AI SEO Agency Dubai: Run A Bilingual Engagement In 9 Steps

An AI SEO agency Dubai businesses hire should run the engagement in nine steps, in order: scope, baseline, crawler access, two-language URLs, hreflang, Business Profile, schema, content, then mentions and reviews.

AI SEO here means the normal search work plus the extra checks that decide whether Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude can find, read and cite your pages.

Dubai adds two twists most playbooks skip: buyers search in Arabic and English, and a lot of firms sell across the Emirates from one site.

Goldie Agency works with Dubai businesses remotely, so this process is written for a remote team and a local owner working together.

If you want that team on your site, grab a free strategy session with Goldie Agency and bring this checklist with you.

What AI SEO actually covers for a Dubai business

Google's own guide to optimising for generative AI features says that, from Google Search's point of view, optimising for AI search is still SEO.

Its AI features page adds that there are no extra technical requirements for AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet.

So the job is not a secret layer on top of SEO.

It is SEO done properly in two languages, with the AI crawlers let in and your business facts kept identical everywhere.

Google also says you can ignore llms.txt files and content "chunking" for Search, so don't pay anyone to build those for Google.

Step 1: agree scope, access and the remote rhythm

Write down which markets you serve: Dubai only, the wider UAE, or the Gulf.

List which languages each page set will use, and who signs off the Arabic copy.

Give the agency read access to Search Console first, which is exactly what Google's page on hiring an SEO recommends at the audit stage.

Add Bing Webmaster Tools and analytics as read-only too.

Set one weekly call slot that suits Gulf Standard Time and the agency's time zone, and one shared document where every change gets logged.

Gotcha: the person who owns the Business Profile must stay the owner, so add the agency as a manager, never as the primary owner.

Step 2: baseline Google, Bing and the AI answers

Pull twelve months of Search Console data, filtered to the United Arab Emirates, split by page and by query language.

Search Console reports AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic inside the "Web" search type, and Google's Search Central blog covers the newer generative AI performance reports.

In Bing Webmaster Tools, open the AI Performance report, which shows when Copilot cites your pages.

Then run twenty real buyer questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot, ten in English and ten in Arabic, and record who gets named.

An AI agent can run that question set every week and paste the cited domains into a sheet, which saves an hour of copying each time.

Step 3: open the doors for the search crawlers

Check robots.txt before you touch content, because a blocked search bot makes every later step pointless.

OpenAI's crawler docs say sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and that its bots are set independently.

Perplexity's crawler page says PerplexityBot is for search results, not model training.

Anthropic's help article says blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce visibility in Claude's search results.

A sensible starting file for a firm that wants AI search visibility but no training use looks like this:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.ae/sitemap.xml

Google's common crawlers page is clear that Google-Extended does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search, so blocking it won't hurt AI Overviews.

Gotcha: check your CDN or firewall too, because OpenAI also asks site owners to allow its published search bot IP ranges.

📞 Want a remote team to run these nine steps with you? Book a free SEO strategy session and Julian's team will look at your crawler access, your two language versions and your Business Profile on the call. → Get a free strategy session with Goldie Agency

Step 4: put Arabic and English on separate URLs

Google's multilingual site guide recommends a different URL for each language version, rather than switching language with cookies or browser settings.

Pick one structure and keep it: example.ae/en/ and example.ae/ar/ is the simplest to run on one host.

Google says it works out a page's language from the visible content, not the lang attribute or the URL.

That means each page needs one language for both body text and navigation, with no side-by-side Arabic and English columns.

Still set lang="ar" and dir="rtl" on Arabic pages, because browsers and screen readers rely on them even though Google doesn't.

Don't auto-redirect visitors by IP or browser language, which Google warns can stop people and crawlers seeing every version; add a visible language switcher instead.

Step 5: wire up hreflang without the classic mistakes

Google's localized versions guide lists three equal methods: HTML link tags, HTTP headers or the sitemap.

