UAE FREEZONE

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
MARCH 2016
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UAE FREE ZONES

Free zones are designated areas within the UAE where companies can trade without being taxed or without
the need for local sponsorship. Establishing a business within a UAE free zone comes with many operational
and functional advantages. They provide the business owner with 100% ownership of the company, there
are no corporate taxes or duties on import or export and there are also no currency restrictions as well
as 100% return of capital and profits. They also aid economic development, whilst helping to generate
employment and attract international investment into the country.

In the UAE, free zones were first established in 1985 and are currently a popular business setup option
owing to the central location where ‘East meets West’, impressive infrastructure and the international interest
of various business industries in the region. In 2014, total UAE free zone trade amounted to $794.3bn and
accounted for 33% of all non-oil trade, making it a highly attractive option for business interest.

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There are close to 40 free zones currently operating in the UAE, which means that businesses looking to set
up and operate from these locations are often spoilt for choice. It is important to note that some free zones
are often dedicated to various industry sectors, making the decision-making process an extremely
considered one.

Due to the large number of free zones that exist, in a relatively small geographical area, it is important that
each free zone utilises all its marketing channels effectively, to communicate their services, whilst educating
potential new customers about the legalities and formalities of business setup in the UAE.

Sekari recently analysed the online search landscape of UAE free zones, investigating each brand’s search
visibility (the reach of brands in search engines in the region), and the search landscape and opportunity in
search engines for that industry sector.

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ANALYSIS OF THE FREE ZONE SEARCH LANDSCAPE

In total, 33 UAE free zones websites were selected and monitored to determine how often they ranked for
search queries that consumers are using when searching for free zone information. In the UAE alone, there
are approximately 12,000 searches each month for ‘free zone’ and ‘how to set up a business’ related
search terms, which accumulates to approximately 144,000 searches each year. This suggests that there
is a huge interest in free zones and a great opportunity for whichever free zone has high visibility for the
related search terms. The search terms used cover a broad spectrum of possible enquiries, from the more
generic ‘Dubai free zones’, to specific requirements such as ‘business setup in Dubai’. Free zones that have
a successful search strategy deployed would have both high ranking and high coverage for these keywords.

Overall, there is a significant opportunity for free zones to enhance their online visibility and benefit from the
search volume available in the region, as very few of the free zones monitored scored highly in terms of rank
or coverage. Sites that are appearing for key search terms range from consultation services to news sites, as
well as jobsites for free zone areas.

The most popular searches are for terms including ‘business setup dubai’, ‘dubai free zone’ and ‘company
formation in dubai’. These type of searches are attracting on average around 3,500 searches each
per month. This means that free zones have a real opportunity to leverage this traffic and need to reach
consumers who are at the very beginning of their research process and have no knowledge of their
names or brands.

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FIG 1
KEYWORD RESEARCH

*Keyphrase search volume traffic on exact match terms on Google.ae

It is worth nothing that this keyphrase
Avg. Per Year Searches
# Keyword (exact match only) research centres on search volume in the
UAE. However, many free zones should
1 business setup in dubai 19200 also look to attract interest from markets
2 dubai free zone 10560 abroad, including the UK and India.
3 free zones in dubai 8640
4 company formation in dubai 7080
5 dubai freezone 7080
6 trade license dubai 7080
7 how to start a business in dubai 5760
8 business setup dubai 5760
9 free zones in uae 4680
10 freezone dubai 3840
11 free zone dubai 3840
12 uae free zones 3840
13 dubai trade license 3120
14 business setup in uae 3120
15 starting a business in dubai 2520
16 dubai free zones 2520
17 company setup dubai 2520
18 dubai company formation 2040
19 company formation dubai 2040
20 setting up a business in dubai 2040
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SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS VS COVERAGE

In order for a free zone company to demonstrate good visibility within Google.ae, they need to feature in the
top right hand side of the graph shown (FIG 2). This means the site has high coverage and appears in search
results for a high volume of keyphrases, but also has high rankings for each keyphrase analysed.

Of all of the free zones analysed, Jebel Ali Free Zone and Hamriyah Free Zone, have the highest average
ranking with positions 11 and 9 respectively. However, neither of these sites have any visibility within the top
3 search results, with Hamriyah Free Zone only leveraging 10% coverage overall within the top 50 search
results. This means that although it has a relatively high average ranking, it is for a very small
set of keyphrases.

