Saudi, UAE and Egyptian buying seasons · When to add questions

A buying season is a stretch of the year when what your customer asks before buying changes, because a date is coming: a fast, a feast, a national holiday, an annual sale or a new school year. A seasonal question is a buying question that carries that date, openly as in "Ramadan 2027 offers", or implicitly as in "a florist that delivers on Eid eve".

As the season approaches, your customers ask AI engines questions they were not asking a month earlier, and the engine looks for pages that name the season, its dates, the offer and the opening hours. If it does not find yours, it cites whoever wrote theirs first, which may be a competitor's page from last year that nobody has updated. This is part of optimising for AI answers (GEO), with a calendar attached.

Your standing questions measure your market on ordinary days; seasonal questions measure it when your customer makes a date-bound purchase. So a season's questions enter your measurement before it and leave after it, as in how to prune and rotate your questions.

Eight seasons change what customers ask in Saudi Arabia over this period. The UAE and Egypt calendars follow in the next two sections, because each country has its own seasons and its own announcements.

The Hijri dates below come from the Umm al-Qura calendar and the fixed dates from official sources; we checked the dates in all three tables on 12 October 2026. The Supreme Court announces the start of Ramadan and the two Eids after the moon sighting, and the date can differ from the calendar by a day.

Eight seasons change what customers ask in the UAE over this period. Three of them belong to the UAE alone: Eid Al Etihad, the Dubai Shopping Festival and Dubai Summer Surprises.

The start of Ramadan and the two Eids in the UAE is announced once the moon-sighting committee of the UAE Council for Fatwa has looked for the crescent, and in 1447 AH Ramadan began in the UAE on the same day as in Saudi Arabia. The expected dates in the table come from the Umm al-Qura calendar.

Seven seasons change what customers ask in Egypt over this period. Two of them have no counterpart in the Saudi calendar: Sham El-Nessim and the Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid), when customers ask about Mawlid sweets, the shops that sell them and their prices.

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta announces the start of Ramadan and the two Eids after the moon sighting, and the day can differ from Saudi Arabia's: in 1447 AH Ramadan began in Egypt a day after it began in Saudi Arabia. The expected dates in the table come from the Umm al-Qura calendar.

Add them a month before the season, and remove them after you have read the last measurement taken during it. The month buys you a first measurement before you change anything, time to write your seasonal page, and time for the engine to read it before your customer asks.

Every paid plan has daily analysis, and your dashboard updates every day, so adding a season's questions a month ahead gives you weeks of analysis before it starts. The details are in how often your dashboard updates. In the 7-day free trial your questions are measured twice, the second once you prove the site is yours during the trial, so start it once your season's questions are written.

The order, in five steps:

1. A month before. Add the season's questions and read the first measurement as it is: who the engine cites now, with which page, and for which sentence.
2. The same week. Publish your seasonal page, or update last year's, with the dates, the offer, the price and the opening hours.
3. A few days before. Read the latest automatic measurement to see whether the engine has reached your page.
4. During the season. Read the answer excerpts, not only the score, because a short season can end before a change is confirmed.
5. After the season. Note who was cited and with which page, then remove the questions. Those notes are next year's starting point.

Riyadh Season is the capital's yearly entertainment festival. The General Entertainment Authority announces its dates every year, and in 2026 it opens on Wednesday 21 October. During it, people who live in or visit Riyadh ask where to eat near the event zones, who stays open after midnight, and where to stay with the family. It matters most to restaurants, cafés, hotels and sweet shops in Riyadh.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• Restaurants near Boulevard City open after midnight
• Best café near Boulevard World
• Family hotels near the Riyadh Season events
• Restaurant offers during Riyadh Season 2026

White Friday is the annual late-November sale in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, held on the same Friday other markets call Black Friday: 27 November in 2026. Many stores stretch it to a week or more. Its questions are about the price before and after the discount, when the offers start, and delivery and returns during the rush. It matters most to online stores, electronics, perfume and fashion.

