[Weekly Review] – 5 tips & tricks to get the most of your Dubai Local SEO

As a local SEO agency, we often face many questions about the best way to do local SEO and what to except when it comes to Dubai searches. From my own experience, Dubai SEO is different to many others due to:

• International audience
• 170+ different nationalities = as many ways of using the Internet
• English is not the unique language people use
• The general web level remains very low compared to other countries
• In some fields the competition is very high even doing black SEO

So here is a list of 5 tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your local Dubai SEO campaign.

Here is a test from our favorite Digital Marketing Experts Website: Moz

This test will just help you to check if you can do it yourself or not. In case of you get a very low score, it’s always good to know some SEO basics before looking for agencies.

Results:

• 0-39% Newbie: Time to study up on your citation data!
• 40-59% Beginner: Good job, but you’re not quite in the 7-pack yet.
• 60-74% Intermediate: You’re getting close to the centroid!
• 75-85% Pro: Let’s tackle multi-location!
• 86-100% Guru: We all bow down to your local awesomeness

Well if you’re looking for one here we are. But if for any other reason, you’re working with another agency, here are some elements you should review:

1. Check the tools they use
   1. Do they use their own CMS: If they do, run away !
   2. What analytics package do they provide: If they guarantee you to rank 1st on Google, run away !
   3. What SEO tracking tools do they use: If they send you screenshots​ of their own PC, run away
2. Check their “qualifications” or “recognition”
   1. ​Are they Google certified partners: It’s one good option among others
   2. Do they offer trainings or lectures: Usually mean they know enough to speak about
   3. Do they have an active blog: Better to see how they understand the internet
3. Check their portfolio
   1. ​Do their past customer websites rank good when you look for the services they provide
   2. Contact their customers to get their feedbacks
   3. Make your opinion about if you like their job or not

Even if it’s changing all time and not that easy to master it’s good for you to know some basics. Here is the presentation we did some time back on how to get your business online and rank good for cheap.

But to make it simple:

1. No one will guarantee you to rank first
2. Title, Meta description, Hn tags, schema.org, keyword research are words you should be familiar with
3. Don’t expect any quick results
4. Spend some time with your customers to understand how do they look for products or companies like yours online

Too many times, people tell us “I’m ranking good check my google SERPs when I Google my name”. Once for all: Google customized your results based on many factors. So what you find on your computer is not a valuable insight. To track your ranking you won’t have other option that using third-party tools such as: moz, semrush or others.

Expats may look for results in their own language making a multi language website a good option. But on the other hand, an Arabic website may be a total waste of time, if people don’t Google your products in Arabic.

As we always say, there is no magic potion on local SEO even less in such an international place. So if your customers come mainly from the web, better to invest a good amount of money with local experts. Don’t be afraid of Google Adwords or other ads systems. It may be a good option to save time and money!

So how do you usually manage your SEO in Dubai ?