برمجة متجر سلة» each return only themselves, and “hire salla developer” returns nothing. “salla developer” returns ten suggestions about Salla’s developer portal, account, documentation, login, jobs and API. What does show demand is ready-made code. «اكواد سلة» returns ten suggestions: four are CSS codes (three of them free or ready-made), one is for discounts and four are for basketball games.

On page 1 from Riyadh, we read the titles of the 8 results for each of four searches, 32 in all, and report no positions. «تصميم متجر سلة css» shows Salla’s own CSS guide and seven pages that sell a CSS job, from a freelance marketplace listing to studios. «اكواد css سلة» shows two Salla help pages, five pages of free or ready-made code and one service page. «تعديل قالب سلة» shows three Salla help pages, the theme store, two service pages, a video and a tutorial. “salla css customization” shows Salla’s own pages almost alone. None of the 32 titles reads as a guide for the buyer deciding whom to hire.

What a code job can and cannot touch

Salla’s help pages, opened on 5 November 2026, set the frame:

• Requirements. The Pro or Special plan, a custom domain and permission to access Store Design, which Salla says is limited to authorised store staff. Salla’s theme FAQ says Basic plan stores can customise their design, but its code pages ask for Pro or Special.
• CSS is the look: colours, fonts, spacing, backgrounds and layout on different screens. JavaScript is behaviour: pop-ups, new buttons or text blocks, navigation on chosen pages and reviews in selected categories.
• Where it lives. In Store Design, you choose Customize version and open the code editors. Salla’s CSS guide tells you to preview the store after saving.
• Support. For a theme from an outside developer, Salla says to contact that developer; for a Salla theme, Salla’s support. For a fully custom design, Salla sends you to its developers site.

What 22 live stores carry in their code box

We used the same 22 Salla stores as in our Salla store design guide; they ranked on page 1 in our October searches from Riyadh. Salla serves each store’s code box as separate files. We downloaded the stylesheet and script linked from each home page (11 of the 22 redirect once to their Arabic version, and we followed that one hop), measured their size in bytes, and read the larger files by hand.

Measure	Result
Stores with a code box stylesheet	17 of 22
Stores with a code box script	12 of 22
Stores with neither	5 of 22
Stylesheet size	median 2.4 KB (0.9 KB compressed), from 95 bytes to 74 KB; 3 over 20 KB
Script size	median 13.9 KB (4.1 KB compressed), from 295 bytes to 156 KB; 2 over 100 KB
Script against the theme’s own main script	median 14%; two stores at 100% and 168%
Stylesheets that use !important	15 of 17
Themes behind the 22 stores	8 different themes; 11 stores share one theme and version

What the larger files do, as we read them:

• A 156 KB script is mostly one page. It writes a branches section, in Arabic and English, into a single page: 168 links, and two heading ones per language. It also loads another company’s script. The store’s stylesheet hides the page’s own heading when that section is present. The file grew from 152,796 bytes on 4 November to 155,568 on 5 November, so live code moves.
• A 135 KB script touches what search reads. It sets the home page title after the page loads and builds FAQ structured data for category pages from questions stored in the script. It still carries a test flag and a console message.
• A 22.7 KB stylesheet is mostly a copy of a slider library’s styles. Its banner names the library and version, and 128 of its 166 rules mention it.
• A 284 character script does one thing: it adds a link to its developer’s own website to the store’s footer.
• Outside addresses. 4 of the 12 scripts load a script, image or data from an address outside Salla and the store, among them an image hosting site and a payment logo kept on a GitHub Pages site that does not carry the store’s name. One stylesheet loads its font from a hosting account that does not carry the store’s name.
• Headings. 3 of 12 scripts write or hide headings, the title or FAQ markup, and 3 of 17 stylesheets hide a heading one: two on content pages, one inside a testimonials block.

These stores rank, so they are probably better kept than average, and we did not test what any of this does to ranking or speed. The point is what a buyer should ask about.

What Salla’s pages tell a buyer, and what they leave out

We read the body of eight pages: code customisation, the CSS guide, the custom font guide, theme versions, partner permission requests, the Merchant Services FAQ, service customisation and browsing services, last updated from 29 August to 3 November 2026. Our counts, coded by hand against strict wording and cross-checked with a loose word search:

Topic	Pages that cover it, of 8
Plan, domain and permission needed	2
Preview before you publish	2
How to revoke a helper’s access	2
Refund or cancellation	1
Keeping a copy of your own code	0
Search or SEO	0
Page speed	0
What happens to custom code when a theme changes	0
Who owns the code	0

The theme versions page comes close on copies: it shows how to duplicate a theme version, which is the safest way to work, but it does not tell you to keep your code as a file. The gaps are where your brief has to do the work.

What Google does with content added by script

Google’s JavaScript guide, updated 4 March 2026, says pages go through crawling, rendering and indexing, that a page can wait in the rendering queue for seconds or longer, and that scripts may set the title and meta description or generate JSON-LD. It also says server-rendered HTML is still a good idea because not every bot can run JavaScript. Google’s structured data policy, updated 10 July 2026, says not to mark up content that readers cannot see.

So scripts are allowed, and you should still keep the text that has to rank, headings, product descriptions, prices and links, in the HTML the server sends. Anything a script adds should be read in Search Console’s URL Inspection, in the rendered HTML, after it goes live.

