How would you like to rank on page one of Google’s search results for one of the most popular search terms in the world? It happened for me…
Are you ready for Google+? Is your business? In his latest book, Google Plus for Business, Chris Brogan talks about how Google is changing the game with their latest step into the social arena.
The book is a great read for anyone – whether you have a business or not. If you’re using the internet for business or just research before a purchase, it’s important to know why you’re getting the results you do when you perform a search query.
Google Plus for Business provides readers with a great overview of the platform – how it works and why, what type of content is most effective, how you might apply it to your own business. And Brogan also includes several interesting case studies in various niches.
Google Plus – #1 benefit:
The number 1 benefit that I can see of using Google+ for your business is achieving better search rankings. I know – social media is supposed to be about providing high-quality content to help your customers solve a problem. I’ve always been the first one to say it. But the real beauty of Google+ is that it can help maximize your business’ potential to rank well in the search results.
In his research for the book, Brogan spoke with Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOMoz. Rand had this to say about why Google+ can improve search rankings:
“…Google+ directly influences the rankings of pages and sites in Google in two ways. First, pages shared on the Google+ social network appear to be crawled and indexed by Google’s search engine very quickly (within an hour, often faster). Second, pages that are 1+’d may appear higher in the rankings to anyone in your Google ‘social network,’ which can include connections from Google+ itself, as well as Twitter, Facebook, Quora, LinkedIn, and others.”
In February of this year Google made updates to the way it shows social results in search. Social search results are now being mixed through your results. That means that when your customers perform a search related to your field of work, it’s likely that you’ll have a better chance of outranking your competitors that your customers haven’t yet connected with. And if you have a Google Plus page for your business, posts that you’ve shared will show up in the search results of people you’re connected with. And they’ll often outrank pages with much higher authority than yours.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Last year I wrote a blog post about LinkedIn company pages, and shared it on Google+. Since then I’ve had several acquaintances email me impressed that I showed up near the top of their search results for LinkedIn. Now that’s the power of Google Plus.
Not sold yet? The other great feature of Google Plus is the profile’s built-in SEO elements. Google+ allows you to include do-follow links throughout your profile. Do-follow links are the hyperlinked keywords that pass link juice on to your own website. The more do-follow backlinks, in theory, the better your site will rank. If you’re providing relevant, useful information to your market, then chances are it will be loaded full of the keywords your customers are searching for.
So while ideally the goal of Google+ (and all social networking) should be to provide sharable content for the people who have you in their circles, don’t forget to think about your content from the search engines’ point of view as well.
The downside to Google+:
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been slow to jump on the Google+ bandwagon. Sure I have an optimized Google Plus profile but I rarely update it, post anything or follow what other people are posting because – let’s face it – none of my friends are there yet. As long as my friends are hanging out on Facebook it’s likely I will be too. I could be way off, but seems that so far the only people on Google+ are marketers.
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Chris Brogan
Chris Brogan is the president of Human Business Works, a media and education company. He regularly consults with Fortune 500 companies including PepsiCo, Microsoft and General Motors. He’s the go-to guy when it comes to social media strategy, and he’s written a few pretty cool books like Trust Agents (New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller), Social Media 101, and his latest, Google Plus for Business.
Oh, and my favourite thing about Chris? He’s coming to Victoria…
Social Media Camp 2012 – Victoria, BC
Social Media Camp takes place June 8–9, 2012 at the Victoria Conference Centre. And while it’s worth going just to hear keynote speaker, Chris Brogan, there are a ton of other great speakers lined up for the event. It will be two packed days of teaching, sharing, exploring and discussing all things social media. Do you have your ticket yet? For updates about the event find SMC on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn.
Thanks to the organizers of Social Media Camp for hooking me up with my very own copy of Google Plus for Business!
