The starting point

The client offers cleaning, pest control, AC servicing, handyman and building maintenance in Abu Dhabi, and ran two websites for different service lines. When we started in mid-2021, the main site was getting some traffic but its search visibility wasn’t moving the way the content work said it should.

Our backlink audit found why. At one point the site had been connected to over 63,000 backlinks, many from private blog networks and spam domains. Those links were holding the site back, and removing them needed care, because a careless disavow can do its own damage.

What we did

  1. Audit the link profile We reviewed the backlink history, flagged the PBN and spam links, and recommended a disavow, explaining the time it takes and the risk involved.
  2. Map keywords to every service page We built keyword sheets for 31 page groups on the main site and 16 on the second site, and tracked English and Arabic search terms.
  3. Build new links every month Monthly link building went from 327 links in July to 482 in August, using web 2.0 sites, profiles, directories, business listings, classified ads, micro-blogs, blog comments and video.
  4. Publish content on the main site We wrote 3,110 words in July and 11,680 in August, including seven blog articles posted on the site and service-focused micro-blogs on disinfection, pest control and maintenance.
  5. Write the second site’s service pages In August we wrote 40 service texts and excerpts for the second site, from grease trap cleaning to pool maintenance, and built 132 links for it.

Delivered

  • Backlink audit with a disavow plan
  • Monthly SEO audit and progress report
  • Keyword-to-page maps for both sites
  • Rank tracking in English and Arabic
  • 809 links built for the main site across July and August 2021
  • 14,790 words of content for the main site across July and August 2021
  • 40 service texts and 132 links for the second site in August 2021
  • Local citations, UAE directory listings and classified ads

What changed

Over July 2021, tracked positions for the main site’s core local searches moved up. “Maintenance company in abu dhabi” went from 17 on July 8 to 3 on July 23. “General maintenance in abu dhabi” went from 17 to 5, and “mattress cleaning abu dhabi” from 45 to 34.

The July to August report described a steady rise in traffic from the start of the work in July. It also said bounce rate did not improve and search interaction fell short of what the content should have produced, which is what pointed us to the backlink history.

What we’d point out

The rank figures cover about two weeks, and not every term moved: “water tank cleaning abu dhabi” stayed past position 100. The traffic figures in the report are screenshots with no numbers we can quote.

A spam-heavy link history caps what new SEO work can do. While the disavow was planned, we put effort into local citations and listings that bring calls without waiting on rankings. Some 2021 link types, such as blog comments, are ones we’d use far less today.