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Loading...The United Arab Emirates as a market – Characteristics
Although oil still remains an important pillar of the economy (around 18% of GDP), Dubai began its transformation in the 1990s toward a modern economy based on services, finance, and technology. As a result, today it holds the position of a global hub for trade, finance, and innovation.
What does the country owe such growth to? Apart from Abu Dhabi, which is the main center of oil production, the most important emirate remains Dubai. In the 1990s, its local resource deposits were running out. Therefore, in order to continue developing, the emirate had to adopt a new strategy for sustainable growth. The focus was placed on building a modern economy centered on investment in technology, improving education standards, and strengthening the service sector. The plan succeeded, and Dubai quickly became one of the world’s most important centers of trade and finance.
UAE attractive to investors
The Persian Gulf, including the Emirates, imposes a specific business model, which relies on personal contacts. It means that when doing business in the Middle East, you should do so in person. If that is not possible, you should work with a trusted, local intermediary – a so-called “Sponsor”. This requires an actual business partnership with a UAE-citizen, who should hold a share of 51% of the company’s capital. There are even proper lists of professional sponsors, recommended by organizations that advise on choosing the right legal structure for a business. In this case, asking for help and partnering up may be necessary if you want to ensure the highest possible security and transparency of your venture.
Free zones for the entrepreneurs
Special economic zones called “free zones”, play a significant role when it comes to attracting both local and foreign investors. There are nearly 50 of them in the whole UAE, with 20 being located in Dubai alone. What’s interesting is that each of the free zones has its own administrative system, which, in turn, means different conditions for the registration process, rules for doing business, as well as any fees associated with it.
Nonetheless, all of the special economic zones offer attractive financial benefits and simplified procedures for those who want to start their businesses in the Emirates.
Digital Transformation and Infrastructure
The rapid development of modern technology influenced the visible presence of IT companies in many free zones. UAE are said to be one of the most Internet-dependent countries in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa). Because of that, there’s a high demand for web services and digital marketing. Recently, website creation, video production, mobile app development, as well as SEO/SEM became one of the most required services in the e-commerce industry.
E-commerce in the UAE in Numbers
When it comes to the e-commerce sector in this country, it is doing exceptionally well. It is developing very dynamically and is growing year over year by around 300%. It is worth noting that this is one of the fastest-growing segments of the UAE economy. This is supported by the continuous spread of modern technologies and the promotion of the so-called mobile lifestyle.
According to the report by EZDubai and Euromonitor, the value of the e-commerce market in the United Arab Emirates amounted to AED 32.3 billion (~USD 8.8 billion) in 2024, and forecasts predict growth to AED 50.6 billion (~USD 13.8 billion) by 2029. During this time, the average shopping basket value increased from USD 89 to USD 102. (source: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2025/05/29/dubais-ecommerce-market-13-billion-by-2029/).
How do people in the Emirates shop?
E-commerce in the UAE takes advantage of the enormous opportunities offered by online sales — entrepreneurs save by avoiding the costs of traditional brick-and-mortar stores, while customers gain easy access to a wide range of products and services at attractive prices. Shopping is fast, intuitive, and can be completed literally in just a few clicks.
New data also shows that:
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men still make up the majority of online shoppers — although not as overwhelmingly as previously estimated, with women now accounting for over 40% of transactions, while men are responsible for less than 60%, indicating a relatively balanced split.
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e-commerce is becoming a mainstream channel in the UAE — around one-third of consumers treat online shopping as an everyday practice, with interest in online purchases having doubled since 2020.
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online sales include both local and international brands — as much as 58% of purchases are made from foreign providers, mainly due to trust in payment systems as well as free, reliable delivery. (source: https://www.consultancy-me.com/news/10931/online-shopping-now-a-mainstream-channel-for-a-third-of-uae-and-ksa-consumers)
SEO in Dubai? The SEO strategy in the United Arab Emirates
In the last five years, the e-commerce market has grown by 1500% only in Dubai alone. This can easily be recognized as one of the fastest and most impressive growth rates around the world. The increasing number of online stores, though, means that those stores have to compete with one another, also for the visibility in search engines (and all over the Internet, for that matter). Interestingly, most of the UAE citizens choose local e-commerce sites more willingly than the global giants, such as Amazon – and that’s precisely why it’s important to focus on local promotion within the UAE.
As for the popularity of search engines in that country, Google definitely takes the lead – which means that the SEO in Dubai should revolve mainly around it.
Acting locally or globally – How SEO in Dubai works?
Arabic is the official language of the UAE, but since the country opened for international investments and entrepreneurs, English is now used frequently as well. Basically, it binds all people from more than two hundred countries that live and do business in the UAE. Even though Arabic still dominates when it comes to legal matters, English is more popular in business, as well as on the Internet. The international SEO services will, therefore, be conducted also in English. When preparing a digital marketing strategy for the UEA market, it’s always worth emphasizing the “locality” of your business. It will increase trust towards it. If you own an office or an actual shop in the UAE, you should also take care of its visibility in Google My Business, Google Maps, and Apple Maps.
Off-site: where is it worth to build links?
When increasing the visibility of your site in the search engine results pages, it’s worth knowing what sources will be the most valuable for the UAE websites. Taking into account the loyalty of UAE citizens to local ventures, it’s a good practice to online catalogs with local businesses. Being included in such places should increase the credibility of your online store or any other business that you own. Plus, you can easily build links this way.
source: https://www.yellowpages.ae/
source: http://www.uaewebsites.com/
As for the online stores that don’t have any premises, such catalogs might not be the best choice. Still, there are certain lists or rankings dedicated to e-commerce, as well as Q&A and social networking sites that simply let you post about your business and promote it this way. You can also find new partners and build relationships with influencers or entrepreneurs who have a similar profile to yours.
Show everyone that you exist! Social media profiles
In order to increase the authority of the domain, it’s recommended to post on company pages within social media regularly. Surprisingly, Pinterest is considered to be the second most popular social network in the UAE. Even Instagram takes the sixth place, with Twitter, YouTube and Reddit being used more willingly and frequently. It means that these networks are worth investing your time and effort into. Actually, well-managed social media profiles increase the trust of potential customers and make it easier to “stay in touch” with your company.
That’s why you should include links to your social media profiles on your website and place the no-follow attribute to those links.
source: https://www.vouchercodesuae.com/
Proper website optimization – key elements
Building links doesn’t necessarily have to go together with website optimization done on-site. Still, it’s worth remembering about a user-friendly UX that affects how clients navigate through your online store. The better the user experience, the lower the chances that potential clients will quickly leave the website and feel irritated by it. One of the most important issues here is also the quality and well-optimized content on your website, which includes the right number of relevant keywords.
Since English happens to be a popular language in the UAE, you can use well-known tools in order to find the best keywords used for SEO purposes in Dubai. Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush or Majestic – all of them will do perfectly fine when searching for relevant phrases.
UAE market, which is newly opened to international investments, offers a lot of possibilities that are worth taking advantage of. The IT industry, including SEO/SEM, is growing rapidly – and the interest in such services can be noticed easily. What should be interesting for international companies is that many corporations based in MENA countries are subject to so-called downsizing, which means that many different tasks and services are being outsourced, especially when it comes to marketing, as well as SEO and design. Since English is widely used, international contractors can easily work with such companies, planning and executing SEO strategies that can be as successful as the ones at the national level.
