Choose the agency that can show you, before you pay a monthly fee, the exact buyer questions it will track, the raw AI answers with screenshots, and a written list of what it will not do. In the UAE, also check that it builds real Arabic pages that AI can read in the page code. The price matters less than whether the work can be counted.
Why choosing is hard right now
Almost everyone sells it. In our scan of the UAE market on 20 October 2026, we counted about 53 search specialists. About 39 of them (74%) sell AEO or GEO, the industry names for AI SEO. About 14 are new boutiques built around AI search. Among the independent full-service agencies we sampled, 55% claim GEO as well. UAE buyers mostly search for "AI SEO", so that is the label you will see.
The offers look alike: an AI check, rewritten pages, schema (hidden code that labels your business for machines), brand clean-up, an llms.txt file, mentions, reviews and a monthly report. What differs is what each agency counts.
How UAE agencies usually sell
Larger, award-winning agencies ask for your budget ("tell us your budget and we'll send a plan"), then send a custom proposal, often within 2 to 3 business days and with several price options. Smaller shops publish packages priced by keywords and pages. The usual first offer is a free "AI visibility audit"; every one we found was request-and-wait, 24 hours to 3 business days. A few charge for the audit instead.
Neither style is wrong. But in both, a few things are rarely written down: how many AI questions are tracked, on which tools, how often, who publishes the pages, and what is excluded. We found no UAE agency that publishes a sample report. The questions below close those gaps.
What you are buying, in one minute
AI SEO means getting your business named when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI answers who to choose. Asked for "the best" anything, AI usually names about three businesses (what we see in our checks), based on what other sites and people say. Good SEO helps, and AI SEO is a level above it: Ahrefs found only 38% of pages cited in AI Overviews in early 2026 also ranked in the top 10 for that search, down from 76% in mid 2025, because Google now runs many related searches behind each question ("query fan-out"). More in our AI SEO guide for the UAE.
18 questions to ask on the first call
Ask every agency the same questions in the same order. A good agency answers most with plain numbers and names.
| Ask | A good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| 1. Which exact questions will you track for us? | "We draft 20 to 60 real buyer questions per language from your sales chats, reviews and search data. You approve the list, and it stays fixed unless we both agree to change it." |
| 2. Are those buying questions or general ones? | Mostly commercial: "best X in [area]", "X or Y", prices, and very specific ones like "I'm 24 with a rash on my arm, which clinic in Dubai Marina should I see?" Not only "what is X". |
| 3. Which AI tools, which languages, how often? | Named tools (for example ChatGPT and Gemini), English and Arabic, on a set schedule: weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly. |
| 4. How do you ask each question? | A fresh chat with no history, set to the UAE, and repeated, because the same question can get a different answer each time. |
| 5. What is our day-one score, and do we keep the raw answers? | "A score, for example named in 2 of 10, plus every answer and screenshot. They are yours, even if you leave us." |
| 6. Which competitors will you track? | 3 to 5 named rivals, plus questions about them ("is X any good?") to see what AI says and which sources it trusts. |
| 7. What changes on our website in month one? | Named fixes: AI crawlers allowed in robots.txt and the firewall, key text in the page code rather than loaded by scripts, schema, one set of business facts, pages for tracked questions. |
| 8. How will you do Arabic? | Real Arabic pages on their own URLs, Arabic text in the HTML, written and checked by people who read Arabic. Not a translation widget. |
| 9. Who writes the pages, how many, and what is new in each? | A monthly count, each page tied to a tracked question and carrying facts only you have: prices, timings, licence numbers, real cases. They show you 5 samples. |
| 10. Where will you get us mentioned? | Named directories, review sites, industry lists, real threads and videos. They say upfront which items cost extra, such as news PR. |
| 11. What do you do about reviews? | Watch Google, Trustpilot, G2 and your site, reply fast, fix the cause, ask real customers for reviews. Never fake ones. |
| 12. How will we count leads from AI? | Tagged links, WhatsApp and call tracking, and asking every lead "how did you find us?". They admit what cannot be tracked. |
| 13. What exactly do you guarantee? | A written process (fixed list, day-one score, re-checks, review date), or a narrow guarantee with the question list and refund terms attached. |
| 14. What is not included? | A written list: news PR, ad spend, website rebuilds, extra languages or brands, and anything else billed separately. |
| 15. What will the monthly report show? | The score against day one, question by question, with screenshots, the work done, the leads, and what did not move. |
| 16. What do you need from us? | Website and Google Search Console access, one person who approves pages quickly, and about 30 minutes a month. |
| 17. What is the minimum term, and how do we leave? | A short minimum, often 3 months, then month to month, with all data handed over on exit. |
| 18. Can you show us your own AI visibility, live? | They open ChatGPT on the call, ask about their own category and show you the result, even if they are not named yet. |
A scorecard to compare agencies
Fill this in straight after each call. Give 0 for no or vague, 1 for partly, 2 for clear and in writing. Top score: 20.
