SEO companies and digital marketing agencies in Saudi Arabia: the PDPL, the Mawthooq licence and Arabic-first search

To choose an SEO company or a digital marketing agency in Saudi Arabia, start with three checks. First, does the agency research and write in Arabic from the start, since most Saudi buyers search in Arabic and Google handles more than nine in ten searches in the Kingdom? Second, does its plan for customer data follow the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), which requires prior consent before you send advertising to someone's email or phone? Third, do the creators it books hold a Mawthooq licence from the media regulator? An agency that answers all three clearly, keeps every account in your company's name and never promises a ranking is worth shortlisting.

We read the sources on this page on 22 October 2026. Our Arabic readers can use our Arabic guide to choosing an SEO company in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

Where Saudi customers search and scroll

StatCounter's figures for September 2026 put Google at 94.46% of search in Saudi Arabia and Bing at 3.75%. SEO in Saudi Arabia is Google SEO, and paid search is Google Ads.

For social media, the same month shows Facebook sending 63.56% of the visits that social networks send to websites, Instagram 14.53%, YouTube 11.06% and X (Twitter) 8.94%. These figures count clicks out to websites only. They leave out Snapchat and TikTok when people stay inside the app, and they do not count WhatsApp. So ask an agency how it will measure a campaign on a platform that sends few clicks, and how it will count enquiries that end in a chat.

What a Saudi SEO company should deliver

Google lists the services an SEO provider can usefully offer: a review of your site's content or structure, technical advice on hosting, redirects, error pages and JavaScript, content development, keyword research, SEO training, and expertise in specific markets and regions. Put that list beside every proposal and ask which lines are included each month, who does them, and what you will receive.

Arabic first, written natively

Saudi buyers phrase searches differently from buyers in Egypt or the UAE, so Arabic keyword research should be done for the Saudi market, not copied from another country. Ask who writes the Arabic and whether that person writes from your brief rather than translating finished English. Each language needs its own page, linked to the others, and right-to-left layouts must be tested on a phone, where forms and tables break most often. Our guide to multilingual SEO architecture sets out the markup.

Local SEO for each city

For shops, clinics, restaurants and service firms, local search is the Google Business Profile. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Google also says a virtual office, meaning a rented address you do not work from, is not eligible for a profile. One profile per real branch, accurate hours, real photos and replies to reviews come first. Our guide to local SEO from the profile to the map pack covers the method.

Digital marketing agencies: social media, PPC and creators

Split a "digital marketing" package before you compare quotes: social media management, paid social, Google Ads and content are bought and judged differently. Ask for the media spend to be shown apart from the agency fee, and keep the Google Ads account, Meta Business account and analytics in your company's name. Our Arabic guide to how Google Ads works in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf explains the auction and budget for Arabic-speaking owners. For an online shop, Google's Merchant Center lists Saudi Arabia as a supported country for product listings, priced in riyals, with the Shopping tab available to users there.

The Mawthooq licence for social media advertising

Saudi Arabia licenses people who advertise on social media. Saudipedia describes the Mawthooq licence as issued under the General Authority for Media Regulation for individuals who provide advertising content on platforms including X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook. Its summary of the rules says:

• the licence is mandatory for individuals who carry out advertising activity;
• the rules apply to citizens, residents and foreign investors advertising a brand, product, service, event or commercial activity offered or located in the Kingdom;
• a sponsorship counts as an advertisement and needs the licence;
• an individual advertising their own product or service on their personal account is exempt, as are events by a government entity;
• no advertisement may be shown except through an account registered with the authority and linked to the licence;
• non-Saudis must not advertise without the licences and approvals required.

When the regulator, then called the General Commission for Audiovisual Media, published its guidance in October 2022, Arab News reported a fee of SR15,000 for a licence lasting three years. Check the current fee on the authority's site. For you as the brand, the practical step is simple: ask every creator for their Mawthooq licence and keep it with the contract, and if an agency books creators for you, write in that it checks every licence.

The PDPL and your customer data

The Personal Data Protection Law, which we read in the English text published by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), applies to processing of personal data in the Kingdom and also to data about people living in the Kingdom processed from outside it (Article 2). So an agency working for you from Dubai, Cairo or London is covered too. The articles that matter most for marketing:

• Consent (Article 5). Except where the law allows, personal data may not be processed without the person's consent, and the person may withdraw consent at any time.
• Advertising messages (Article 25). You may not use someone's personal means of communication, including post and email, to send advertising unless you have their prior consent and give them a clear way to stop receiving it.
• Marketing use (Article 26). Personal data other than sensitive data may be used for marketing if it was collected directly from the person and they consented.
• Breaches (Article 20). The controller must notify the competent authority of any breach, and must tell the people affected where it could harm them.
• Penalties. Breaking the law or its regulations can bring a warning or a fine of up to five million riyals, which can double for a repeat violation.

SDAIA's National Data Governance Platform carries the national register for personal data protection, with separate registration for private entities and for entities outside the Kingdom, and a service for reporting a data breach. Your agency contract should say who is the controller, who is the processor, and who reports a breach of a lead list or an ad audience.

Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam

Keyword Planner shows "seo services in riyadh" and its variants at around 30 searches a month and the Jeddah and Dammam phrases at around 10, against 140 to 170 for the national phrases. Most Saudi businesses therefore search for an agency at national level, and pick by sector experience rather than by city. City still matters for the work itself: a Riyadh clinic, a Jeddah restaurant and a Dammam industrial supplier each need Business Profiles and location pages for the areas they really serve, and paid campaigns targeted to those cities. Ask any agency to show you the city-level plan, not only the national one.

Questions about SEO and digital marketing agencies in Saudi Arabia

Do creators promoting my brand in Saudi Arabia need a licence?

Yes, under the Mawthooq rules, unless they promote their own product on their personal account. A sponsorship counts as advertising. Ask for the licence before the post goes live.

Can we email or text our customer list with offers?

Only with prior consent and a clear way to opt out, under Article 25 of the PDPL. Data used for marketing should have been collected directly from the person with their consent.

Should our website be in Arabic or English?

Write in the language your buyers search in. Check each phrasing in Keyword Planner for Saudi Arabia, build a separate page for each language with demand, and link the versions.

Can an SEO company guarantee a first-page ranking?

No. Google's "Do you need an SEO?" page says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google," and advises that if someone guarantees their changes will put you first, you should find someone else.

When can we judge whether an agency in Saudi Arabia is working?

Judge it on what is measured: the agreed work delivered, impressions and positions in Search Console, enquiries by page, calls from the Business Profile, and cost per enquiry in the ad account. Google's SEO Starter Guide says "Some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months." The outcome depends on competition, your offer and your budget.

When a Saudi buyer asks an assistant instead

A business owner in Riyadh can ask ChatGPT or Gemini, in Arabic or English, for "the best digital marketing agency in Saudi Arabia for a restaurant" and get three names, and the Arabic and English answers can name different firms. Those names come from directories, press, reviews and the pages the assistant can read. AI Knows Us is a different kind of service from an agency: it asks buyer questions like these on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and shows a Saudi business which companies get named and which sources the answer leans on.