SEO Abu Dhabi - How to market your website in the UAE's capital

Abu Dhabi is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and has quickly become one of the biggest business hubs on the planet. With its central location between Europe and Asia, and with direct flights to all major cities, it is no wonder the UAEs capital has become one of the most sought after locations for business.

All successful businesses in the capital know that if they want to thrive in the market they need to drive quality traffic to their websites as the markets are becoming increasingly competitive. This is why Search Engine Optimisation is vital for business success in Abu Dhabi.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation, also known as SEO, is a digital marketing tactic that every UAE business needs to embrace if they want their website to rank high on the search engine results pages. When strong SEO is put into place, a website will gain more quality traffic which in turn leads to greater sales and of course, business growth.

There are a variety of elements that make up SEO, from on-page and off-page optimisation to content creation and website functionality. Below, we outline some of the top SEO tips and techniques to help your website in Abu Dhabi gain greater traction.

Tips for Successful SEO in Abu Dhabi

Local Abu Dhabi SEO for Business Growth

Many businesses believe that if they want to make it big in their industries they need to focus their efforts on the global digital market. However, if they only focus on this aspect of marketing they lose out on the opportunity to reach their local market which will inevitably make their business grow across the globe. Exploring local SEO within the UAE is a strategy that can boost your business, help you rise above your local competitors and skyrocket your sales significantly.

Google offers a “near me” search which helps users find businesses and products close to where they are located. This gives search engine users the most relevant information and helps them find businesses that they are able to access quickly and easily in their area. The best thing about local SEO is that you do not have to sell a lot of items to be seen in this search, all you need is to include key terms of phrases that are used in your geographic location as well as directions to your business and your contact details. For example, if your business is a printing company you could use a key term such as “Printing Company Dubai.”

With quality and relevant content and the right key-phrases in place, you are able to reach the right audience, in the right location, while they are actively seeking your products online. This will help your business grow significantly as a result, helping you gain brand awareness and greater sales at the same time.

Relevant Link Building for Abu Dhabi Businesses is Vital

You have probably heard the term “link building” before, especially when discussing your website content. Link building involves ensuring that your website pages are all interconnected in one way or another. This is a vital aspect of SEO because the search engine algorithms always take backlinks into consideration when ranking in their search results. This means that websites with more quality backlinks (the key word being “quality”) are likely to appear higher up in the search engine results ranks.

When you begin putting together your network of website links, you need to do this in the right manner or else you will find your website penalized - there is no tricking the system! So, you cannot simply throw a random link in your content whenever you feel like it. It needs to be done in a way that is effective and meaningful. If you try to insert random links without any context, the search engines will pick up this tactic and you will find your website slipping down the search engine results. This is why it is important to work with professional SEO and content specialists when it comes to link building.

Don’t Forget the Basics! Add Metadata and Meta Descriptions

Metadata is made up of meta descriptions and title tags - the more technical aspect of SEO. These play an important role in SEO and should never be left out of your website building and content strategy. Metadata is essentially a description of every page on your website and provides search engines with important information about the content displayed on your website and each page of your website. This information helps the search engines determine whether your website is relevant enough to display in the search engines results.

Remember that your metadata should have keywords (where necessary) but never spam your descriptions with keywords - the search engines will quickly pick up on this and penalize your website. It is also important to make sure that every page has a unique description as plagiarized content will lead to issues with the search engines.

Create a Sitemap Page for your Abu Dhabi Business

Your website pages will only be indexed if they can be “crawled” by the search engines. This means you need to put tactics in place to make sure the search engines are able to find your website. When you include a sitemap on your site, the search engine “spiders” will be able to find your website pages quickly and also understand your website's page hierarchy.

A sitemap is a list of pages within your website and “structured listings” are created for web crawlers to find, helping them understand the layout and hierarchy of your website. By ensuring you have a sitemap for your website, you are putting the right steps in place to help the search engines find your website and understand your website - which will help you rise above your competitors in the search engine results.

Localised Abu Dhabi Content is King

They do not say “content is king” for nothing. Content is one of the most important elements of your website, and without unique, helpful, and quality content on your website, you cannot expect to rank in the search engine results.

You need to be strategic and creative in creating content for your website, from your product and service pages through to your blog pages and articles. Your content team needs to make sure that they consistently create content that will be helpful to the user when they visit your site. By creating helpful and informative content, you keep the user on your site for longer periods of time, which is good in the eyes of the search engines - which helps in your rankings and search engine optimisation efforts. It also helps in increasing brand loyalty and keeps your users coming back to your site for more information, which results in more sales.

Arabic SEO & Keywords

In the UAE, your business may be targeting Arabic speaking individuals, and with this in mind it is vital that this target audience is reached in their language. It is important you consider implementing Arabic SEO for your website too. Keyword research is the most important step in the search for successful native SEO. This is because keywords are not simply “keywords”, they are the words that are associated with a specific local language and would be words used in local search as opposed to any other kind of search - these are words that are relevant to a specific region.

When researching keywords in local language you need to define your niche market, and pinpoint the words that are associated with your niche - and find out the words your target market uses when searching for an item in Arabic - this will be different to the direct translation provided by Google Translate - simply translating keywords and words can be detrimental.

It is important you work alongside a professional SEO agency that is able to create the best Arabic SEO strategy and content for your business. Do not rely on Google translate here!

Nexa and Search Engine Ownership in Abu Dhabi

At Nexa, we are transparent when it comes to our SEO services and believe that every client needs to understand why SEO is important, how it works, and why it works. Without this understanding, a business will never fully grasp the potential that comes with strong SEO.

At Nexa, we are fully committed to providing our clients with the best search engine optimisation services, but we have taken it a step further, and now offer our clients what we call “Search Engine Ownership.”

We have put strategies in place to ensure your website rises up the search engine ranks and rises well above your competitors in the process. Not only will you gain quality traffic through our services, you will also be able to see the monetary value of the service. At Nexa we believe that Search Engine Optimisation is not simply about optimising a website for the search engines, our Search Engine Ownership strategy allows you to understand how much your traffic is actually worth. Learn more about our search engine ownership services, here.

If you are looking to own the search engine results, we are the growth agency for you and your business. We focus on improving your search visibility, your search visibility in comparison to your competitors, and the value of your organic ranking in real currency.