Chris Dickey joined me on the Conquer Local podcast to explain brand visibility, borrowed authority, and why earned PR beats SEO tricks every time.
Ranking on the first page of Google is still the holy grail for local and national brands alike. Most businesses never get there. Chris Dickey has spent his career helping them change that, and when he joined me on the Conquer Local Podcast from Wyoming, he walked through why most SEO advice fails the small business and what to do instead.
Chris runs Purple Orange, a PR agency that has represented some of the biggest outdoor and lifestyle brands in North America. He also founded Visibly, a SaaS startup that turns the process of ranking on search into something an SMB can actually execute on.
The First Page of Google Is the New Storefront
Chris shared a story about a car dealership he had worked with for years. They dramatically reduced their ad spend because they had achieved what Chris calls the holy grail: an organic first-page result on the keywords that matter to them. When you get there, you stop paying for traffic because Google sends it for free.
Most businesses do not get there. Chris put it plainly:
“It is really, really tough to get at the top of search, especially for the keywords that you want to be ranking for. If your own website can rank on page one, that is the gold standard. But for the searches that matter most, you often need to borrow authority from sources that already have it.”
Hyperlocal Is Easier. Competitive Categories Are Not.
If you are a hyperlocal business serving a very specific region, ranking is more achievable. You have less competition and Google favors proximity. If you are competing in a crowded national category, the game changes completely. You need:
- Authoritative third-party endorsements
- Content from reputable publications linking to your site
- Strategic reviews and citations from credible sources
- A long game on content depth, not keyword tricks
Leverage Borrowed Authority
This was the big idea of the conversation. You do not always have to rank yourself. You can rank by being associated with sources that already rank. Chris described trying to convince a long-time restaurant owner to reach out to charities and local press he had helped over the years. Getting them to endorse his business created inbound authority that the restaurant could never have manufactured on its own.
The restaurant owner was resistant at first. He had spent his whole career just opening the door and serving good food. But we all know that is not enough anymore. Search rewards businesses that have been talked about by other trusted voices.
Stop Chasing SEO Tricks
Chris is blunt about the SEO industry. Most tactics that promise quick wins either do not work or actively hurt the site. The businesses that win on search are the ones that do the unglamorous work:
- Publish consistently valuable content
- Earn mentions from real third parties
- Keep technical SEO clean and boring
- Build a reputation that search engines can verify
If you want to pair this with another conversation I had on reputation and search, see my post on how to leverage your online reputation to increase sales.
What I Took Away From Chris
- Ranking on page one reduces your reliance on paid traffic
- Hyperlocal SEO is achievable. Competitive categories require borrowed authority.
- Endorsements from credible sources beat any SEO trick
- Pursue both your own SEO and third-party authority at the same time
Chris Dickey and the teams at Purple Orange and Visibly are doing serious work on one of the most important questions in modern marketing. If you are a small business frustrated by how hard it is to rank, this conversation is the one to start with.
Pull up Google on your phone right now. Search your business. Are you on page one? If not, which authoritative third parties could you partner with to get there?