Abdullah Haroon™
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Score your UAE website in 10 minutes.

The exact 10-point rubric I use when auditing UAE small-business sites for clients. Score yourself out of 10. If you're under 6, your site is costing you leads. Under 4, every month it stays unfixed is money on the floor.

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  1. 01

    HTTPS everywhere

    Your site should load over https:// on every page. If any page falls back to http://, Google penalises the whole domain. Check in Chrome: do you see the padlock icon on every page? If not, your hosting panel has a one-click fix (Let's Encrypt).

    ✓ Pass: Padlock icon on home, services, contact and every blog post.

    ✗ Fail: 'Not secure' warning in any browser tab = losing 20%+ visitors instantly.

  2. 02

    Loads in under 3 seconds on 4G

    Test at pagespeed.web.dev. Target: Largest Contentful Paint under 3 sec on mobile 4G. UAE mobile network speeds vary; your site has to perform on the slowest, not the fastest.

    ✓ Pass: LCP < 2.5s (green on PageSpeed Insights).

    ✗ Fail: LCP > 4s = Google ranks you below faster competitors.

  3. 03

    WhatsApp button on every page

    A UAE small business lives on WhatsApp. The site's job is to shorten the time between 'I'm interested' and 'I'm messaging you'. One click, pre-filled with the service name, on every page.

    ✓ Pass: WhatsApp floating button bottom-right + 'Book on WhatsApp' CTA on service pages.

    ✗ Fail: Only a contact form, or WhatsApp number as plain text that doesn't open the app.

  4. 04

    Arabic version (if you serve Emiratis)

    Not a translation plugin — a real bilingual build with proper RTL layout, Noto Naskh typography, Arabic-tuned line height and letter spacing. Analytics on bilingual sites consistently show 60-70% of UAE visitors switching to Arabic in under 10 seconds.

    ✓ Pass: /ar/ URL that renders native Arabic typography, mirrors icons correctly, pre-fills WhatsApp in Arabic.

    ✗ Fail: 'Translate' plugin that produces Google-Translate quality Arabic — bounce rate 80%+.

  5. 05

    Google Business Profile claimed + linked

    The site should be linked from your Google Business Profile, and your GBP should link back. This is how 'web developer Abu Dhabi' searches surface you locally.

    ✓ Pass: GBP verified (card received, address confirmed), website field matches your actual site, 10+ photos uploaded.

    ✗ Fail: No GBP or an unclaimed one with wrong hours — invisible in local search.

  6. 06

    Contact form actually works

    Test it yourself — submit from an incognito browser, check it arrives. 40% of client-site audits I run have broken contact forms (SMTP misconfigured, spam blocked, routing to a dead inbox).

    ✓ Pass: Submit lands in your main inbox within 60 seconds. Honeypot or captcha blocks spam.

    ✗ Fail: Form submits but no email arrives = silent lead loss.

  7. 07

    Mobile layout works without pinch-zoom

    Open your site on a phone. Text readable? Buttons tappable without zooming? Images don't overflow the screen? 70%+ of UAE visitors are mobile.

    ✓ Pass: Readable text at default zoom, buttons 44px+ tall, images responsive.

    ✗ Fail: Horizontal scroll on mobile, text requires zoom = bounce.

  8. 08

    Open Graph image + Twitter card set

    When your link is shared on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook, X — does a proper preview card appear with image, title, description? Or does it look like a broken fragment?

    ✓ Pass: Share your URL in WhatsApp to yourself. Should see a 1200×630 image with title + description.

    ✗ Fail: Just the URL text with no preview = looks spammy, click-through drops 5x.

  9. 09

    Structured data (JSON-LD) for rich results

    Google rewards sites with proper schema.org JSON-LD markup. Person, Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, BreadcrumbList at minimum. Rich-result cards (star ratings, FAQ accordions, breadcrumbs in SERP) come from this.

    ✓ Pass: Validator.schema.org and search.google.com/test/rich-results both parse your site cleanly.

    ✗ Fail: Zero schema = plain blue-link SERP result, less CTR than competitors with rich results.

  10. 10

    A plan for when something breaks at 2 AM

    WordPress sites break. Plugins conflict after updates. Hosts restart. Who's awake? What's your backup strategy? Is there an emergency contact who can roll back a bad deploy in 15 minutes?

    ✓ Pass: Daily automated backups (UpdraftPlus or similar), a developer on retainer who answers WhatsApp within 2 hours, documented hosting/plugin credentials in a password manager.

    ✗ Fail: No backups, no developer on call = your site is one plugin update away from being down for a week.

How to score yourself

  • 9–10 / 10: Your site is doing its job. Focus budget on marketing / Ads, not another rebuild.
  • 7–8 / 10: Solid foundation, a few leaks. 1-2 fixes under AED 500 total.
  • 5–6 / 10: Costing you leads. A WordPress Starter rebuild (AED 2,500 / 7 days) typically brings you to 9+.
  • Under 5 / 10: Site is actively hurting the business. Every month unfixed is lost enquiries.

Want me to score it for you?

WhatsApp me your site URL and your rough self-score. I'll reply with the 1-3 fixes that would move the needle most for your specific business. No sales pitch — if the fixes are tiny, I'll tell you to do them yourself.

Send me your site on WhatsApp

Or email hello@abdullah-haroon.com · Reply within 24 hours.

Written and maintained by Abdullah Haroon · abdullah-haroon.com · +971 56 985 8632