Saudi questions name the city, and Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province are answered as three markets. The engines read Google Maps and noon, Amazon.sa and Jarir before they answer. Arabic versions of the pages that answer the top questions, with hreflang between them, not a machine translation of the whole site.
What changes when the buyer is in Saudi Arabia
Saudi questions name the city, and Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province are answered as three markets. Arabic questions are a larger share than anywhere else in the Gulf, and the engines answer them from Arabic pages, which are thin in most trades. Government-linked programmes (Vision 2030 projects, giga-projects) turn up in B2B answers as the context the engines assume.
The sources the engines read for Saudi Arabia
| Source | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Google Maps | the review score and count, in Arabic and English reviews together |
| noon, Amazon.sa and Jarir | 'where to buy' is answered from these; Jarir for electronics and books specifically |
| HungerStation and Jahez | restaurant and delivery questions; the app rating is quoted |
| Aqar and Bayut KSA | property questions |
| Arab News, Argaam, Saudi Gazette | business questions; Argaam for listed companies |
| Regulators | MOH and CHI for clinics and insurers, SAMA for payments, ZATCA for tax, the Ministry of Commerce register for any company; a licence is checked |
The report's 'sources the engines trust' table shows which of these were actually cited for your questions, and how often your own site was.
Language
Arabic first for consumer questions, English for most B2B. The engines read both, and an Arabic version of the site's main pages is the single largest gain available in this market, since so few rivals have one. Arabic pages need the same schema and the same plain statements as the English ones.
What to put on the site for Saudi Arabia
- Arabic versions of the pages that answer the top questions, with hreflang between them, not a machine translation of the whole site.
- Prices in SAR, the commercial registration number, and the city on every page.
- For payments and e-commerce, the SAMA licence or the Mada acceptance stated plainly, since 'does it take Mada' is a question.
How the report runs for Saudi Arabia
Every question is asked with the market set to Saudi Arabia, so an engine that would otherwise assume the United States answers for Saudi Arabia. The questions themselves are written with the country's cities and qualifiers where the site sells to one ('best accountant in Riyadh'), and the competitor discovery probe is asked for Saudi Arabia too, so the rivals in the table are the ones a buyer in Saudi Arabia is shown, not the global names.
Prices in the report are quoted as the engines quoted them, in SAR where the answer used it.
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Questions
Are the engines any good in Arabic?
They answer in Arabic fluently; what they lack is Arabic pages to read. A company with them is named in Arabic answers with less competition than in English.
Do Riyadh and Jeddah get the same answers?
No. The engines read them as separate markets and answer from pages naming each city.
See who the engines name in Saudi Arabia
Your website, region and work email. The score appears in about three minutes, and the report is a link you keep.