| Check | Scores 0 | Scores 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Question list | "Your keywords" | A fixed list per language that you approve |
| Tools and schedule | "All the AI tools" | Named tools, languages and re-check dates |
| Evidence | A score with nothing behind it | Raw answers and screenshots you keep |
| Competitors | Not tracked | 3 to 5 named, with questions about each |
| Website fixes | "Optimisation" | A dated list of named fixes |
| Arabic | Translation plugin or "later" | Own Arabic URLs, text in the HTML |
| Pages | A big number, no samples | Samples, each tied to a question |
| Leads | Traffic only | Tagged links, WhatsApp, "how did you find us" |
| Exclusions | None written | A clear "not included" list |
| Terms | Long lock-in, vague promise | Short minimum, clear exit, clear guarantee or process |
How we read it: 15 or more means the agency measures real work. Under 10, you are probably buying SEO with a new name. That is our rule of thumb, not an industry standard. Score us the same way.
Red flags, and why they happen
"#1 on ChatGPT, guaranteed"
OpenAI's help centre says ChatGPT search ranks results on several factors and placement is not guaranteed. A 2026 study by Schulte and colleagues found AI answers vary across runs, prompts and time, so visibility is a range, not a fixed rank. A narrow guarantee can still be fair if it names the questions, the check method and the refund.
SEO with a new name
Some agencies have added "AI SEO" to an existing SEO package without changing what they measure. The tell is the sample report: keywords, rankings and traffic, but no AI questions and no AI answers. If they cannot show you a question list, they are not tracking AI.
No screenshots or raw answers
A score with no answers behind it cannot be checked. Answers change, so you need each dated original: question, tool, language, date.
No real Arabic
A browser translation happens on the reader's screen; an AI crawler reads the page code. Vercel found the crawlers behind ChatGPT and Claude fetch JavaScript files but do not run them, so text a script loads, as many translation widgets do, can be invisible to them. Google recommends a separate URL for each language. The one-minute test: open the Arabic page, view the source, search for an Arabic word.
Traffic promises
AI sends fewer clicks. Pew found people clicked a normal result on 8% of Google visits with an AI summary, against 15% without, and only 1% clicked a link inside it. But those who arrive are further along: on Ahrefs' own site, AI search was 0.5% of traffic and 12.1% of signups, and Adobe found AI-referred US retail visitors converted 54% better in May 2026. On adjoltz.com, 1 of our first 4 ChatGPT visitors tapped WhatsApp. The honest promise is leads, counted.
No stated exclusions
In our scan, most agencies list what is included; few list what is not. That is where surprise invoices come from: news PR, translation, ad spend, extra locations.
Self-published "Top 10" lists
Many "best AI SEO agencies in Dubai" articles are written by agencies, and many put their own name first. It is a common, legal habit worldwide. AI repeats these lists because they match the question "best AI SEO agency in Dubai" word for word, and few other pages do. Agency directories such as Clutch, GoodFirms (which now has a "Generative Engine Optimization, UAE" category) and Semrush Agencies feed the same answers. So when AI recommends an agency, it is telling you who wrote or appears on the most matching pages, not who does the best work. Ask the AI which sources it used and see who published each one.
llms.txt sold as the big fix
llms.txt is a short text file that summarises a website for AI tools. It was proposed by Jeremy Howard in September 2024. Google says you do not need any AI text files or special schema to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. It is an hour of housekeeping, not a strategy. One quick test: check whether the agency has one on its own site. In our scan, 8 of the 24 agency sites we checked had none.
Hundreds of pages, no samples
Google's spam rules call mass-produced pages with little value "scaled content abuse", and they name automated translation as one way it happens. A high page count is fine when every page answers a real buyer question with real facts. Ask to see five pages before you sign.
