SEO checklist for Dubai real estate websites

Bayut and Property Finder win most Google searches for individual listings. Your own website competes for different searches: "real estate agency Dubai Marina", "sell my apartment in JVC", a developer's project name. Those often end in a direct call or WhatsApp message to your agency, not a lead shared with every agent on the listing.

This checklist follows the eight parts of our own website audit, which we have run on over a hundred Dubai real estate websites (see what we found). For each part: what to check, why it matters for an agency, and how to fix it.

How to use this checklist

Open two free Google tools: PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console. Check your site on your phone as well as your laptop. If you only have an afternoon, start with parts 2 and 6: if Google can't load or index your pages, nothing else counts.

1. Speed

Check: run your homepage and one listing page through PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Google's targets for its Core Web Vitals are main content visible within 2.5 seconds (Largest Contentful Paint), a response to taps within 200 milliseconds (Interaction to Next Paint) and a layout shift score of 0.1 or less (Google's Core Web Vitals guide). The overall performance score is rated good from 90 and poor below 50 (how the score works).

Why it matters for an agency: listing pages are heavy. Photo galleries, video tours, chat widgets and portal feed plugins all compete for a buyer's mobile data, often between viewings.

Fix: resize and compress photos before uploading (our audit flags images over 300 KB) and serve them as WebP or AVIF. Load gallery images further down the page only when needed, but never the main photo. Reserve space for banners so the layout doesn't jump, remove unused plugins and scripts, and load chat widgets after the page. See our website speed service.

2. Mobile and security

Check: does the site fit a phone screen without zooming? Does every page load over https:// with no browser warning, and does the http:// version redirect straight there in one step? Do any secure pages still load images or scripts over http://?

Why it matters for an agency: Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking (mobile-first indexing). And a "Not secure" warning above a form asking for a name and phone number is a quick way to lose an enquiry.

Fix: use a responsive theme, install an SSL certificate (most hosts offer one), and point every old address (http://, with or without www) to the final https:// address with a single redirect.

3. On-page SEO

Check: every page needs its own title, meta description and one main heading (H1). Titles should say what the page offers and where, for example "Apartments for sale in Business Bay | Agency name". Our audit flags titles under 15 or over 60 characters, because Google cuts long titles to fit the screen (Google on title links). Then check whether you have a page for each main service (buying, selling, renting, property management, off-plan) and for each community you genuinely cover.

Why it matters for an agency: the searches you can win name a service and an area. A homepage alone can't rank for "property management JVC" and "villas for sale Arabian Ranches" at the same time. Pages with a couple of sentences rarely rank either; our audit treats pages under 250 words as thin.

Fix: build one useful page per main service and per community you really work in, such as Dubai Marina, Business Bay or JVC, with your current listings, the agents who cover it and answers to the questions clients ask you. Don't copy one template across 40 communities and swap the name: Google's spam policies treat pages "targeted at specific regions or cities" that funnel visitors to one place as doorway abuse (Google spam policies). Write fresh listing descriptions rather than pasting your portal text. See our content service.

4. Images

Check: do your property photos have alt text, and are the files a sensible size?

Why it matters for an agency: an agency site can carry thousands of photos. Google uses alt text, together with image recognition and the text on the page, to understand what an image shows (Google Images best practices). A gallery of IMG_4821.jpg files with no alt text tells it nothing, and doesn't help screen-reader users either.

Fix: write short, factual alt text such as "Living room with marina view in a two-bedroom apartment, Dubai Marina". Don't stuff it with keywords; Google warns that can look like spam.

5. Links

Check: crawl your site for links that lead to error pages.

Why it matters for an agency: listings come and go. When a sold or let property is deleted, the links to it from area pages, blog posts, your Google Business Profile and social posts become dead ends.

Fix: when a listing goes, keep the page marked as sold or let with similar properties underneath, or redirect it to the matching community page. Check for broken links monthly. Our technical SEO service includes this.

6. Indexability

Check: in Search Console's page indexing report, look for important pages that aren't indexed. Make sure robots.txt isn't blocking Google (a common leftover when a site is built on a test server), that no page you want found carries a "noindex" tag, and that you have an XML sitemap.

Why it matters for an agency: a noindex tag removes a page from Google's results entirely (Google on noindex). Listing searches also create near-identical addresses (sorted by price, filtered by bedrooms) that compete with each other.

Fix: remove stray noindex tags, unblock robots.txt, and submit your sitemap in Search Console. A sitemap helps Google discover your pages, but doesn't guarantee they'll be indexed (Google on sitemaps). Add canonical tags so filtered and sorted versions point to the main page (Google on duplicate URLs).

7. Structured data and social

Check: does the site carry structured data describing your business, and do pages have Open Graph tags?

Why it matters for an agency: structured data gives Google your name, address, phone and hours in a format it reads directly. Google asks for the most specific type (LocalBusiness structured data); for a brokerage that's RealEstateAgent. Open Graph tags (the Open Graph protocol) control the title and image people see when a link is shared, and agents share listing links on WhatsApp all day. Without them, a listing can arrive without a proper title or photo.

Fix: add RealEstateAgent structured data to your site template, with exactly the same details as your Google Business Profile. Add an Open Graph title, description and image to every page, especially listings.

8. Local SEO

Check: do the business name and phone number on your website match your Google Business Profile? Is the phone number a tap-to-call link? Is there a WhatsApp button? How many Google reviews do you have, and where do you appear on Google Maps when someone searches for an agency in your area?

Why it matters for an agency: Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help (how Google ranks local results). Our audit flags fewer than 20 reviews or a rating under 4.0. And many buyers in the UAE would rather send a WhatsApp message than fill in a form.

Fix: use one version of your name and number everywhere, with a tap-to-call link in the header. Add a WhatsApp button using a click-to-chat link: https://wa.me/ followed by your full number in international format, without the plus sign, zeros, brackets or dashes (WhatsApp's instructions). Ask clients for reviews after a handover or a signed tenancy, and never offer payment or discounts in return, which Google's policy forbids (Google Maps content policy). Our Google Business Profile checklist and local SEO service go further.

One more for Dubai: permits on your own listings

This isn't part of our audit score, but it matters for trust. Property adverts in Dubai need an advertising permit, issued by the Dubai Land Department through its Trakheesi system, and the permit service covers electronic adverts as well as print (DLD: real estate ad permit). DLD has said the permit number must appear in the advert (DLD, 2020) and that companies must show the permit's QR code on their adverts (DLD, 2025).

If your website shows listings, display the permit number and QR code on each one, as you do on the portals. Rules change, so check the current requirements with DLD if unsure.

Run the checklist on your own site

Working through this by hand takes a few hours. Our free SEO audit checks the same eight parts, compares you with the agencies currently winning your searches, and emails you a prioritised report in plain English. To see how we work with brokerages, read about our SEO for real estate agencies.