How to Boost Your SEO with Google+
August 19th, 2013 by
A lot of people overlook Google+ when planning a content marketing strategy, because it’s still not perceived as a popular social media platform. It’s true that Google+ doesn’t command the huge user numbers of Facebook or Twitter—but the real benefits of the platform aren’t its social media aspects.
The important part of Google+ is Google itself. With 67 percent of the global search market share, according to the latest data from comScore, the search engine still dominates the market, hands down. And ranking high on Google is exactly what Google+ can help you do.
Here’s how you can improve your SEO by incorporating Google+ into your online marketing plans.
Google+ Content: Search Engine VIP Treatment
Obviously, Google is interested in plugging its own holdings. That’s why content on Google+ is viewed more favorably than other social media content, in terms of search engine results on Google.
Unlike tweets and Facebook posts, Google+ content is treated just like any other web page by the search engine giant. Posts on Google+ are regularly indexed by Google. They are assigned page ranks, and they appear on the search engine results page (SERP) of regular Google Searches—not just internal Google+ searches.
The search life of a standard tweet is 14 minutes. Comparatively, Google+ content sticks around and continues to gain rank, with some content still appearing in top SERP for Google searches more than a year after it was originally posted.
Posting regular, informative content to Google+ helps to ensure that you’re being regularly indexed on Google. To get more mileage, you can link to your Google+ page from your website, blog, LinkedIn profile, and other social media real estate.
Google Authorship: Make Your Search Engine Results Stand Out
You’ve probably used Google a time or two, so you know it’s hard to stand out in a sea of similarly structured search results. Google+ can help you attract more attention in standard searches with Google Authorship.
This service—which, of course, is free to use—provides you with an enhanced search result profile that showcases your headshot, quick facts, other images, and more on the right-hand side of the Google search results page. It’s a real standout option, and it shows up whenever content you claim through Authorship is returned with a Google search.
There are a few steps in setting up Google Authorship to make this enhanced display start working. You can claim authorship for all of your blog posts, as well as any posts or articles you write that appear on other websites and blogs.
To claim authorship for your content, you’ll need to either add your byline and the email address listed in your Google+ profile to all the pages where it appears, or link from your content to your Google+ profile, and from your profile to your content. Then, follow the instructions provided by Google+ to claim authorship.
Stop thinking of Google+ as yet another social media platform that you can choose to ignore—and start thinking of Google+ as the key to building authority, improving SEO, and getting your business up there in search engine rankings.
Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.
