How To Improve Your Ranking With Google+

By Richard H on 2 August 2012 @ 4:37 PM.

Tags: google, google+, google plus, rankings.

If more people were to realise how Google+, Google's social network, could help improve their blog ranking and the rank for individual articles on that blog, they might be more keen to sign up with the social network and utilise Google's +1 sharing tool. Because these methods only indirectly help your blog's rank, you should still utilise traditional SEO to promote your website on the search engine results pages, however.

Optimizing Your Google+ Page

To get the most from Google+, you must optimise your companies profile page. Your title should include your company name, along with the most relevant industry keywords. You have up to eight words to make your point, so do it succinctly. You can use the same keyword methods when adding your tagline and profile photo, too.

What About +1?

We'd be remiss to overlook +1, Google's answer to the ability to "Liking" content via Facebook. It's influence extends beyond the network, because Google considers +1s when determining rank. However, the relevance of +1 is sometimes questioned, because Google replaces the top search results with social results that may have little to do with the search keywords. As an SEO expert, you're now competing with +1.

Using +1 to Your Advantage

Google's +1 feature isn't all bad, however. If you add +1 to your blog, allowing visitors to show their approval, Google takes note. The SEO result might be subtle, but your blog posts have the opportunity to appears in search results for hundreds of users, when a visitor's +1s appear to their Google+ friends. When people see that their associates find your website valuable, the +1 implies trust and authority.

Google and SEO Strategy

If you've Googled yourself, you may notice that your Google+ profile outranks your website and other social network profiles, even if you use them more frequently. This is all part of Google's strategy to promote its own services. Google wants you to use its products, so the search engine makes it easy for you to take advantage of this move. For instance, you can add a link to your Google+ profile on your blog, which shows your profile image next to blog posts in the SERPs. Sure, it comes with three links to Google's own services, but it does give a content-rich and dynamic appearance to search engine results.

Back on your own profile, the content you create easily appears in multiple circles, something Google has pointed out as much more difficult to achieve on Facebook. Google also indexes the entirety of your profile, while Facebook prevents the search engine from indexing profiles. Google+ offers far more content than the 160-character biography on Twitter to its crawlers, too. With more content to index, it's no wonder your Google+ profile is so visible.

+1s Versus Retweets

For a time, Google used the retweet count to help determine rank. Google quietly swapped retweets for +1s, but Google hasn't entirely forgotten about Twitter. Both social networks contribute to rank, even if Google now favors its own properties, which is why it's so important for you to use the company's services if you're at all concerned about SEO.

Conclusion

By now it should be obvious that you're missing out on some serious sway if you're not on Google+ and you aren't allowing people to add plus votes to content on your blog. Although user adoption for these services has been slow, Google values content on its own services more highly than other services. While SEO experts are torn about the long term effects of Google+, they don't deny Google's intentions, and neither should you. Take advantage of Google+ to improve your ranking.

About the Author

Richard, blogger and SEO consultant. Working as a content contributor for newyorkstatedivorce, a law firm from New York. Likes to help others with his experience in any way he can.

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