The top performing free zone in terms of coverage and ranking is Dubai Silicon Oasis. This free zone has the
highest coverage in terms of keyphrases – with 26% coverage in the top 10 results and 86% coverage in the
top 50. With an average rank of 16 overall, Dubai Silicon Oasis has the highest visibility when compared to
its free zone competitors, but still falls behind other sites like consultancy firm, UAE free zones
(www.uaefreezones.com), which has nearly 88% visibility in the top 10 rankings, but is not formally connected
to any free zone authority.

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Apart from Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai Airport Freezone and Jebel Ali Freezone, all of the other free zones
have less than 10% coverage in the top 10 search results, meaning that they rarely appear on the first page of
Google.ae for relevant search queries. Top coverage is taken by content-rich sources and 3rd party business
setup websites including ‘UAE free zones’ and ‘UAE Company Registration’. Local newspaper, The National,
appears in the top 10 in terms of coverage for these terms.
FIG 2
SEGMENTED ONLINE COMPETITORS COVERAGE
# Domain Top 3 Top 10 Top 50 Average Rank

1 Dubai Silicon Oasis 0% 26% 86% 16.49

2 Dubai Airport Freezone 8% 32% 82% 15.22
3 Dubai Media City 0% 2% 78% 28.62
4 Dubai Multi Commodities Center 0% 10% 76% 24.29
5 Jebel Ali Free Zone 0% 26% 42% 11.43
6 Rak Free Zone 0% 4% 30% 22.33
7 Ajman Free Zone Authority 0% 0% 16% 34.12
8 Fujairah Free Zone 0% 0% 12% 21.50
9 Hamriyah Free Zone 0% 6% 10% 9.60
10 Sharjah Airport Free Zone 0% 0% 10% 25.00
11 Tecom 0% 0% 8% 33.50
12 Dubai International Financial Centre 0% 0% 6% 12.33
13 Twofour54 0% 0% 4% 28.00
14 Masdar City 0% 0% 4% 45.50
15 Dubai Healthcare City 0% 0% 2% 48.00

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FIG 3
OCR GRAPH AND TABLE

0
Top Free Zone Searches
5
1) Dubai Silicon Oasis
Hamriyah Free Zone
2) Dubai Airport Freezone
10 Jebel Ali Free Zone
Natural Search Average Rank %

Dubai International
Financial Centre
3) Dubai Media City
4) Dubai Multi Commodities Center
15
Dubai Airport
Free Zone 5) Jebel Ali Free Zone
20 Dubai 6) RAK Free Zone
Fujairah Free Zone Silicon Oasis
RAK Free Zone
7) Ajman Free Zone Authority
25 Sharjah Airport Free Zone Dubai Multi 8) Fujairah Free Zone
Commodities Center
Twofour54 9) Hamriyah Free Zone
Dubai Media City
30 10) Sharjah Airport Free Zone
Tecom 11) Tecom
35 Ajman Free Zone Authority
12) Dubai International Financial Centre
13) Twofour54
40
14) Masdar City
45
15) Dubai Healthcare City
Masdar City

Dubai Healthcare City

50

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Natural Search Engine Coverage %

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FIG 4
OCR GRAPH AND TABLE

0
Top Non-Brand Searches
5
1) www.uaefreezones.com
uaefreezones.com
2) www.uaecompanyregistration.com
10
Natural Search Average Rank %

businessetup.com 3) www.varaluae.com
farahatco.com
dafz.ae
uaecompanyregistration.com 4) www.businessetup.com
15
setupdubaibusiness.com
dubai.ae dsoa.ae
varaluae.com
5) www.dsoa.ae
creativezone.ae
20 6) www.dafz.ae
smartzoneuae.com
thenational.ae 7) www.creativezone.ae
dmc.ae
25 8) www.setupdubaibusiness.com
9) www.dmc.ae
dmcc.ae
30 10) www.dmcc.ae
11) www.farahatco.net
35 shuraa.com
12) www.thenational.ae
13) www.smartzonesuae.com
40
14) www.shuraa.com
45
15) www.dubai.ae

50

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Natural Search Engine Coverage %

