10 Best Middle East Cities To Do Business
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Situated on the Persian Gulf, next to the Gulf of Oman, the city of Dubai is a renowned global city whose importance to the global economy is almost unparalleled. Because of its strategic position, actively diversifying economy, and excellent trade relations and prestige, Dubai is an excellent location for any businesses looking to expand or invest, especially in Middle Eastern, North African, and Central and South Asian markets, or anyone looking to do business in the Middle East region.
Middle East Search Engines – What you need to know
When seeking to target any region of the world online it is a good idea to have an understanding of which regional search engines you need to target. This is no different when targeting countries in the Middle East. On a whole, the region has an internet penetration rate of over 65%, whereas countries in the Gulf tend to have much higher rates averaging around 92%. These rates are growing each year, as countries continue taking strides in expanding network infrastructure and access. Unlike many other regions in the world the Middle East does not have an alternative to Google […]
The Middle East Arab Consumer Profile
The Arab consumer is unique and needs to be treated differently than consumers in other parts of the world. Below we will examine some of the consumer behavior, traits, characteristics and demographics of a Middle Eastern Arab consumer that set them apart from consumers in other parts of the world. It should be noted that many of these points are broad generalizations with the intent to help inform businesses looking to operate in the region on how they can better reach their target audience. Since these are broad generalizations about Arab consumers there will always be exceptions to these traits […]
7 Middle East Online Payment Methods
Despite the opulent wealth in many of the Gulf countries, payment methods in the Arab world are still catching up to what they are in many western countries. Many Middle Eastern countries have typically been cash-based societies and the use of credit cards has been a relatively new thing in the region. To add to this laws about interest in the Quran and the Hadith have made it hard for many interest-based payment methods to take hold in the region because they are considered to be against the practices of Islam. In this article I will outline some of the payment […]
Middle East Ad Spend Trends
According to the Northwest University Qatar estimates in their Media Industries in the Middle East 2016, the total ad market in the Middle East was valued at 5.5 billion USD in 2015. While it only accounted for a small percentage of global ad spend in 2015, the market in the Middle East is ripe with opportunities for marketers to expand their advertising. Though the current market structure differs greatly from that of the global market, or even other underdeveloped markets, the MENA region is seeing a gradual shift into the modern era of digital marketing, an area especially pertinent to […]
10 Surprising Things Arabs are Searching on Google
Ever since Google came out with their Autocomplete feature in their search results in 2008, people have been fascinated the suggested search queries that populate below the search bar as they type. Google is known to use the most common search queries related to keywords you are typing in to auto populate the suggestion box and this is no different in the Arab world. Just by looking at what appears in this box you can quickly get an idea of some of the most common things people are searching for in Google. In this article we explore some of the […]
Arabic Character Limits for Adwords Ads
If you are running PPC campaigns in multiple languages its important to know the character limits for each line within your Google Adwords ad to best utilize the ad space provided to you. However, if you wanted to run an Arabic PPC campaign you might be surprised to find that there is a lot of conflicting information on the web about character limits for Arabic ad texts. Many websites that discuss this topic reference information that is out dated or inaccurate. These sites appear to state that your ad title should be 12 characters and each line of the ad […]
How to make your website appear on Middle Eastern search engines
Getting your website to rank high in search engines in the Middle East is a common challenge these days. With many viable market opportunities across the Middle East and North Africa online businesses want to take advantage of these opportunities. However, getting visibility in Middle East search engines isn’t as easy as just setting up a well designed website. In this post I will outline some of the major factors that go into determining whether or not a website will show up in the Middle East. ccTLDs As with just about any region of the world a country code top […]
Arabic keyword filtering in Google Analytics
If you are anything like me you have struggled to find a clear way to view Google analytics data for just Arabic traffic. In this post I will explain one method I use to get a better picture of the Arabic traffic coming to the sites I work on. First though, allow me explain a common way many look to find Arabic traffic. Those familiar with Google Analytics are aware that within the Audience Demographics section of the GA dashboard you can view visitor language statistics. When you drill down into that section you see the Language dashboard that looks […]
Cash on delivery – Ecommerce in the Middle East
The Middle East has been a late bloomer when it comes to the arena of e-commerce but innovative payment methods like cash on delivery (COD) are opening up the region to growth in E-commerce revenues. Given that many consumers in the Middle East don’t have or use credit cards, COD in the Middle East has become a popular payment method that allows Arab consumers to buy products online. Cash on delivery isn’t new in the Middle East as many traditional retailers and shipping services have accepted this form of payment for decades if not centuries. What is new is the […]