Gulf buying seasons: when to add Ramadan and Eid 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 rival'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.

Seven seasons change what customers ask in Saudi Arabia, and most of them change it across the Gulf. The Hijri dates below come from the Umm al-Qura calendar and the fixed dates from official sources; we checked them on 26 September 2026. The start of Ramadan and the two Eids is announced officially after the moon sighting and can differ from the calendar by a day.

• White Friday: Friday 27 November 2026, and many stores run their offers for days before and after it. Add its questions in late October 2026.
• Ramadan 1448 AH: begins on Monday 8 February 2027 according to the Umm al-Qura calendar. Add its questions in early January 2027.
• Founding Day: 22 February every year in Saudi Arabia; in 2027 it falls around the middle of Ramadan. Add its questions in late January 2027.
• Eid al-Fitr: 1 Shawwal 1448 AH, Tuesday 9 March 2027 according to the Umm al-Qura calendar. Add its questions in early February 2027, as Ramadan begins.
• Eid al-Adha: 10 Dhu al-Hijjah 1448 AH, Sunday 16 May 2027 according to the Umm al-Qura calendar. Add its questions in mid-April 2027.
• Back to school: the 2026-2027 school year in Saudi Arabia began on 23 August 2026, according to the Ministry of Education, which announces the next start date in its calendar. Add these questions a month before the announced date.
• Saudi National Day: 23 September every year. Add its questions in late August 2027.

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.

Your plan's rhythm decides how many measurements fit in that month. On the Free plan a new analysis arrives every month, so add the season's questions early enough for one scheduled measurement before it starts. On Starter and Pro a new analysis arrives every week, and on Business every day. A new question joins the next measurement cycle, or you measure it whenever you like with the on-demand runs every plan includes.

The order, in five steps:

1. 1A 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. 2The same week: publish your seasonal page, or update last year's, with the dates, the offer, the price and the opening hours.
3. 3A few days before: measure again, on schedule or with an on-demand run, to see whether the engine has reached your page.
4. 4During the season: read the answer text, not only the score, because a short season can end before a change is confirmed.
5. 5After the season: note who was cited and with which page, then remove the questions. Those notes are next year's starting point.

White Friday is the annual late-November sale, 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.

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

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. 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

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. 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 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. 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

Back-to-school is a season that starts weeks before the first school day, when parents buy stationery, uniforms, bags and devices, and compare private schools and school transport. The 2026-2027 school year in Saudi Arabia began on 23 August 2026 according to the Ministry of Education, and each Gulf country follows the calendar its own ministry announces.

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

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.
• 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 text before the score. An engine may cite a rival 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 rival 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 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. We keep each answer text for 180 days, 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.

Five 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.
• Leaving seasonal questions in after the season, so your score keeps questions nobody asks any more and your allowance 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.

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

Nor does it promise a citation. Nobody sells a place in an engine's answer, 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. The questions we are asked most are answered in the Tasadr FAQ.