When optimizing your site for SEO, you probably concentrate your efforts on Google’s search engine.
It’s the most widely used engine, so that makes sense.
What also makes sense is that Google has a social network (Google+) that it uses to help rank websites.
Google doesn’t do anything without intention. They devised a social network not only to compete with Facebook and Twitter, but to include the information in its search engine ranking algorithm.
This is the reason you need to be using Google Plus, but you need to use it in the right way to gain Google’s praises.
Set Up a Profile
It goes without saying that you need a Google Plus account.
You need to make sure it is complete 100 percent. That includes having high quality images, information in the about sections, and a few posts to get you started.
This is the beginning of the great benefits of Google+. When you include a link to your site in your profile, you immediately receive a backlink from an entity of Google.
You can’t deny that will not affect your ranking on the search engine results pages.
Make Connections
Google+ is a social network.
This means you need to be social and make connections. You might as well connect with people who already connected with on other networks.
That’s a good start and then from there you can make more connections through your content.
Make it easy for people to connect with you from your website. Include a link to your Google+ profile on blog posts and website pages. Post on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn that you are on Google+ to invite people to connect with you.
Post High Quality Content
It’s time to make Google+ work for you in regards to SEO. There are three ways people can interact with your content on Google+.
- People can +1 it.
- People can comment on it.
- People can share it.
When you consider these three ways to interact, which one do you think has the most influence in SEO? If you answered number 3 (people sharing your content), you are right.
It’s not only about more people seeing the content like other social networks. With Google+ it gets more technical.
How much time have you spent on link building over the years?
If you’ve been highly active in SEO, you’ve been trying your best to get high authoritative links through guest posting and publishing high quality content.
With Google+ though, you get a link every time someone shares your post. The more people share your post, the more places the link to your site gets placed – backlink glory!
Does that mean that +1s and comments don’t matter?
Well, they don’t matter as much to SEO, but they do make a difference when it comes to forming a community on Google+.
The more people who like your posts and comment on them, the more attention the posts receive, so the probability people will share it will increase.
Just keep in mind what makes people share posts. They must feel the post will benefit their audience. This is why you need to find out and post content that directly helps your audience and the audiences of the people following you on Google+.
Google Indexes Posts
Google favors its own services. That just makes sense.
That means whenever you post something on Google+, it gets indexed almost immediately. When people search for something that has to do with what you posted on Google+, it will show in the search results.
That means you may receive traffic to your profile, more followers, and possibly even more traffic to your site. Again, that’s the SEO power of Google+.
Recent Changes to Google+ Authorship
Many people thought Authorship was going to have a huge effect on ranking, but that’s over now. It is no longer a SEO tactic people should be concerned with.
Conclusion
Google has provided you a SEO tool. You can’t ignore it. Sign up with Google+ now and start using it. You will eventually see your time is well worth it.
Let us know how you use Google Plus for SEO in the comments below!
