How we got decipher. cited in AI search in the UAE in 3 months.
Last update: 10.03.2026.
When we initially expanded into the UAE in 2025, we did what any slightly obsessive AI search agency would do: we used our own expansion as a live test case.
No paid ads. No PR budget. No shortcuts. Just content, structure, and intent.
The challenge.
Breaking into a new market without brand recognition, regional domain authority, or a local content history is extremely hard in traditional search. In AI search, where systems rely on entity signals, structured data, and third-party validation to decide who gets cited? It's a different discipline entirely.
We had to prove that the fundamentals we apply for clients actually work, from a standing start, in a competitive market, in under 90 days.
Spoiler: they do.
What we built.
Not much, actually. We built the right things.
One solid pillar page targeting UAE AI search optimisation: structured, entity-rich, and written specifically to answer the questions AI systems are being asked about our space.
A handful of audience-specific sub-pages for the verticals and personas we wanted to be found for like cultural brands or F&B companies. Each one answered a specific question. Each one clearly associated decipher. with the UAE market.
Clean structured data throughout. Schema markup, entity signals, llms.txt configuration. The technical signals that tell AI systems not just what a page says, but what it means and who it's from.
Targeted content on LinkedIn and Medium. Published consistently. Written for humans first, structured for AI second. No keyword stuffing. No generic takes.
A G2 account. We asked our clients to leave reviews. Third-party validation matters. AIs analyse structure before content, but external signals and real-world citations are what build the trust layer that gets you recommended.
An SEMrush Agency Partner account. The only direct financial investment, €125, plus our dedicated work hours. That's it.
What happened.
Three months after launching the UAE content, decipher. started appearing in ChatGPT responses for UAE AI search queries.
Not as a footnote. Properly cited.
The kind of citation where the AI references decipher. as a named agency doing this work in the UAE, not just pulling a keyword match from a page we happen to own.
Where we are now. (UAE only.)
~27% AI visibility score
~26% share of voice in AI search
Both achieved without heavy backlink campaigns, years of regional domain authority, or a single dirham in paid media.
AI engines cite content immediately when they find comprehensive, structured material that answers user queries; they don't wait for domain authority to build. That's exactly what we saw.
Why it worked.
A few things worked together that individually wouldn't have been enough.
Clarity of entity signals. AI systems needed to know that decipher. is a GEO agency operating in the UAE, serving specific client types and offering specific services. We made that unambiguous, in the content, the structure, and the schema.
Topical authority through clustering. Creating a constellation of interrelated content covering every angle of a topic signals topical authority to AI systems, Medium, and that's precisely the architecture we built. One pillar. Several supporting pages. Consistent internal linking. Clear hierarchy.
Third-party presence. G2. LinkedIn. Medium. SEMrush. A coherent message across high-authority domains will build trust. AI systems trust what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. Makes total sense, if you ask us.
Writing that answered actual questions. Not "what is AI search optimisation" in 2,000 generic words. But "what does AI search optimisation look like for a brand entering the UAE in 2025?" Specific. Useful. Citation-worthy.
The takeaway.
AI search doesn't reward volum. It rewards clarity.
Great content gets you remembered. Solid structured data gets you understood. You need both, and if you get both right, AI systems notice. Surprisingly fast.
We proved it to ourselves. Now we're doing it for clients.
What this means for your brand.
If a small agency with no UAE history and no local mentions in online publications can achieve a 25.8% share of voice in AI search within a new market in a few months, what could a structured, well-executed GEO strategy do for a brand with existing authority, established clients, and a live digital presence?
That's the conversation we like having.
A UK property management company. An AI search audit, a full optimisation build, and a lesson in why GEO compounds over time. Results: incoming.
This one starts differently.
Most case studies begin with a client brief. This one begins with an inbox notification.
A property management company in the UK was looking for AI search optimisation services. They didn't Google it.
They asked ChatGPT. ChatGPT's first recommendation was decipher. (aaww shucks, we're blushing…).
They emailed us. Three emails later, we were hired.
We'll come back to why that matters.
The brief.
A UK-based property management company operating across letting, sales, and property management. Established digital presence, decent domain authority, but no visibility in AI-generated answers, and no structured data strategy to speak of.
They wanted to be recommended (cited and mentioned) in AI search. Specifically for the queries their prospective landlords and vendors were increasingly asking AI platforms instead of Google.
They came to the right place. For obvious reasons.
What we did.
Phase 1. The audit.
We don't start optimising until we know exactly what we're working with. For this client, that meant a comprehensive GEO and SEO audit, a 50-slide deck covering:
Current AI visibility baseline across platforms
Technical SEO and structured data gaps
Competitor analysis: who's being cited instead of them, and why
Content gap mapping across all three core verticals
Specific improvement recommendations
A prioritised roadmap
Nothing was skipped. Nothing was estimated. If it affected their ability to be cited in AI search, it was in the audit.
Phase 2. The build.
With the roadmap signed off, we started work. That meant:
Structured data overhaul. Every page. Schema rewritten to give AI systems clear, consistent entity signals about who this company is, what they do, and where they operate. The kind of technical foundation that makes everything else work harder.
New landing pages for missing topics. Commercial property management was entirely absent from their digital presence. We fixed that: new pages, properly structured, written for AI answer formats and human readers in equal measure.
Core page optimisation. The homepage and their three main service verticals (letting, sales, and property management) were prioritised for full GEO optimisation. These are the pages AI systems will look to first when deciding whether this company is a credible, citable source.
Where things stand.
All of the above has been delivered. The client is happy with the work.
They're currently updating their site design alongside the content implementation, which has extended the timeline. That's not unusual, GEO builds are often the foundation that goes in before the visible change arrives.
What that means for this case study: we don't have the after numbers yet.
We'll publish them here when we do. Probably within the next two months, which, if our past projects are anything to go by, should make for a decent update.
The part worth pausing on.
Here's what we keep coming back to with this one.
This client didn't find us through a referral. They didn't see an ad. They didn't come from a Google search. They asked an AI what to look for in an AI search optimisation agency and the AI named us.
That's not a lucky accident. That's the output of the same content architecture, entity signals, and structured data strategy we build for clients. We built it for ourselves first. It worked. This client is the proof.
Three emails. Hired.
If you're wondering whether AI search visibility translates into real business outcomes, that's your answer.
What to watch for in the update.
When we publish the results from this project, here's what we'll be tracking:
AI visibility score before and after across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
Share of voice in AI search against named regional competitors
Citation frequency for letting, sales, and property management queries in the UK
Whether the new commercial property pages enter AI citation rotation, and how quickly
Check back. We'll post the numbers when they're real.
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