Customers type the season under two names, White Friday and Black Friday, so put both names on your offers page.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• When do White Friday offers start in Saudi Arabia in 2026
• Best White Friday phone deals in Riyadh
• Are White Friday discounts real, or are prices raised before
• Perfume store with White Friday offers and next-day delivery in Jeddah
• When is White Friday in the UAE
• Black Friday offers in Egypt 2026

Ramadan is the month of fasting in the Hijri calendar, and in 1448 AH it begins on Monday 8 February 2027 according to the Umm al-Qura calendar. Each country's own authority announces the start after the moon sighting, so the first day can differ by a day from one country to the next.

Hours change before products do: your customer asks when you open after iftar, who delivers before sunset, where to eat suhoor, and what an iftar meal for a family costs. In the last ten nights the questions turn to Eid: clothes, sweets and gifts.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• Suhoor restaurant in Riyadh open until dawn
• Ramadan iftar buffet in Khobar at a family price
• Dental clinic hours during Ramadan in Jeddah
• Ramadan food basket with delivery in Riyadh
• Best Ramadan iftar in Dubai
• Suhoor in New Cairo

Founding Day marks the founding of the first Saudi state in 1727. It has been held on 22 February every year since 2022 by royal order, and it is a public holiday. Its questions are about offers, events, traditional dress, local food and gifts.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• Founding Day 2027 offers in Riyadh
• Where to buy a Founding Day outfit for children in Riyadh
• Founding Day family events in Diriyah
• Najdi food restaurant in Riyadh open after taraweeh

Eid al-Fitr is the first day of Shawwal, after Ramadan, and in 1448 AH it falls on Tuesday 9 March 2027 according to the Umm al-Qura calendar; each country announces it after the Shawwal moon sighting. Its questions start in the last ten nights of Ramadan: Eid clothes and sweets, flowers, gifts and eidiya, who delivers on Eid eve, and who is open on the first days.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• Florist that delivers on Eid eve in Riyadh
• Eid sweets with delivery in Jeddah
• Best children's Eid clothes shop in Dammam
• Restaurants open on the first day of Eid in Riyadh
• Eid offers in Dubai
• Children's Eid clothes in Nasr City

Eid al-Adha is the 10th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the day after Arafah, and in 1448 AH it falls on Sunday 16 May 2027 according to the Umm al-Qura calendar; each country announces it after the Dhu al-Hijjah moon sighting. Its questions are about sacrificial animals, their prices, booking and delivery; about travel and hotels over the holiday; and about restaurants and shops open during it.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• Price of an Eid sacrifice in Riyadh this year
• Book an Eid sacrifice with slaughter, cutting and delivery in Jeddah
• Short trips from Riyadh over the Eid al-Adha holiday
• Family hotels in Abha for Eid al-Adha
• Eid sacrifice in Dubai
• Price of an Eid sacrifice in Egypt

Back-to-school is a season that starts weeks before the first school day, when parents buy school supplies, uniforms, bags and devices, and compare private schools and school transport.

The 2026-2027 school year began in Saudi Arabia on 23 August 2026 according to the Ministry of Education, in the UAE on 31 August according to the Ministry of Education, and in Egypt on 12 September in state and private schools according to the Ministry of Education and Technical Education. Each country follows the calendar its own ministry announces every year.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• School stationery wholesale in Riyadh
• Best laptop for a university student under 3000 riyal
• Girls' school uniform in Jeddah
• Private schools in north Riyadh and their fees
• Best private schools in Dubai with a British curriculum
• International schools in New Cairo

Saudi National Day is 23 September every year, marking the unification of the Kingdom in 1932, and it is a public holiday. Its questions are about National Day offers, discount codes, events and holiday travel, and about gifts and green decorations for offices and schools.

