Tag Archives: google

The Google +1 Button – Does it Help in SEO?

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The Google +1 Button

 

Most bloggers use the Google +1 button these days, and most of us believe it will improve our Google rankings, but how true is this?

A recent article in WebPro News quotes a Google representative stating that Google +1s do not have a direct effect on rankings. However, it seems that Google is working toward recognizing authorship, with the implication that the value of those +1s could increase in the future. So, if you’re using them, keep it up.

My own experience has been that my Google Circles keep growing at about the same rate that my blog readership grows. Whether this means anything, or has any connection with the Google +1s, I can’t tell. What has your experience been?

Authorship

Google, apparently, intends to focus more on authorship in the future, by which they mean social signals that tell the reader “this person is reputable: you can believe what (s)he writes”. From my reading of the signals, this doesn’t change the SEO rules in any major way. It does mean, though, that there are some things we can do now to establish our reputation, such as including an author’s photograph and, perhaps, a short bio.

Many of the better, more established authors, such as Kim Castleberry, already do this. I admire the way she includes this information at the end of each post as though it were her signature. The secret is to do this without making a blatant sales pitch: I’m working on it for myself!

I shall be traveling for the next few weeks, and may not have much of an internet connection (if any), so plan to spend some of that time reviewing what I’m doing and improving on it. If you come away from this post with one thought, think “authorship”. Thank you Google, for that idea: it makes a lot of sense!

Please comment and let me know if you found this brief post helpful. I am open to suggestions you might have: learning from each other is powerful. Thanks.

Alan Jenkin

Author

Alan Jenkin has posted to several blogs for a number of years. His subjects include health and fitness, running, personal development and internet marketing. He lives in Texas and has a vacation home in the Caribbean, where his hobbies include boating and scuba diving. He is married to best-selling author Billie Willmon Jenkin.

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Google+ Business Pages

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I just found out that Google+ is now allowing the creation of business pages. Until now, Google+ did not allow you to use its services for anything except personal posts. Their policy change means that Google+ business pages can now rivel Facebook pages – in fact, since you have an ability to target your audience through Google+ circles, they will be even better than Facebook.

Matthew Meyer has written a useful article here explaining just how easy it is to create your first business page on Google+. (If you have not already started using Google+, I recommend that you read Matthew’s article, since he explains how to get started.)

Once you have a Google+ profile and are signed in, you click on the “Pages” icon in the left sidebar to create your business page. Google has made it fairly easy to figure this out, but here are a few pointers you might find helpful.

Which Business Category

Google+ gives you a choice of five categories:

  1. Local Business or Place 
  2. Product or Brand
  3. Company, Institution or Organization
  4. Arts, Entertainment or Sports
  5. Other

Google does a good job of helping you to decide: if you hover over a category you will see a few examples. Check them and see which one best fits you. “Other” is a catch-all in case you don’t see a good match in the four previous categories.

Add your info

In the article, Matthew states:

This is important. Make sure you fill everything out completely. Use your keywords without stuffing. Tell everything about your business, including relevant links. Do not just skip quickly over this section. The information here is what will be used to find you in search. Chances are many searchers will find your Google+ page before your main website so pack this section with relevant info.

First, you will need a profile photo and tagline. Once you have this, you can edit your profile, including as much information and as many relevant links as you can. Finally, you add what Google calls a “photostrip” – five photos that will apear beneath your page name and tagline.

Using your page

Now that you have completed your business page, you will need to add content and “Spread the Word” using the link in the right sidebar. The cool thing now is that you can follow your fans and add them to your circles. If you add them to a circle for each topic they are interested in, you will be able to interact with them in a meaningful way.

At this point I should give you a link to my own Google+ business page, but the truth is that I only just saw the article, so have not built one yet. Let me know if you have one, and let’s share any results or ideas that you have.