In typical SEO fashion, the short answer is: it depends.
Over the past 12+ months, the UAE has seen an influx in Russian speaking visitors.
And the UAE is no stranger to welcoming Russians to the country. You’ll notice many malls having Russian signage and many popular restaurants and hotels will have menus and other materials in Russian.
In fact, the UAE and Russia have had diplomatic relations since December 1971, back when it was referred to the Soviet Union. Both countries established embassies in the mid-late 80s. So it’s fair to say, Russia and UAE have a strong relationship.
So why raise the question now, about a Russian SEO strategy for your UAE website?
It’s because unlike previous years, Russian visitors are now turning into residents in much higher numbers.
And if they’re not choosing to live here, they’re certainly staying for longer than a typical holiday. Many job postings now ask for Russian speakers due to this demand.
So that means you have more potential customers who speak Russian, knocking on your door.
How to tell if you really need a Russian SEO strategy?
Do you currently have Russian speakers visiting your business or buying from your online store? Have you seen an increase?
Because if you haven’t or if you don’t really get any Russian speakers as customers, you may not need to worry about it.
But if this isn’t the case, you should get started.
In Russia, they’re accustomed to using Yandex. Google is available too and by recent reports is almost on par with Yandex or may even be a little bit ahead.
So this means: optimise for both Google AND Yandex (it’s same same but different!).
We recommend setting up a Yandex Metrica account. It’s like Google Analytics and Google Search Console but for Yandex. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Russian – it’s available in English too!
And we know that in Russia, Telegram and VK (aka VKontakte) are popular social media platforms (think of them as WhatsApp and Facebook equivalents). So you may wish to be present on those 2 networks as well. WhatsApp naturally is huge so definitely don’t ignore that!
Russian translation of English and Arabic content
Now we all love Google Translate as much as the next person for on-the-go translations. But, and we cannot stress this enough, do not rely on this for your Russian content.
For this, we highly recommend using a Russian translation service which employs the linguistic and writing skills of native Russian speakers.
Humans are best at this sort of thing and until AI gets better, it’s best to leave it to a Russian human to translate your Russian content.
We highly recommend anyone in the tourism and hospitality sectors employ a Russian SEO strategy if not already in place. This is the most obvious example of where having Russian language support on a website is essential.
Talk to Jambread today about crafting a rock solid Russian SEO strategy for your business.
» Book a quick discovery call with Jambread and let’s have some borscht!
