Google Plus for Business Beyond Social a Must for Any Business
When Google has launched its new social media platform, everybody thought that this was going to be just another attempt to battle with Facebook and Twitter. Now after a few years since the launch in 2011, every business realizes that Google+ is not just another Facebook, it is way more than that, and not being on Google+ means self sabotage.
Google+ as A Content and Author Confidence Rating Platform
There is a lot happening behind the scenes, that Google won’t disclose, but SEO experts have analyzed all of the patents submitted by Google, and found a lot about their long term plans. They are planning to use their social networking platform not only for content rating, and for getting trust signals, they are also getting indicators of the authority of a web writer or a business. Google+ is a way to identify authors on the WEB, to rate and rank them, and a way to enhance the other online properties with this social layer. In fact, a Google+ profile and business page is a way to increase your website’s ranking, your website’s credibility, and a way to interlink various of your web properties, such as YouTube, website, a business page on Google, etc…
Google+ as A Content Rating and Ranking Platform
Google Plus is also a content rating platform, and this works like any other social media signals. The more vote for a content piece, the better the rankings in SERP. This is a very simplistic way to explain it, but in reality things are more complex. The number of plus ones will give a certain signal to Google, but as Matt Cutts explained, it is just a little piece of the puzzle, and social signals need to confirm every year to be taken in consideration.
Matt Cutts explained that Google’s attempts to use Twitter and Facebook signals were blocked, so they eventually stopped using these signals. However, plus ones will never be blocked, so it will always be a measurable parameter in rankings.
Furthermore, the resharing is probably the most rewarding outcome on Google Plus. A reshare is equivalent with a link to the content shared. Very simple to measure. More reshares, more backlinks.
What is very interesting, is that content liked and reshared will be pushed up in SERP for anyone in the circles involved. So Google+ authority extends onto Google’s search engine. If you get a plus one, or even better a reshare from an authority, someone with one million followers, your content will be displayed higher in SERP for that million followers. From that million followers, all the people who engaged with your post will push further your content to their followers. This is probably one of the best ways to market your content.
Google Plus Authorship and Publisher Tags
Google apparently already started to use its social media platform to get important signals about web content. Obviously, this is still a work in progress, and not all content can be rated on Google +, but most content can be rated. Besides the content quality rating role, Google + also serves as a confidence rating platform. Google authorship, implemented through rel=”author“, is one of the ways Google gets its trust signals. The publisher tag is another important trust signal, and ownership verification, and this is specifically meant for businesses. It can complement the authorship tag, and it is regarded as ownership of the web content. If the publisher tag is present, it is assumed that the content belongs to a commercial entity, a business, and the author wrote that piece for the company.
Social Ads – The New Way to Advertise
Maybe it’s worth mentioning here that the advertising giant plans to implement a new way to advertise, and we can call this social advertising. No, don’t even try to compare to what Facebook does with their advertising. In fact Facebook’s advertising is far from what Google plans to do. The way this will work is by pushing ads through social authorities. Social authorities can push ads to their followers, or just ignore them. A poorly conceived advertising will not be pushed by anyone who respects their followers, so there will be a natural selection. If you look at the way Facebook advertises now, it’s just the opposite; they push any ad that brings some money. On the other hand, on Google+ good ads will look like regular content, and users will not be able to distinguish between regular posts and paid ones. Although this looks like something big businesses with serious PR budgets will benefit from, it is also a big opportunity for small businesses.
In conclusion, if you are not already on Google+ you have to be, the game is changing, and the sooner you get your Google+ business page setup, the better for your website.
For a technical person, with some social media experience, this page is a quick start to set up your Google Plus for a Business.
