Found by search engines, and quoted by the assistants replacing them
Two things have to be true for search to bring you work. The pages have to be readable by a crawler and aimed at what someone actually types, and the result has to be worth clicking when it appears. Most sites in Dubai fail the second long before the first: they rank for the company name, which only people who already know them ever search.
What this covers
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Technical SEO, content structure and the measurement behind both. Most sites here are not held back by keywords but by the things underneath them: pages search engines cannot read properly, titles that describe the business instead of the search, and no way to tell which rankings produced an enquiry.
- Technical audit: crawling, indexing, Core Web Vitals, structured data
- Keyword and competitor research, mapped to pages rather than to a list
- On-page work: titles, headings, internal linking, schema
- Local SEO for Dubai and UAE search
- Reporting against enquiries rather than rankings
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
Being quoted by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews is becoming a separate problem from ranking, and the answer is not the same work. It depends on structured data an assistant can parse, clear and checkable claims, and content organised around questions rather than keywords.
- Structured data an assistant can read and cite
- Content written as answers to real questions
- llms.txt and crawler access for AI agents
- Tracking which pages assistants actually open
Demand Generation
Building awareness and interest before someone is ready to buy, so there's a pipeline to convert later, not just bottom-of-funnel capture.
- Top-of-funnel content & campaigns
- Retargeting sequences
- Pipeline nurturing
How this works in practice
The technical work comes first, and it is usually the smallest part
Most sites I audit are not held back by keywords. They are held back by things underneath: pages a crawler cannot read properly, titles that describe the company instead of the search, headings that run two words together, structured data that is absent or broken, and a server that takes a second to answer before anything else can start.
None of that is glamorous and most of it is a few days of work. It is also the part that has to be right before content can do anything, because a page Google struggles to read will not rank however well it is written. I would rather find a technical problem and fix it in a week than sell you six months of content on a site that cannot carry it.
Local search in Dubai is a different game
For most commercial searches here, the first thing on the page is not an organic result. It is an AI overview, then a local pack of three businesses, then People Also Ask. Organic position one can be the sixth thing a person sees, and on some terms nearly half of searchers click nothing at all.
That changes what is worth chasing. A term where the local pack dominates is won through a Google Business Profile and reviews rather than through content, and no amount of writing will get you above it. Part of the job is telling you which of your terms are like that, because funding a year of content for a page you cannot reach is the most expensive mistake in this field.
Winnable is a number, not an opinion
Before writing anything I want two figures for each target: how many backlinks the current top ten carry, and what is already occupying the first page. Those decide whether content can win the term at all. A term where the top ten average forty thousand backlinks is not a content problem, it is a different sport.
This site is the worked example. The head term for its own field has a top ten averaging 47,700 backlinks; the qualified version of the same term has ten to twenty-four. Same service, same city, and the difference between a year of wasted writing and a reachable page is one word in the search.
Reported against enquiries, not rankings
Rankings move for reasons that have nothing to do with you, and a report full of green arrows next to terms nobody searches is the oldest trick in this industry. Before work starts I want conversion tracking firing on a real enquiry and leads landing in your CRM with their source attached. Without that, neither of us can tell SEO from luck.
What you should get monthly is which queries produced enquiries, which pages those people landed on, and what changed. Position is a diagnostic in that report, not the headline.
AI search is becoming a separate problem
Being quoted inside ChatGPT, Gemini or a Google AI Overview is not the same as ranking below one, and the work is not identical. It rewards structured data an assistant can parse, claims specific enough to be checkable, and content organised around questions rather than around keyword density.
The search volume for the term itself is still near zero, so this is not something to buy as a product yet. It is something to build into the work: the structured data, the answer-shaped content and the crawler access that make a page citable cost almost nothing extra when done alongside everything else.
What I will not promise
Number one on a term you name, by a date. Anyone offering that is either describing a search nobody uses or has not checked who they would have to displace. What I will give you before any money moves is an honest read on which of your terms are reachable, which need paid instead, and roughly how long the reachable ones take.
I am also one person rather than an agency, which is a real limit as well as a real advantage. You get the work done by someone with fifteen years behind it instead of by a junior under an account manager. You get one person's capacity. If you need six deliverables a week across several channels, an agency is genuinely the better answer and I will say so on the call.
Frequently asked
- Can you get me to number one?
- Nobody can promise that, and anyone who does is describing a search term nobody uses. What I can tell you before we start is whether a term is winnable: the number of backlinks the current top ten carry, and whether the first page is already taken by portals and AI answers. For some terms the honest answer is that paid is your only route onto page one, and it is better to know that before you fund a year of content.
- How long does SEO take in Dubai?
- For a new site on a competitive commercial term, plan on six to twelve months. For long, specific, lower-competition phrases, sometimes weeks. The variable is not effort, it is how much authority the pages above you already have.
- Are you an SEO agency?
- No, and the distinction matters when you compare quotes. I am one person. You get the work done by someone with fifteen years behind it rather than by a junior under an account manager, and you get one person's capacity rather than a team's. If you need six deliverables a week across several channels, an agency is genuinely the better answer and I will say so.
- What is GEO and do I need it?
- Generative Engine Optimisation: being quoted inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews rather than ranking below them. It is early, the search volume for the term itself is near zero, and it is already affecting results — this site gets AI assistants opening its pages because someone asked a question. The work overlaps with good SEO but is not identical: it rewards structured data and clear, checkable claims over keyword placement.
- How will I know it worked?
- Enquiries, not rankings. Rankings are a diagnostic and they move for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Before any work starts I want conversion tracking firing on a real enquiry and leads landing in your CRM with their source attached, because without that neither of us can tell SEO from luck.
- Will you need access to my site to do this?
- Yes, and the level depends on the platform. For WordPress an admin login; for a custom build, access to the repository or a developer I can hand specific changes to. I will also want Search Console and Analytics access, which are read-only and the two places the actual answers live. If you do not have Search Console set up, that is the first thing we do and it is free.
- Do you write the content as well?
- Yes, and for most sites that is where the time goes once the technical work is done. If you have a writer, I give them the brief: the query, the questions to answer, the competing pages and what they miss. That usually produces better work than me writing in a voice that is not yours.
- What if my competitors have thousands of backlinks?
- Then that term is not winnable with content and I will tell you early. But it is worth checking rather than assuming, because the qualified versions of the same search are often held by sites with almost none. A competitor of mine ranks first for a term in this market on six backlinks. Volume and authority are far less correlated here than people expect.
- How is this different from what an SEO agency does?
- In the deliverables, often not much. In who does them, entirely. The audit, the fixes and the writing are done by the person you briefed. The trade is capacity and continuity: one person has a ceiling and takes holidays. Decide which of those two things your situation needs more.
Still not sure if this is what you need?
Send it here and it comes straight to me. You will get a straight answer about whether I am the right fit, including when the answer is no.
Have a project in mind? Let's start it.
Whether it's a paid campaign, a website or app, or ongoing design and social support — tell me what you need and I'll get back to you with next steps.