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FIG 5

masdarcityfreezone.com
fujairahfreezone.com
SELECTED

twofour54.com
tecomgroup.ae
saif-zone.com
COMPETITIOR RANKING

afz.gov.ae
rakftz.com
dmcc.ae

jafza.ae
dsoa.ae

dhcc.ae
dafz.ae

dmc.ae

hfza.ae

difc.ae
1 how to register a company in dubai 9 7 24 8 39 – – 13 – – – 12 – – –
2 how to start a business in dubai 29 21 20 11 – – – – – – – – – – –
3 starting a business in dubai 23 26 16 13 – – – – – – – – – – –
4 start business in dubai 33 19 21 11 – – – – – – – – – – –
5 start a business in dubai 28 23 15 10 – – – – – – – – – – –
6 how to start business in dubai 28 18 21 11 – – – – – – – – – – –
7 start up business in dubai 12 – 19 8 – – – – – – – – – – –
8 how to start a small business in dubai 14 33 – – – – – – – – – – – – –
9 dubai free trade zone 17 9 – 37 5 7 – – – – – – – – –
10 company formation in dubai 36 – – 45 – – – – – – 42 – – – –
11 dubai company formation 42 – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
12 company formation dubai 43 – 49 38 – – – – – – 41 – – – –
13 dubai freezone 9 1 15 22 6 – – – – – – – – – –
14 freezone dubai 8 1 14 21 6 – 41 – – – – – – – –
15 freezone in dubai 9 5 12 20 10 – 29 – – – – – – – –
16 dubai freezones 6 4 25 27 7 23 – – – – – – – – –
17 freezones in dubai 5 6 29 25 9 28 39 – – – – – – – –
18 freezone areas in dubai 27 30 – 45 11 – – – – – – – – – –
19 dubai free zones 6 4 25 27 7 23 – – – – – – – – –
20 setting up a business in dubai 14 19 12 7 – – – – – – – – – – –

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In the Search Volume representation, we can see the real gap between the potential traffic available and the
free zones’ actual share of this. Most of the free zones struggle to leverage 50% of the total volume of traffic
available, leaving the search space wide open for competitors. Jebel Ali Free Zone leads the way in terms of
capturing over 70% of the traffic share, but it is still effectively missing out on approximately 40,000
visits a year.

Whilst it may not be possible for a free zone to outrank content-rich sites like ‘uaefreezones.com’, which
provides a full business service across all free zones, individual free zones can and should make some
headway to enhance their visibility by ensuring that they are producing relevant content about their services,
and publishing frequent articles that potential customers can find useful.
FIG 6

YEARLY SEARCH VOLUME OPPORTUNITY

100% 140,000

80% 120,000

Yearly Search Volume Opportunity

58% 56% 83% 77% 26% 42%
Yearly Search Volume %

100,000
60% 74%
80,000
58%
40% 60,000
42% 44%
40,000
20%
23% 20,000
17%
0% 0
Dubai Silicone Dubai Airport Dubai Media Dubai Multi Jebel Ali RAK
Oasis Free Zone City Commodities Centre Free Zone Free Zone

% Monthly % Yearly *Opportunity based on traffic available according to position achieved per keyphrase. i.e., rankings on 1st page
Search Volume Opportunity Opportunity are eligible for 80% of search volume traffic, 2nd page – 20% of traffic.

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CONCLUSION – INFORM & EDUCATE

The nature of the free zone industry is highly competitive in the UAE. From Sekari’s recent analysis, we can see
there is a real opportunity for brands to leverage their content marketing efforts in order to amplify their online
assets and have a solid presence within search engine results pages.

Creating informative and educational content will help free zones stand out and be found online and should be
supported by a marketing strategy consisting of SEO implementation, as well as a thorough content marketing
approach, to direct individuals to the relevant pages. This strategy does not only help the business, but it
informs and guides the consumer to the find the right business information and appropriate services.

Having a strong SEO strategy which underpins any digital strategy, ensures the visibility of relevant content.
This drives consumers, who are already in the research mode and interested in their service, directly to the
website, giving them a stronger chance to convert the customer.

For more information on how to optimise your Search Marketing and

Content Strategy, visit www.sekari.com
SOURCES
http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/free-zone-trade-accounts-for-a-third-of-uae-s-non-oil-economy-1.1509643