Lots of people want to keep the debate going around the value Google+ has to offer businesses in comparison to Facebook and Twitter. It’s true, Facebook and Twitter have already captured the market and if you believe what the media publishes is where everyone is located. If their assumption could be validated it would then makes sense for businesses to invest time and money in these two social media platforms and not into Google+.
Can You Afford to Believe These Figures?
The problem with this scenario is that businesses are only looking at the number of users the media hype up about these platforms and not the benefits which are completely different.
Statistic farming companies like comScore report that 20-billion searches were performed in the month of April, of which 13.3 billion were through Google. There is absolutely no doubt Google remains the number one source on the Internet to search for people, places, products, services and things.
Google+ Late to the Party
There is no argument Google came into the social space late, but when you look back over the pass two years one has to think Google could have possibly planned their late entry into the social space knowing how the other spaces were going to drive consumers batty. It now appears Google knew what they were doing with no jumping on the bandwagon that Facebook and Twitter created. Google is now in a very good position to make a huge impact in the social space by taking away the consumers from Facebook and Twitter.
Over the past two years, Google has slowly been bring more and more information from Google+ generated content into its search results. Most businesses today think putting their product or service in front of a potential 1.1-billion people on Facebook is the only way to go. However, that market is small in comparison to those 13.3-billion searches on Google. Add to the fact Google+ has over 400-million users who are also plugged into all the other Google services as well as the 1 billion videos viewed on YouTube each month. When all is added up a business would be very foolish to not have an active presence on Google+.
But don’t take my word for it. If you are on G+, search your name or business on Google. Scan thru the first two pages of results and you’ll notice Google+ posts are far more prominent than those from Twitter or Facebook.
G+ Reeling In SEO
In many cases these search results happen even if you only use Google+ a fraction of the time you spend on Facebook and Twitter. If you stop and think about how many people there are in this world who use the internet to search for what they want you then can imagine just how powerful Google actually is.
Google’s reach to these people across the world is far greater than Facebook’s. Google’s services offer a wider appeal to a greater audience and they have less chance of becoming stagnant.
Here are some of the benefits of Google+ that are different to Facebook and Twitter.
1. Website Link
On your profile page for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ you’re able to include a link to your website. On both Facebook and Twitter your link carries no value to your website and is merely clickable. Both Facebook and Twitter have added “nofollow” tags to the links whereas Google allows for value to be passed through to your site and Google Search Engine.
ACTION ITEM: Make sure include a link in your website on your Google+ Profile page.
2. Title Tags
When you share something new on Google+, the first sentence of your share becomes the Title Tag for the update. Just like when you set up your Title on a page of your website they appear a certain way in the search results in Google. Title tags are a powerful ranking factor. By selecting your first sentence carefully you have a good chance of having your content appear near the top of a Google search by a potential customer.
3. Index your pages almost immediately
Part of the reason Google launched Google+ was to be able to effectively compete with the real-time advantage Twitter had giving people immediate results. Google therefore made posted content and links that are shared on Google+ to appear immediately in their search results.
The biggest advantage is when someone posts a new blog post about a product launch and want it to appear in Google quickly. Just make sure you share it on your Google+.
4. Your Photo in the Google search results
Updating your “Contributor to” area on your Google+ Profile to show a link to your blog will result in your profile picture appearing in search results. Studies show this increases your potential to get more clicks by people performing searches.
5. Post Links
Google+ allows its users to post links in their updates and does not diminish the value being passed through to the website. The more times the G+ update is +1’d, linked to and/or shared, the more value gets passed through to the website being linked.
If you’re able to grow your audience on Google+ and receive +1’s, links and shares to your updates that contain links, it’s a sure way of getting those links ranking high in the Google search results.
All of these benefits revolve around Google+ content being of more value to a business interested in being found on the internet. Google is obviously putting forth a huge effort to take back control search engine optimization. So far they have done a very good job of making it easy to be found on the Google Search Engine. Facebook and Twitter are OK, but Google+ certainly does offer many more benefits that would be crazy for a business..or anyone…to ignore!
Let me know how I can help.