What fair prices look like in the UAE
These are published monthly prices from our 20 October 2026 scan. They are bands, not quotes.
| Band | AED a month | What it usually covers |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | 900 to 4,500 | One language, a few pages, basic tracking |
| Mid | 6,000 to 9,000 | More pages, sometimes 2 languages, reports every 2 weeks |
| Top published | 12,000 to 15,000 | Bilingual or multi-location, PR and authority work |
| Proposal-only agencies | Roughly 7,000 to 18,000 or more | Custom. Our estimate from their budget forms and directory minimums |
| Global median | About 25,200 (USD 6,850) | First Page Sage, from 1,146 quotes by 214 agencies, Jul to Oct 2026. An agency's own study |
Where one UAE agency sells both, its AI SEO tiers cost 1.8 to 2.7 times its SEO tiers at the same level. Published paid audits start around AED 1,500. To compare plans fairly, divide the monthly fee by the number of AI questions tracked, then check the tools, languages and how often each question is re-checked. A plan that tracks no questions cannot be compared at all.
What a proper audit includes
The 5-minute version: paste the website into an SEO tool, export the PDF, send it. It lists errors but not why AI names your rivals and not you. A real AI visibility audit covers:
- The question list. Real buyer questions in English and Arabic, built from your sales chats and reviews, approved by you.
- Clean runs. Each question asked in a fresh session from the UAE, more than once, with screenshots.
- Rivals. Who is named instead of you, and what AI says when asked "is [rival] good?" about each one.
- The source map. Which sites AI leans on in your industry: directories, review sites, Reddit threads, YouTube videos, news, rival pages.
- Brand facts. Name, phone, address, hours, prices and licence checked across your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Instagram and directories.
- Code and access. Whether robots.txt or your firewall blocks AI crawlers (OpenAI says sites that block OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, and Cloudflare began blocking AI bots by default in July 2025), and whether key text and Arabic are in the HTML.
- Page gaps. Which tracked questions have no page answering them, and which rival pages get cited and why.
- Reviews. The rating, and the recent complaints AI is likely to repeat.
- Classic SEO. Indexing, broken and weak internal links, searches your rivals already win.
- A 90-day plan. Ranked by impact and effort.
The test: could your own team act on it without calling the agency again? If yes, it was worth paying for, whoever you hire.
What a monthly report should show
- The score now against day one, split by AI tool and language.
- A question-by-question table: named or not, in what position, and who was named instead.
- New raw answers and screenshots, dated.
- Changes in the sources AI cites in your industry.
- A work log with links: pages shipped, fixes made, mentions earned, reviews answered.
- Leads: tagged visits from AI, WhatsApp chats and calls, and what new leads said when asked how they found you.
- What did not move, and the reason. An honest report says so even in a flat month.
- Next month's plan.
Ask the agency to name its blind spots. Search Console counts AI Overview and AI Mode clicks inside normal Google traffic. From about 9 October 2026, analysts reported many ChatGPT links arriving with no tag and no referrer, so they looked like direct visits. On adjoltz.com on 20 and 21 October, the ChatGPT visits we saw carried utm_source=chatgpt.com but no referrer. Tracking changes; asking every lead how they found you does not.
Run your own 10-minute AI check
- Write 5 questions your buyers ask, in their own words. Make one very specific and one in Arabic.
- Open ChatGPT in a temporary chat, then Gemini, then Google for the AI Overview or AI Mode answer.
- Ask each question. Note whether you are named, in what position, who is named instead, and whether the facts about you are right.
- Follow up: "Is [your business] good? What do people complain about?" This shows how your reviews read inside an answer.
- Ask "Which sources did you use?" and open them.
- Ask your best question twice more in new chats. If the answer changes, that is normal.
- Write your score: named in X of 5. Keep the screenshots. That is your baseline.
Our free AI check does the same with 10 questions, 5 in English and 5 in Arabic, and sends the result on WhatsApp.
Where Adjoltz fits
We are a small Dubai team; AI SEO has been our main service since 21 October 2026. What we publish, so you can score us too:
- Prices: free AI check; AI Visibility Audit AED 1,950, credited to month one if you sign within 30 days; Foundation AED 4,500, Growth AED 8,500, Authority AED 16,000 a month. 3-month minimum, then month to month. No setup fee. USD prices are at /us.
- What we track: ChatGPT and Gemini (Google AI), on a question list you approve: 25 questions in one language on Foundation, 40 + 40 in English and Arabic on Growth, 60 + 60 on Authority.
- Guarantee: if you are not named for at least 3 commercial questions within 30 days, on the question list you approved, we refund 100% of what you paid.
- What we don't promise: "#1 on ChatGPT", guaranteed Google rankings, paid spots in "best agency" lists, fake reviews or fake mentions, or long lock-in contracts.
If a bigger agency fits you better, the questions above will show it. Real AI answers and numbers, including what did not work, are on our case studies page.