Where to hire on Salla, and what each route protects

• Merchant Services, inside your dashboard. Each provider’s profile shows skills, ratings, merchant feedback and a portfolio. You can revoke the provider’s store access from the order page. Cancel before work starts and the amount returns to your merchant wallet within 24 hours. Once work is in progress, you request cancellation and the provider accepts or rejects it. An order unchanged for 7 consecutive days without your approval or rejection is completed automatically. Files go up to 20 MB each.
• A Salla partner, by permission request. The partner does not ask for your password. The request names the partner, the date and the exact permissions. You can approve only those, reject with a reason, or revoke later.
• A freelancer or agency on a staff login. The login needs the Store Design permission, which Salla says is limited to authorised staff. The pages we read do not describe protections for this route, so apply the same rules yourself and remove the login when the job ends.

Seven things to settle before you hire

1. Scope the job as a list of screens

Write which pages change, whether the job is CSS, JavaScript or both, and what done looks like on a phone. Good answer: a list of pages and behaviours with a before screenshot of each. Warning sign: “make it look premium”.

2. Work on a duplicate, never the live theme

Salla lets you duplicate a theme version, customise it on its own and preview it before it goes live. Pro allows two versions of a theme, so one can stay untouched, and Special allows 50. An active published version cannot be deleted. Good answer: the helper edits the duplicate and you publish it after checking on your phone. Warning sign: edits made on the published version.

3. Give access by request, and end it on a date

Use a partner permission request or a Merchant Services order so you can revoke. If a staff login is the only way, give the Store Design permission, nothing wider, and write the end date. Good answer: access removed the day the job is accepted. Warning sign: a shared owner password.

4. Own the copies and the outside files

Ask for the final CSS and JavaScript as files in your hands, and a list of every outside address the code uses, with the account that owns each. Salla’s own font guide has you host the font file on an external server, and in our stores 4 of 12 scripts and one stylesheet load from outside. Good answer: every file and account named, with you as owner. Warning sign: your font or logos living on the developer’s page.

5. List what the code adds, hides or rewrites

Ask for a page by page list of any heading, title, description, FAQ, price, rating or link the code adds, hides or changes. Good answer: a list, and a check of the rendered HTML in URL Inspection after launch. Warning sign: “the script handles the SEO”. Our Salla SEO guide covers what Salla already prints, and Salla SEO apps or an expert covers what apps add.

6. Set a size limit and ask what is pasted in

Ask for the size of each file in the quote. Our median is 2.4 KB of CSS and 13.9 KB of script, and a quote far above that needs a reason in plain words. Google’s targets are an LCP within 2.5 seconds, an INP under 200 milliseconds and a CLS under 0.1, from a page updated 10 December 2025. Good answer: a before and after weight for each change. Warning sign: a whole library pasted in.

7. Plan for the day after delivery

CSS names classes, and a rule for a class a later theme version renames stops matching without any warning. Four of the 17 stylesheets name 10 or more classes starting with s- (the prefix of product cards, buttons and offer pop-ups in these files), one of them 94. The 22 stores run 8 themes, with theme version numbers from 1.16.0 to 1.380.0. Good answer: a one page note of which theme and classes the code depends on, a retest after any theme change, and a decision inside the 7 day acceptance window. Warning sign: no note and no retest.

When it is not a code job

If few people reach the store, new code will not fix it: start with traffic without sales and the e-commerce SEO audit checklist. If you are choosing a studio, read how to choose an e-commerce development company, and if the code job is part of a rebuild, website redesign without losing SEO. Our Salla SEO service and technical SEO service check what Google reads before and after a code change; they do not replace the person who writes it.

How we checked, and the limits

On 4 November 2026 we ran 56 Google autocomplete searches with the Saudi setting, from a machine in Egypt; they show suggestions, not search volumes. On 5 November we read four Google results pages from a Riyadh location with personalisation off, noting titles and addresses and reporting no positions, and opened nine Salla help pages and three Google pages as raw text without following redirects. These rules can change.

We downloaded the code box files of 22 Salla stores on 5 November, as linked from the home page, with a phone user agent and Arabic as the language. Sizes are bytes, and the counts for what files do come from patterns checked by reading the files. The stores ranked in our October searches, so they are not a random sample. We tested no store’s speed or ranking and name no store, agency or developer. The coverage count of Salla’s pages is a screen for presence, not a rating.

Sources

Salla Help Center pages opened on 5 November 2026: Customizing the theme using code (31 August 2026), A simple guide to styling your Salla store with CSS (29 August 2026), Add a custom font to your store using GitHub (31 August 2026), Managing themes, customization, and store content protection (3 November 2026), How to manage partner permission requests on your store (29 August 2026), Merchant Services frequently asked questions (29 August 2026), Merchant Services: Customize a service (29 August 2026), Browse and explore Merchant Services (31 August 2026) and Theme store FAQs (27 October 2026). Google Search Central: Understand JavaScript SEO basics (4 March 2026), General structured data guidelines (10 July 2026) and Core Web Vitals (10 December 2025). The store code counts, autocomplete and search readings are our own.

About to give someone access to your store? Our free 5-point audit records what Google reads on your key pages today, so a code change can be checked against a before picture. It is the first step of how we work with stores in Saudi Arabia, and you can see how we report in our case studies. No obligation, delivered within 48 hours. Request your free audit.