Pick one, and put a full set on every version of the page, including a link to itself:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-AE" href="https://www.example.ae/en/teeth-whitening/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ar-AE" href="https://www.example.ae/ar/teeth-whitening/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.ae/en/teeth-whitening/" />

The first code is the language in ISO 639-1 and the optional second code is the region in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2, so "ar-AE" and "en-AE" are valid, but "AE" alone is not.

Use fully qualified URLs with https, and make sure both pages point at each other, because Google ignores one-way pairs.

The x-default value tells Google where to send searchers whose language you don't cover.

An agent can crawl both folders and flag any URL whose hreflang set is missing its partner, which is the most common error on bilingual sites.

Step 6: get the Business Profile right before anything else local

Google's Business Profile guidelines say your name must match your real-world name, and they list repeating the same name in two scripts as not acceptable.

So pick the name customers know and enter it once, not in Arabic and English side by side.

Use a precise address, or a service area if you visit customers.

A rented mailing address you don't operate from, a virtual office, isn't eligible.

A co-working desk only qualifies with clear signage, staff on site and customers received during business hours.

Choose as few categories as you can, and don't use them as keywords.

Google's AI features page also tells site owners to keep Business Profile information up to date, so treat it as part of AI visibility, not a side task.

Step 7: write schema that matches each language version

Google's LocalBusiness documentation marks name and address as required properties, and LocalBusiness is a type of Organization.

Put the markup on both language versions, with the visible address and name on that page reflected in the JSON-LD:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Dentist",
  "name": "Example Dental Clinic",
  "url": "https://www.example.ae/en/",
  "telephone": "+971-4-000-0000",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "Example Street, Building 1",
    "addressLocality": "Dubai",
    "addressCountry": "AE"
  },
  "sameAs": ["https://www.instagram.com/exampleclinic"]
}

Google says structured data should match the visible text on the page, so don't mark up an English address on a page that shows only the Arabic one.

Schema helps Google understand your entity, but Google also says there's no special schema you need for AI features.

Step 8: write content around real Dubai buyer questions

Google's AI guide asks for non-commodity content: first-hand detail a competitor can't copy from the same three sources.

For a Dubai business that means named areas you serve, real photos, real staff expertise and the questions customers ask on WhatsApp and the phone.

Write the Arabic page as its own piece for Arabic searchers, then have a native speaker check it, rather than machine-translating the English page and stopping there.

Bing's Webmaster Guidelines ask for consistent names for people, organisations, products and places, and one topic per URL.

An agent can turn your call notes into a question list and a draft brief for each language, which a writer then fills with facts only you know.

Step 9: earn mentions, links and reviews inside the rules

Google's spam policies define link spam as links built mainly to manipulate rankings.

Paid placements are fine when marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", as Google's outbound link guide explains.

Goldie Agency's own approach to link building is "manual outreach, no PBNs": editorial links earned from relevant sites, not networks.

For reviews, Google's Maps content policy bans incentives for reviews and bans asking only happy customers.

So ask every customer the same way, through the same link, and reply to the bad ones as calmly as the good ones.

ChatGPT Business Hub: the US-only catch for local stores

OpenAI now lets owners claim a business in ChatGPT through Business Hub, and verify it by phone, business email, domain or Shopify.

Its help centre page says, as of November 2026, that local stores and restaurants can only claim an existing U.S. listing, and that availability depends on location and type.

So a Dubai shop or clinic can't rely on Business Hub today; the website, the crawler access and the wider web still carry the load.

OpenAI also says claiming doesn't guarantee more visibility, and advertising doesn't influence ChatGPT's independent answers.

Reporting: what to track in every report

Search Console clicks and impressions for UAE searchers, split by the /en/ and /ar/ folders.
Generative AI impressions in Search Console, where your property shows them.
Copilot citations from Bing's AI Performance report.
The weekly question set: which domains ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot name, in both languages.
Business Profile calls, direction requests and reviews.
Leads from the site, tagged by language version.

Report once a month, but log changes the day they ship so the numbers can be read against them.

