Unearthed: Local SEO Secret Buried in Greece
Northwest of the famous Acropolis in Greece, a secret is buried. The secret unlocks the key to conquering local SEO. Before we get to that, let's review a history lesson vital to our discovery. The year is 1920. Even though computers did not exist, the foundations for local SEO were being laid. The Ottoman Empire is on the verge of collapse. Greeks living in Turkey decide to flee and run back to Greece. When they return, they set up a refugee camp near the Acropolis burial site. The secret remains buried.
The Mission Begins
14 years pass. A man named T. Leslie Shear puts together a team at the American School in Athens. Their mission: excavating old Greek sites. Shear's team squats in the hot Greek sun, pickaxing through endless layers of dirt. In 1934, they make a major discovery. The excavation team unearthed the Athenian Agora.
The Agora was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. Translated, Agora means gathering place, or assembly. You see, the agora was the center of artistic, commercial, and political life in ancient Greece. While people exchanged goods, the number one commodity traded was ideas. Anybody who was somebody visited the Agora. Before phonebooks and the Internet, people discussed the local who's who at the agora. The agora is where our secret to local SEO lies.
The agora gave us insight into the trending ideas at the time. No matter how good you were at something, if you weren't at the agora, nobody knew about you. And therein lies the secret to local SEO: relevant backlinks.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Imagine you own a local business, let's use a flower shop for example in Anytown, USA. While the agora is gone, we still have our city centers, local watering holes, and gathering places. People gossip about others, chat about local events, and share ideas, same as the agora.
But wait, each town has their own unique feel and unique gathering place. So how does the agora principle apply to local SEO?
The answer lies in human nature. After Shear's team unearthed the Athenian agora, people discovered other agoras. While each agora had a unique feel, they all shared certain traits. For instance, they all served as the place to see and be seen. Whether it was commerce, ideas, or politics, the agora served as the spot to seek public opinion. Humans seek the opinions of others back then as they do now.
But how does this relate to search engines and local SEO? Google and Bing cannot listen to conversations. So how do they know who and what is being talked about?
The Digital Agora
It turns out, search engines listen in a different way, using backlinks. More to the point, relevant backlinks. Search engines use the Agora principles by scanning a town's gathering places. Think about it for a moment, what common gathering places does each town have?
- Rotary Clubs
- Chamber of Commerce
- Yelp
Each town, or local area has all 3 of these. Look at Rotary Club's motto:
Rotary is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting change.
The Chamber of Commerce is a free enterprise local businesses resource. It also highlights government events related to business.
Finally, Yelp is everywhere. Recall the last time you went out to eat, attended a social event, or scouted a place to hold a business event. What's the first thing you checked? Yelp. Why? Because we seek approval and validation from others.
These 3 sites are the modern version of the Agora - the gathering place for ideas and commerce. And this is how search engines take the pulse of localities, by using the agora principle.
- Who owns a business in the area?
- Who is being talked about in the area?
- Who is noteworthy in the area?
Search engines use the agora principle to find relevant backlinks in gathering places. Remember, backlinks are digital votes.
If you own a local business, it's time you find your digital agora. Next, find out if you get mentioned there. If not, it's time you found your way on there, and increase your local SEO rank.