Do I Need a Google Plus Account?
There is Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, my blog, my LinkedIn company page and Google+. The list is almost endless. At Placemaking Group, we often hear clients ask: “Why does my company need to be on Google+, nobody I know is using it? I don’t use it, so why should I spend my precious time/money on yet another social media site.” The answer is that your company should be on Google+ at least for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) reasons. (Remember, all social media is a key component of SEO). I recently was checking competitors for a client and found that only educational institutions were showing up on page one of Google for the particular phrase I was researching, with one exception–a post for our client of a video presentation we created for them. This video presentation was shared on Google+.
This caused me to check around and I found that yes, in fact, content created in Google+ ranked high in search results. This occurred whether or not the person conducting the search was logged into Google. (see searchenginewatch.com)
This is a huge advantage for Google Plus users because Google doesn’t include Facebook or Twitter individual posts in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Google actively has its search bots crawl through each post in Google+. This allows for Google Plus content to be indexed quickly. Google considers information on their sites to have more authority than even on your own site.
In addition, I found that MOZ did a study that showed the #2 item for determining a site’s ranking was the number of Google +1s accumulated. This is Google’s equivalent to the “like” button.
Google Plus attracts over 300 million active users annually and the number of US adults who are actively engaged with the site matches those for Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Instagram. But you need a slightly different strategy than for other social media sites.
1. Localization: Set up a Google Plus page for each location. It is easier to be found locally and your page will be included directly in the search results. Also, a Google Plus Local Page can include pictures, reviews, videos and more instead of just an address and phone number. This is a Google page for one of our clients, McRoskey Mattress Company 
2. Make sure the content for the Google page is guided by keyword research based on your SEO competition.
3. Make sure to post information on your Google+ page that links back to your website.
4. Use the preferred types of content:
- Questions receive 188% more comments
- Animated GIFs receive 39% more +1s
- Videos receive 28.6% more +1s
- Quotes receive 16% more +1s
- Images receive 9.4% more +1s
Use Google+ to its fullest potential for SEO purposes by promoting your content and you’ll be ahead of the SEO curve. If you have questions about using SEO and social media together to increase website visits, contact us.
Post by Barbara Irias