Questions as customers type them on a phone, asked in Arabic:

• Saudi National Day 2027 offers
• National Day discount code for restaurants in Riyadh
• National Day family events in Jeddah
• Hotels in AlUla over the National Day holiday

The seasonal page an engine cites answers the season's question in its first line, with your business name, your city, the offer's dates and its price. The same checklist works for every season in this calendar:

• The season and the year in the title. "Ramadan 2027 offers", not "our special offers". Seasonal questions often carry the year, and a page that carries it answers them.
• The answer in the first sentence. What the offer is, for whom, from which date to which date, and for how much.
• Seasonal hours as text. Before and after iftar, each day of Eid, and the National Day holiday.
• The last order and delivery time. With date and hour, before Eid and before the first school day.
• Text, not an image. An offer written only inside a banner image may never reach the engine, so write it as text too.
• A visible updated date. It tells the engine and the reader that the offer is this year's. Change it when you change the offer itself: one of the questions Google puts to site owners is whether they change a page's date to make it seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed.
• A fixed address you update every year. Rather than a new page each season; if you do not update last year's page, say plainly on it that the offer has ended.

Read the answer's excerpt before the score. An engine may cite a competitor for a few days and then drop it, and the alert in your dashboard arrives only when a change is confirmed, so a short Eid can end before a seasonal competitor holds. A gain, on the other hand, counts at once, because a citation that happened has happened. The full rule is in when we say something has changed.

Read the season's questions one by one, not only through the score. Your site's Tasadr (تصدَّر) score combines your standing questions and your seasonal ones, and adding new questions moves it before anything on your page has changed. What every measurement gives you is set out in how we measure the Tasadr score.

Before you remove the season's questions, write yourself three lines: who was cited instead of you, with which page, and for which sentence. Answer excerpts do not stay with us forever, and next Ramadan is a full Hijri year away, so your notes are what stays with you until it returns. Word next year's seasonal questions exactly the same way, and you will compare season with season.

Six mistakes that come back every season, all of them fixed before it, not during it:

• Adding the season's questions in its own week, with no earlier measurement to compare against and no time for the engine to read your page.
• Planning Ramadan and the two Eids by the Gregorian month they fell in last year, when they move about 11 days earlier every year.
• Carrying the Ramadan or Eid date from one country to another before it is announced there, so your page states a date that may not be your customer's.
• Leaving seasonal questions in after the season, so your score keeps questions nobody asks any more and your balance loses a slot a better question deserves.
• Deleting core questions to make room for the season, which breaks a history you would have compared against months later.
• Putting the offer only in a banner image or a social post, with no page on your site the engine can read.

We have not yet published a guide for each season. Until we do, these guides complete this one, three on questions and sectors and three on markets:

• How to choose a season's questions and add them to your measurement: how do you choose the questions you measure on?
• What an offer page should say before White Friday and Ramadan: how ChatGPT and Google pick an online store to recommend.
• Ramadan and Eid hours on your clinic's pages: how your clinic leads AI answers in Saudi Arabia.
• What customers in Egypt ask, in MSA and in Egyptian Arabic: how do ChatGPT and Google recommend businesses in Egypt?
• Why a business in the UAE needs an Arabic page and an English one: does ChatGPT recommend you in the UAE in Arabic or English?
• When you need a page per country, and how to measure each market on its own: how do you lead AI answers in more than one Arab country?

It does not promise a date that has not been announced. The Ramadan and Eid dates here come from the Umm al-Qura calendar; each country announces the start of the month officially after the moon sighting, and it can differ by a day. Each country's ministry announces the next school year's date, each store sets how long its White Friday offers run, and the Dubai Shopping Festival's organiser announces its dates.

Nor does it promise a citation. Nobody sells a place among the sources an engine cites, and we know of no fixed time an engine takes to read a new page, which is why we say a month before the season rather than the day before. This guide is a calendar and a working method, not a study: it quotes no figures about shoppers' behaviour because we have not measured them, and its customer questions are examples of how people type, not measurement results. The questions we are asked most are answered in the Tasadr FAQ.