Don’t discard Arabic SEO- It’s in the cards and great for business
- Among the users surfing the internet are over 219 million users from the Arab world
- Despite the large number of Arabic internet users worldwide, studies indicate that Arabic content constitutes a mere 0.6 % of content currently available on the internet
- It will be much easier and faster for all types of businesses to start showing up in Arabic searches that relate to their services and products
The internet has carved out a place around the globe in mainstream culture. With well over half of the world’s population online, the latest data indicates that nearly a quarter of a billion new users came online for the first time in 2017.
The Status of Arabic Content on the Internet
Among the users surfing the internet are over219 million users from the Arab world. This constitutes around 5.3% of internet users worldwide, and accounts for the 4th highest internet population in the world! Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and Algeria boast a large number of young internet users who primarily search in Arabic.
Despite the large number of Arabic internet users worldwide, studies indicate that Arabic content constitutes a mere 0.6 % of content currently available on the internet. This figure is significantly lower than many other languages that have a very small number of speakers in comparison to Arabic.
Over the last five years, we have noticed a considerable growth in Arabic language searches which are primarily focused on research-based topics, such as news, sports, fashion, medical advice, as well as a broad range of other topics that younger searchers are interested in.
This massive gap provides a great opportunity for business websites and large portals to capitalise on the lack of quality Arabic content on the Internet, to gain a competitive edge over others who provide content for these topics in other languages. Considering the competitiveness of the English search landscape, it will be much easier and faster for all types of businesses to start showing up in Arabic searches that relate to their services and products, simply because of the lack of competition. Arabic content also provides exponential opportunities for E-Commerce websites to tap into searches for the same reasons, not a lot of businesses & websites are working on this.
Where Would You Start From?
The first question to ask is whether the products or services that you offer are being searched in Arabic. To find that out, we would suggest using Google Trends and/or the Keyword Research Tool in Google AdWords. With these tools you can get a great idea of the different searches that people are performing within your sector in addition to knowing the volume of that search.
Once you’ve identified a number of searches that have a good number of searches on a monthly basis, you’ll need to either:
- Create specific pages that have good & unique content that address the specific search term you are aiming to rank for.
- Find existing pages on your website that address the search term and make the needed content adjustments to satisfy that search.
WebQuest SEO
At WebQuest, we work with a number of websites in the Middle East to capitalise on Arabic searches coming out of the region. Whether it be news portals or businesses, we are seeing great results when our clients leverage the power of both English and Arabic SEO.
We specialise in developing SEO strategies for both English and Arabic websites that outrank the competition in the search engines.