Arabic Sitecore SEO
Welcome to the internet’s most comprehensive Arabic Sitecore SEO guide where we discuss crucial strategies anyone needs to know to reach great internet success. Pay attention to the following, and your website is prepared to rank highly across the Middle East and the Arab world.
What is Sitecore?
Sitecore is a popular content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Though it is by definition a CMS, Sitecore believes it is better described as a Customer Experience Platform (CXP) due to its quality outward-facing functions. Despite Sitecore’s founding in 2001, it has been less quick to gain popularity compared to other competitors dominating the market and internet landscape. However, this is beginning to change. For specific businesses and purposes, Sitecore’s performance far out-shines other CMS platforms.
Is Sitecore The Best Option For My Site?
Sitecore has several qualities and functions that differentiate it from competitors and ensure satisfaction among its users. Sitecore is more than a content management system, it is also a highly effective marketing tool or a digital marketing system (DMS). If strong marketing services are desired for your business, then Sitecore could be an excellent choice for you to reach and retain a sturdy customer base. Experian, Toshiba, Canon, and Nestlé are examples of big organizations that effectively use Sitecore. The other distinguishing factor is Sitecore is the biggest .NET site creator in the world. The open-source .NET allows site creators to have completely managed all aspects of their site: extending from e-commerce and blogging to advanced personalization tools.
Manual Translation vs Machine Translation
Arabic is a complicated language that differs a lot even across the Arab world. If you are speaking to someone in Northern Syria, their dialect is much different from someone in Algeria. Many Arabic words have different meanings, spellings, or pronunciations depending on where you come from. Sometimes there are common words in one country that aren’t even used in another one. Translation apps or sites seem appealing due to their effortless nature, but do not be fooled! The only way to get quality Arabic content tailored to the specific country you want to reach is by having someone who speaks Arabic translate the text manually.
Translated Content vs SEO Optimized Arabic Content
Building off the last point, it is also important to note just because someone speaks Arabic does not mean they know how to do effective SEO. Just like you wouldn’t ask just any American to help you build out English content, you couldn’t ask just any Arabic speaker either. Finding an SEO-experienced Arabic translator is a must if you want content that is expertly translated – understood both by the target population and optimized for high-ranking searches. This service is worth the investment, and your site popularity will increase
An example of what a line of LTR (left to right) and RTL (right to left) codes look like
Optimized Arabic Titles, Meta Descriptions, URLs, and Images
Sitecore’s services are highly customizable, giving you free rein to express your creativity, however you see fit. There are many ways to have fun with your content, while still being strategic about how to set it up. One of the first things you have to do is identify what are the top items searched for in your target market. An SEO researcher can identify the top Arabic terms that people want to know. After you have these keywords identified, you have to integrate them into your site pages. Many times, this may mean creating new pages or revamping previous pages. The title, meta description, and URL for each page should all incorporate your recently discovered Arabic keywords. You should also include quality photos related to the page topic, saved and labeled with keywords as well. This way, if someone does a text search or an image search, your page will be discovered.
How Should I Set Up My Content And Page Layout?
One of the basic necessities when setting up a page is ensuring it is right to left (RTL). Since most web pages around the world use left to right languages, that is what most software is set-up to handle. Arabic introduces an added challenge because not only are you using a different script, but you are also completely reversing the direction of text. When deciding to use a theme template or have the site manually coded, the code must explicitly specify an RTL direction.
How Can Sitecore’s Automated Marketing Tools Help with SEO?
It is undeniable Sitecore has powerful marketing tools, ideal for building and retaining a customer base. Using these, you can do much more than just simply edit and post your online content. These tools can effectively record customers and purchasing trends- monitor customers’ behavior, clicking habits, and spending patterns. Once the site has compiled this customer data and can connect dots, they undertake critical analyses that inform marketing decisions. The marketing tools also effectively link to your social media and communications accounts, allowing you to easily generate campaigns through your various channels. This allows you to tailor your messaging to each individual visitor’s demonstrated trends. Whether you are an e-commerce site or not, this automation is beneficial. Particularly if you are trying to establish a strong base in the Middle East, giving each page visitor a personalized experience will go far in establishing your page’s credibility. Ensure all of the data that is collected, and that you have an Arabic SEO specialist to better interpret your data and feedback.
How Can I Improve the User Experience for my Arab World Customers?
In addition to the strategies in this guide, you must ensure the quality of your website is up to standard as well. A beautiful and engaging site will encourage visitors to spend more time browsing through your content. The amount of time someone spends on your page clicking around or scrolling through your content directly increases your SEO rankings. To get and keep these numbers high, expend tremendous energy into figuring how to optimize visitors’ experiences as much as possible. Going the extra mile such as using inclusive images clearly taken in the Middle East, picking attractive Arabic fonts, or integrating Arabic language numbers will have a massive impact on your site being discovered and shared with others.
Other Considerations for Arabic SEO
There are many other things you can do to boost your positioning in the Middle East and Arab World, that will also drive higher conversion rates. We recommend strong usage of social media channels (particularly Instagram and Facebook) with optimized captions and hashtags to get you more readily discovered and interacted with. This social media content should be in Arabic. We also recommend conducting Arabic marketing campaigns around Islamic holidays that are treasured by Muslims. Incorporating main traditional themes into your content demonstrates your cultural competence and proves you are really making an effort to connect with your customers/ clients. Check out our Ramadan, White Friday, and Eid al Adha guides to prepare your content for these holiday campaigns – don’t miss them if they are coming up!
If you need help getting your Arabic Sitecore site ranking highly in the Arab world, contact us to find out more about how we can help you increase your Sitecore SEO ranking.
Sources:
https://sitecore.derekc.net/working-with-right-to-left-languages-in-sitecore-content-editor/
