Guest Post & Infographic: 6 Ways You Can Use Google+ to Build Authority

November 21st, 2011 by Guest Author

Kaila Strong is an Account Manager at Vertical Measures.

Internet Marketing Infographic by Vertical Measures

Knowing how to build website authority is essential both in terms of increasing traffic and maximizing sales. With the emerging popularity of Google+, just about anyone with a Google profile can utilize the platform to help with building awareness for their website or brand. In addition, with the evolution of Google Pages you can also help build the authority of your website and connect with your customers too!

Here are just a few ways you can use Google + to build your websites authority and connect on the platform.

Google+ Button

Haven’t added the Google+ button to your site yet? Do it! The social network is growing in popularity and should be around for a little while – at least we hope. Allow your site visitors to +1 your content such as blog posts, video, white papers, and even your products. Anywhere you think someone might want to give you props via +1 you should place a button.

Additionally, use Google+ to start sharing your content with like-minded folks. Build up your circles and share your posts to get +1’s too. Share others content and ask others to share yours. Google has access to this information and can see if you naturally receive +1’s on good content. Worth mentioning, many are saying that a +1 on content can get it indexed and cached by the search engine giant much faster.

Google Pages

The announcement that Google now allows businesses to have Google+ pages certainly thrilled many around the web. Share breaking news, updates, promotions, links, photos, and even talk face-to-face with your customers via Google+ Hangouts just like you would do with your personal profile.

First, build your Google+ page and fill out all the important areas. Add photos, video, and fill out the About section. Add a link to your website (do-follow!), and update your status messages regularly. Add profiles to your circle and encourage others to add you to their circle. Add a Google+ Page badge to your site with a link to your profile. Monitor how well your Page is doing through the use of Google Analytics and Google+ search.

Engage

Continue to engage on your Google+ business Page and from your personal profile as well. You might even go so far as making it a company policy to get all employees on Google+ by the end of the year. Encourage your staff to participate on your branded page and with others in your industry to connect with new people. Building up a community on social platforms isn’t an easy task, but with the help of your staff you can do so collectively. You’ll find that over time your community will naturally share your content, +1 your posts, and help increase the authority of your website all at the same time.

As Google + matures and grows in popularity so will the ability you have as marketers to drive engagement and authority for your brand. See how Google + fits into the building authority process? The infographic below shows you just how important diversifying efforts are to building authority.

Examining Ripples

One interesting feature of Google+ are Ripples. “Google+ Ripples creates an interactive graphic of the public shares of any public post on Google+ to show you how a post has rippled through the network.” You’re able to see who publicly shared the post, the comments they’ve made, how the post was shared over time, and statistics on how the post was shared. Use Ripples to examine the who, what, where, when, and why of viral posts. Attempt to emulate the messages that receive the most engagement. Here’s a list of 10 amazing Google+ Ripples to get started.

Extending Network

Use Google+ to extend your network. Sure, not all your friends and connections will be on Google+ but quite a few of them will be – especially those “in the know”. Look to connect with others through the use of Huddles or examine Ripples to see who the influencers are within Google+. Add those folks to your circles and reach out to them, working to add them to your inner circle.  Build up your brands authority by being connected with these folks, or your own authority for being in their circles.

Optimize Page

Don’t forget to optimize your profile and business page. The meta description of your business page is your intro, headline, and name, so make sure to fill them in appropriately. Optimize your Google+ personal profile too with these easy-to-follow tips.

These are just a few ways to utilize Google+ to your advantage and work to build authority. As you can see in the Infographic below, using Google+ is just one of the ways you can build authority.