SEO in Greece

Greece is located in the southeastern part of Europe, at the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. Its neighbours are four countries: Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. The Greeks have been members of the European Union since 1981 and the Euro has been their currency since 2002. Greece is the cradle of Western civilisation, with a rich cultural heritage and a long history.

Greece has a population of 10.34 million as of January 2022. 82.2% of them have access to the internet (year-on-year increase of 3.5%). The country is nowadays naturally associated with, for example, its tourist-friendly climate. The Greeks stress-free lifestyle is widely known. Greeks know how to enjoy life and savour it every day. They enjoy the moment, they do not dwell on the past, they do not think too much about the future, they lead a slow life and focus on the present.

As far as the language is concerned, the official one is Greek, which is characterised by a unique alphabet that is different from that of the Latin culture. Similarly different from the letters is the Greek economy, or rather its instability, resulting from its financial crises that the countries united in the European community have repeatedly assisted it with. Nowadays, it can be seen that the country is gradually getting back on its feet thanks to its potential, focussing in particular on tourism, shipping and agriculture.

The statistical Giannis Papadopoulos (the Greek equivalent of Joe Public) most often browses the web using a computer (data for February 2022):

• desktop (59.34%),
• mobile (38%),
• tablet (2.66%).

At the beginning of 2022, there were 7.4 million social media users in Greece (representing 71.5% of the total population). Most of them had their account on Facebook (data for February 2022):

• Facebook (86.79%),
• Pinterest (4.61%),
• Instagram (3.71%),
• Twitter (2.9%),
• YouTube (1.2%),
• Reddit (0.37%).

Facebook dominates in terms of social media, thus it is definitely worth creating your business profile there, while conducting SEO activities.

E-commerce market in Greece

E-commerce revenues in Greece reached 3.64 billion US dollars in 2021. Significantly, by 2025 the average annual growth rate is expected to be a solid 8% when compared to other countries. 47% of Greeks bought at least one product via an online channel in 2021.

The aforementioned crises of the Greek economy have made people more cautious when it comes to their purchasing decisions. What does this mean? First of all, they pay attention to price, which, especially online, is easily accessible and simple to compare. This is one of the arguments, along with convenience, why Greeks like to use shops with an online presence.

Greek consumers are attached to local products, especially juices and soft drinks. Unlike the global trend, they appreciate the things they already have and even if these break, they often try to repair them before possibly deciding to buy a replacement. This probably has something to do with the crisis times, including the coronavirus, which have forced some people to tighten their belts. However, the situation is slowly returning to normal, and with it the trust in the sales market.

And when it comes to specific e-commerce companies with the highest revenues in Greece, the list of the top 5 is as follows (data for 2021):

• kotsovolos.gr (USD 181 million),
• zara.com (USD 137 million),
• public.gr (USD 135 million),
• e-shop.gr (USD 100 million),
• plaisio.gr (USD 95 million).

Kotsovolos is the leading e-shop, offering electrical and electronic equipment in Greece, and public.gr has a similar scope. Zara is of course responsible for the highest turnover within the broad category of fashion and clothing.

What, besides price, influences Greeks’ purchase decisions? This is all kinds of coupons and discounts (51.7%) and, above all, free delivery (68.2%)! Local couriers are mainly responsible for the latter. Their share is scattered, as can be seen even in the percentage of use of the top three of them:

• ACS (32%),
• Geniki Taxydromiki (16%),
• ELTA (14%).

Greeks love free delivery, and they check reviews when choosing products, so it is worth taking care of good customer relations, which, in addition to a quality product, testify to professional service and a successful transaction.

Why should you start promoting your business in Greece?

Greece, with a revenue of 3.6 billion US dollars from the e-commerce market, ranks 48th in terms of e-commerce in the world. This means that in this ranking it is behind Peru, but ahead of Romania. Greece’s growth rate in terms of e-commerce has reached 20% and has contributed to the global growth in this area (29% in 2021). It is a market that still has room to grow in terms of online sales. When the country’s economy stabilises, this will also translate into users’ online shopping activities.

Greeks like online shopping, its simplicity and accessibility. They look at price, and free and fast delivery, but to earn their favour, we also have to ensure proper quality. In 2022, the e-commerce market in Greece is expected to exceed a turnover of 4 billion US dollars. It would be nice to capture at least a piece of this lucrative pie.

Link building in Greece

You should start your operations in Greece by building the right URL structure, i.e. without special characters or diacritics. Our experienced Takumi 匠 will help with this, as well as with the subsequent stages of SEO. We will also optimise your website individually and adapt your strategy to Greek users and their preferences when searching for interesting products.

Also important will be the “input” of the site itself, which should not combine two different alphabets. To facilitate the work of crawlers, transcription into Latin can be used, which will result in correct indexation and, consequently, better rating of the website by the search engine. Thanks to our Greek partners, as well as the extensive experience of the Takumi 匠, both link building and the complete SEO activities will be carried out at the highest possible level.