A Global Capability Centre: #1 rankings in the UAE and India in 6 months
SEO for a Global Capability Centre that reached 13,872 organic users and #1 rankings for high-intent service keywords in the UAE and India within 6 months.
The brief
The client offers premium services in research, design and AI, but had low organic visibility in its key target markets, India and the UAE. The domain lacked authority and competed against established global firms on crowded search results pages. It needed to move from branded traffic to high-intent service traffic.
What we did
- Off-page at scale. A structured backlink campaign through classifieds, PR and profile creation, growing backlinks from 38 to 300+ monthly.
- Localised content clusters. 5 to 10 service-aligned blogs published each month, written for UAE and Indian search intent.
- Topical authority. Content kept strictly to three core pillars: language services, presentation design and AI.
Seven more strategies ran alongside these three on the project.
Where the rankings landed
In 6 months the client moved from low visibility to rank #1 for high-intent service keywords in its target markets.
| Keyword | Market | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Whiteboard animation in Dubai | UAE | #1 to 10 |
| Visual graphic services | UAE | #1 to 6 |
| Whiteboard animation in Dubai | India | #3 |
| Visual graphic services | India | #1 to 3 |
| Branded keywords | Global | #1 |
Organic search brought in 13,872 users. India accounted for 29% of users and the UAE for 20%, a new market for the client. Backlinks grew by 790%. The client's service page also appears as a source in Google's AI Overview for "visual graphic services".
The traffic was engaged, not just larger. The engagement rate was 39.7% with an average duration of 1 minute 51 seconds, with strong engagement on the AI, language FAQ and contact pages.
What you can learn from this
Write for each market's search intent. The monthly blogs were written specifically for UAE and Indian search intent, and the UAE, a new market for the client, reached 20% of users.
Stay narrow to build authority. A company with many services is tempted to write about all of them. Keeping content to three pillars (language services, presentation design and AI) built depth where it mattered, instead of thin coverage everywhere.
Off-page work still matters against global competitors. A domain that lacks authority struggles against established firms. Backlink growth of 790%, through classifieds, PR and profile creation, was a core part of moving from branded searches to service searches.
Judge SEO by engagement, not only by rankings. Rankings bring visitors. The engagement rate and the pages people engaged with (AI, language FAQs and contact) show whether they are the right visitors.
Our SEO service runs programmes like this for Indian and international markets, and our AI SEO service covers visibility in AI Overviews and AI answers. To plan search growth in a new country, talk to our team.
What changed
A closer look
Other projects
Motwani Lordsway Sanskruti
A cinematic launch microsite for a residential project on the sacred road to Puri, with Odia art direction and a Rath Yatra animated hero.
AI native market research firm (name withheld)
SEO, AEO and GEO that took a new AI research report website from 0 to 6,224 users, 100+ ranking keywords and AI Overview visibility for 50+ keywords in 4 months.
Want something like this?
Tell us what you are launching and when. We will reply with an approach, a timeline and a cost range.
Thank you. We have your details.
Someone from the team will reply within one working day.