Sekari - the Middle East's only dedicated digital search and social media marketing agency is stating 2010 is the year GCC companies need to understand and adopt the latest techniques in Search Engine Optimisation to deliver the best return on investment from their web sites.

In its simplest form, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic directed to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords.

As internet use per capita continues its phenomenal growth across the region, Sekari Managing Director Lee Mancini observes: "The fight for on-line shoppers is on and if your company doesn't rank on the first page of a search engine then you are losing business" he says. "With increasing digital literacy across the region we have seen companies responding by increasing their expenditure on, and sophistication of, ever more complex corporate web sites. We also see that ecommerce web sites "where browsers can purchase goods and services" becoming more prevalent however, we also see much evidence of companies simply taking a 'launch and leave' approach to their web sites".

Mancini continues "Most companies are only familiar with relatively simple search tools such as Google Analytics and have a notion of 'meta tags', 'keywords' and 'pay-per-clic', but truly effective SEO is a complex mixture of art and science and that's where Sekari's expertise in the field can really deliver results" he concluded.

Achieving a high ranking in search engine results pages (SERPS) has quickly become a business necessity and not a novelty. High rankings have been found to directly increase site traffic, perceived relevance, brand trust and sales conversion rates.

A study by Pew Internet & American Life Project* found that after only two months of a website appearing on the first page of a search engine's results page, the number of unique visitors tripled and sales conversion rates doubled. The study was of a few hundred of companies who are actively involved with agencies conducting SEO. Soon after the average client site appeared in the top 10 search result pages from a large search engine provider, both sales conversion rates and new traffic increased significantly. After one month of achieving a high SERP, the average sales conversion rate rose 42 percentage points, and new traffic more than tripled.

* Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Note to Editors:

Middle East Internet Penetration Rates

The Middle East region has one of the fastest growing Internet penetration rates in the world with 18.9 Million Arab users online today (Not Including Iran) and growth rates over the past few years of 3,000% in countries such as The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As this medium becomes ever more proficient, brands and agencies are beginning to have to take notice of these new captive and enthusiastic audiences. Penetration rates fluctuate between 10% and 60% throughout the region with the UAE having the highest Internet penetration rate, 60.9% as of 2009. However, even though The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a small internet penetration rate of approximately 26.8% at present, the growth rate phenomenal and with KSA having the largest population in the GCC, this still results in over 7.7 million Internet Users. With 50% of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia's population being under 20 years old it is clear that the enormous future potential of this new young population represents a massive commercial opportunity.

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Comments (4)

• 2010-02-09 18:28:40 |92.235.207.xxx| Gavin  - A focus on the long tail?
  Enjoyed reading this - particuarly about SEO in the Middle East - an area I'd love to move to one day. The importance of good ranking is of course important, but let's not forget the long tail of keyword research. Sometimes companies can focus too hard on achieving that top 10 spot in the SERP's. They battle high paying and budget unrestricted organisations for highly competitive two word key phrases when perhaps going for long tail keyword combinations may provide the secret to success: less competitive, niche orientated etc. In this case perhaps ranking does not matter so much! It's applicable to paid search as well as current research indicates that unless you are a well known household name, holding postions 5-7 in the sponsored results may actually be the key to greater conversion rates and hence better return on ROI! Anyway, keep up the good work :)
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• 2010-02-10 04:49:07 | |94.202.103.xxx| Sekari  - Sekari Response - Long Tail
  Hi Gavin, THank you for leaving your comment. And yes we totaly agree, the oportunity in SEO is identifying Niche oportunities with little competition and high volumes of traffic. However, I must say that the top 10 spot, i.e. the first page of a SERP result is what its all about. Research shows that 73% of all clicks are on the first page. Search behavior moves towards defining the search better, typing in longer keyphrases describing what a user wants in more detail, i.e. 'the Long Tail' rather then search on the second or third Search Engine Result Page. Its not always neccesary to have 1st and 2nd spot, especially if we are talking about sponsored listings, as this positions are usually very expensive and the key to a well optimised PPC campaign is finding that balance between a moderate to high position, and high click through rate for the least amount of money. Gavin, make sure that if you ever want to move to DUbai you get in contact with us. We are always on the look out for talented SEO practitionars to join the group. Thanks for your input.
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• 2010-02-10 16:12:28 |92.235.207.xxx| Gavin  - Long Tail
  Yes agreed, plus the notion that users generally implicitly place a degree of trust in companies featuring higher up the SERP's, regardless of whether that trust is merited or not in the "real world" is also interesting in terms of user behaviour, and is yet another reason why a good ranking for targetted keywords is so important. Anyway, the last bit of your reply was cut off, but yes, always open to new job opportunities.
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• 2010-02-23 12:51:24 | |94.202.103.xxx| Lee Mancini  - re: Long Tail
  Please send us your CV to info@sekari.com
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