Meet Google+…Again. Your Website’s New Best Friend.
The good people at Moz released a great article yesterday summarizing a study they performed on the effects Google+ has on search engine rankings. You might be surprised, as were they, to find that +1s from the search giant’s very own social media platform play one of the biggest roles in determining higher rankings.
You might be wondering why Google+ has any significant say at all, seeing as thought it’s not the most popular network around. Compared to Facebook’s 1.15 billion users and Twitter’s 500 million users, Google+ only brings in 343 million users (expandedramblings). Yet, +1s happen to factor into higher rankings more than Facebook and Twitter activity combined. How can this be?
There are a few reasons why Google+ is taking charge in SEO. First, Google hasn’t prevented itself from crawling and indexing its own social media network. Facebook has more privacy settings than we can manage and most of Twitter’s links do not allow Google to follow them. Simply put, the other social media networks out there have all but shunned Google from their user data. This means that as individuals, our personal information is slightly more protected, but it also means that businesses aren’t pulling as much weight through Facebook and Twitter as they thought.
Second, not only can Google+ be fully optimized, but it also gets crawled and indexed quickly. Keep in mind that all those Facebook privacy settings and no follow links on Twitter have a very good chance of never even getting crawled. And once links on Google+ are indexed, they can pass on link juice, meaning the website which those links are pointing to gains credibility, popularity, authority, and eventually, higher rankings.
Now, this is all fine and dandy…if you’re a marketer. We’re completely thrilled by Google+’s new prowess, but that’s just because we now have more tools in our toolbox. In truth, we’ve always had Google+ as a tool, but it finally has legs.
But what if you’re a business owner? What if you have more followers on your Facebook page or Twitter profile than on Google+? Should the strong correlation between +1s and higher rankings mean that you should change your social media management strategy?
While you shouldn’t discard Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, as the majority of your users are already there, you should start integrating Google+ into your daily social media activity if you want a chance at higher rankings. And how exactly do you go about creating a notable presence on Google+?
That’s what we’re here for! It’s our job as marketers to help you understand how to best use this change to your business’ advantage. So stop scheduling tweets for a few minutes and read our tips for maximum Google+ optimization.
The Google+ Guideline: Four Tips For Making The Most of Google+
1. Share Content That Others Want To Share
It would appear that everything in the world of online marketing begins and ends with content. That’s because the Internet runs off of quality content that people enjoy reading, passing along to their friends, and sharing on their own profile pages.
Ease yourself into Google+ but posting at least one interesting piece of content every week. I’m talking about current events, hilarious memes, newsworthy articles – anything that will get your audience buzzing. If you don’t know where to turn to find such engaging content, start with BuzzFeed, Mashable, and Lifehacker. Also, check out any major blogs pertaining to your industry.
2. Curate, Don’t Aggregate
I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it until the cows come home. To survive in social media marketing, you have to curate content, not aggregate content. The difference is in how you share it and what you have to say about it.
Posts on Google+ are treated very similarly to blog posts. According to Moz, each post has its own URL, pulls the first 45-50 characters of the post for the title tag, and can pass on link juice when reshared. Therefore, when you post those oh-so-entertaining or oh-so-thought-provoking links from step 1 (above), comment on it. Agree with it, disagree with it, add to it, question it, just say something.
3. Optimize Your Google+ Profile
There are plenty of ways to turn your company’s Google+ profile into a lean, mean, fully optimized, highly ranking machine (too much?), enough to garner a dedicated blog post. However, here are the most important sections to optimize:
> “About” Section: Anything and everything you write in “About” is searchable. However, don’t spam it with keywords; just give a good description about what you do. Furthermore, this is the section users will be checking out to learn more about your company, so at the very least, make it interesting and easy to read.
> Links: Google+ has always had a handy feature for linking to external sites. For companies, this feature becomes a convenient way to link to your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
> Contact Information: For the love of all things Internet, please please please never forget about contact information. All the optimization and engaging content in the world won’t mean a thing if that user-turned-potential-consumer can’t get a hold of you. So do yourself a favor and just fill out the contact information.
4. Follow And Be Followed
The marketing is there. Moz’s report showed marketers, like us, how important Google+ really is. And we’ll be pulling our weight with informative articles like this one, as well as putting a stronger emphasis on Google+ for our clients’ social media strategies. But it’s also up to you, business owners and consumers, to get on Google+ and actually take advantage of all of its awesome features.
Get a “Follow Me” button up on your website, start following movers and shakers in your industry, and get involved in discussions, communities, and hangouts. And here’s the perfect place to start:
Google+ is finally flexing its muscles and starting to make a real name for itself in terms of SEO. You might have been able to shrug off updating and optimizing your company’s profile page in the past, but now you would be sacrificing vital points towards higher rankings.
How else can you improve your social media strategy? Contact RumbleLink today to find out!
The post Google+ Finally Flexes Its Muscles: A 1-Up For +1s appeared first on .