🔥 Learn AI SEO yourself, in English and Arabic Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you get step-by-step video trainings, the installable Agent OS and four live coaching calls a week, so you can learn AI SEO yourself and run the agent checks from this page in-house. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom and learn AI SEO yourself

Example: a two-language clinic rollout, step by step

Week 1: the clinic owner gives read-only Search Console and Bing access and lists its top ten treatments.
Week 1: the agency checks robots.txt and finds OAI-SearchBot blocked by a security plugin, then gets it opened.
Week 2: English pages move to /en/, new Arabic pages go live in /ar/, each with a full hreflang set.
Week 3: the Business Profile name is cut back to the real clinic name, and duplicate Arabic text is removed from it.
Week 3: Dentist schema goes on both language versions, matching each visible address.
Week 4: every patient gets the same review link after their visit, with no discount attached.
Every week: an agent reruns the twenty-question check and the team compares the cited domains.

The same order works for a property brokerage, a car service that visits customers or an online shop shipping across the Emirates; only the schema type and the Business Profile set-up change.

Red flags when you vet an AI SEO agency for Dubai

Google says plainly that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and Bing says GEO doesn't guarantee citations in AI answers.

A promise of first place on Google or a guaranteed ChatGPT mention.
Claims of a "special relationship" with Google or a secret method.
Private blog networks or bulk directory links.
Machine-translated Arabic pages with nobody fluent checking them.
A request to own your Business Profile or your domain.
A plan built around llms.txt as the way to rank in Google.

Google's hiring page also suggests asking whether their AI advice lines up with Google's official guidance, and whether they cite Google's documentation.

Ask both questions on the first call, and write down the answers.

📞 Ready for a second pair of eyes on your bilingual site? Book a free SEO strategy session to see which of the nine steps your site needs first, run remotely by a team with 1,000+ SEO and link building campaigns behind it, per Julian's own published numbers. → Book your free strategy session

Who runs the work, and how to start

Julian Goldie founded Goldie Agency, an SEO, GEO, AEO and link building agency that works with Dubai businesses remotely; there's no Dubai office.

His own published numbers list 240+ clients, a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork and 425K+ YouTube subscribers.

If you'd rather build the skills first, the AI Profit Boardroom is where to learn AI SEO yourself before you hire anyone.

Either way, start with steps 1 to 3 this week: they cost nothing but time and they decide whether anything else can work.

Want help on step one? Book a free SEO strategy session and walk through it with the team.

📚 Two free tools before your call Grab the 200+ AI SEO Prompts to speed up briefs and audits, and download Julian's free link building book to see how manual outreach works. → Get the 200+ AI SEO Prompts

Also On Our Network

FAQ: AI SEO Agency Dubai

Does Goldie Agency have an office in Dubai?

No. There's no Dubai office. Goldie Agency works with Dubai businesses remotely, using shared documents, read-only access and scheduled calls.

Which hreflang codes should a Dubai site use?

Use ar-AE for Arabic pages and en-AE for English pages aimed at the UAE, plus an x-default fallback. Every version must list itself and its partner.

Can I put Arabic and English on the same page?

Google advises against side-by-side translations because it detects language from the visible content. Give each language its own URL and link them with hreflang.

Should I block GPTBot if I want to appear in ChatGPT search?

You can. OpenAI says its bots are set independently, so you can allow OAI-SearchBot for search while disallowing GPTBot for training.

Can a Dubai business claim its listing in ChatGPT Business Hub?

As of November 2026, OpenAI says local stores and restaurants can only claim an existing U.S. listing, and availability depends on location and type.

📺 Video notes + links to the tools 👉

🎥 Learn how I make these videos 👉

🆓 Get a FREE AI Course + Community + 1,000 AI Agents 👉

About Julian

I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.

I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.

I've built a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
My Udemy courses have taught over 29,000 students.

→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom

Open your robots.txt today, check both language folders, and book a free strategy session when you want a remote AI SEO agency Dubai owners can audit step by step.