Arabic Keyword Research for the Saudi Market

2026-08-02 · 1500 words · Updated 2026-09-19 · Eclipse Advertising Agency

Most keyword research for Saudi businesses starts in the wrong place: someone translates an English keyword list into formal Arabic, pulls volumes, and builds pages around the result. The list looks tidy, but it rarely matches how people in Riyadh, Jeddah or Dammam actually type. Saudi searchers switch between Modern Standard Arabic, dialect, English and Latin-script Arabic, sometimes within one query. This guide walks through a research process built for that reality.

Start from how Saudis actually type

Before opening any tool, list how a real customer might describe the need. Most categories have four families of query:

• Modern Standard Arabic (MSA): the formal phrasing you would see in a brochure, such as أفضل شركة تنظيف منازل في الرياض.
• Saudi dialect: conversational phrasing typed into a search box or spoken to a phone, such as وش أفضل شركة تنظيف, ايش سعر, or أبي مصمم شعار. Words like وش, ايش, أبي and كم سعر signal a question or a purchase need, and they rarely appear in translated keyword lists.
• English: many Saudi professionals search in English for B2B services, software and anything with an English industry term, for example "SEO agency Riyadh" or "CRM Saudi Arabia".
• Arabizi and mixed script: Latin-script Arabic (for example "mat3am" or "7ajz"), and mixed queries such as سعر iPhone 17 or تصميم logo.

Treat these as separate seed lists. A single "Arabic" column in a spreadsheet hides the differences that decide which page you should build.

Spelling variants are part of the keyword set

Arabic search queries are full of legitimate spelling variation. Users type quickly, often without careful hamza placement, and the same word appears several ways:

• ة / ه: شركة and شركه, عيادة and عياده.
• ى / ي: مستشفى and مستشفي.
• Hamza forms: أسعار and اسعار, إعلانات and اعلانات.
• With or without ال: تسويق رقمي and التسويق الرقمي.
• Transliterated brands: an international brand may be searched in Latin letters, in Arabic letters, or in more than one Arabic spelling.

Two practical points follow. First, Google's Keyword Planner reports average monthly searches for "a keyword and its close variants" (Google Ads Help: About Keyword Planner forecasts), so variants may be folded together in the numbers and you should not expect a clean volume per spelling. Second, the search results for two variants can still differ. Search both and compare what ranks before assuming they are one keyword. On the page itself, write in correct Arabic; you do not need to stuff misspellings into copy to be found for them.

The tools, and what each one really tells you

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner gives keyword ideas, estimates of monthly searches and bid estimates (Google Ads Help: Use Keyword Planner). Two settings matter for Saudi research. Set the location to Saudi Arabia or the cities you serve, because by default search counts are averaged over 12 months for the term "regardless of language" (About Keyword Planner forecasts). And remember that Google notes search volume statistics are rounded, so totals across locations may not add up. Use the numbers to rank opportunities against each other, not as exact traffic promises.

Google Search Console

If the site already exists, the Performance report is your best source, because it shows real queries that led to impressions and clicks on your pages, with impressions, clicks, CTR and average position (Search Console Help: Performance report). Filter by country to isolate Saudi Arabia, then use "queries containing" filters to pull out dialect markers such as وش or ابي, or English terms. Google states that some queries are omitted to protect user privacy and that not every query row is stored (Search Console Help: Dimensions and data groupings), so treat the list as a sample, not a census. Queries with high impressions and low CTR, or ones ranking just off page one, are usually the quickest wins.

Google Trends

Trends is useful for comparing phrasings and seasonality, for example MSA against dialect, or Arabic against English for the same need, and for spotting Ramadan, Eid, back-to-school or National Day patterns. Its values are relative: data is normalised and scaled from 0 to 100, and low-volume terms appear as 0 (Trends Help: How Trends data is adjusted). A 0 does not mean nobody searches; it means the term is below the threshold Trends reports.

Autocomplete and People Also Ask

Type your seed terms into Google with a Saudi location and note what autocomplete suggests. Google says predictions draw on real searches and take into account the query's language, location and trending interest (Google Search Help: How autocomplete works), which makes it a good source of dialect phrasing you would not have guessed. Also record the questions that appear in People Also Ask boxes; they are ready-made FAQ and subheading candidates. Both change, so date your notes.

Review the SERP before choosing a keyword

For every candidate keyword, look at the first page of results in Saudi Arabia. Ask three questions: what type of page ranks (service pages, listicles, marketplaces, videos, maps), which language and script the ranking pages use, and whether competitors are local businesses or directories. If the results for a dialect query are all forum threads and videos, a polished service page may not be what Google considers the best answer.

Group by intent and map one primary intent per page

Once the list is collected, group keywords by what the searcher wants, not by the words they used. Variants in MSA, dialect and spelling for the same need belong together.

Assign each group one primary page. If two pages target the same intent, for example one page on التسويق الرقمي and another on تسويق رقمي, they compete with each other and neither may rank well. That is keyword cannibalisation, and the Search Console report helps spot it: filter by a query and check whether several of your URLs are receiving impressions for it. The fix is usually to merge the pages or sharpen their focus, then link between them clearly.

For bilingual sites, the Arabic and English versions of a page share the same intent but should each be researched in their own language. Our guide to bilingual SEO for Saudi Arabia covers how to structure those pairs.

Presenting keyword research to management

A spreadsheet with thousands of rows does not help a decision-maker. Summarise the research in a form that leads to action:

1. Intent groups, not keywords: show a short list of topics with their main phrasings in each language.
2. Current position: for each group, what Search Console shows today, or that you have no visibility yet.
3. Page plan: which existing page owns each group, and which pages need to be created, merged or rewritten.
4. Relative priority: use Keyword Planner ranges and Trends comparisons to rank groups against each other, and say plainly that the figures are estimates.
5. What to measure: impressions, clicks and enquiries from the target pages, reviewed monthly.

Where Eclipse fits

Eclipse Advertising Agency is a Riyadh-based agency that works on SEO, paid search, social media and content for Saudi brands in Arabic and English. If you want help building a keyword map for your site, you can learn more about our digital marketing services in Saudi Arabia or contact the team.

Sources: support.google.com · support.google.com · support.google.com · support.google.com · support.google.com · support.google.com