Digital
Marketing experts have been septic of Google+ ever since its launch.
With Google’s previous forays in Google buzz and Google wave,
people wondered whether Google+ would crack the social game. Over the past few
months, Google has been steadily integrating the experience with its
other platforms. Here are 5 reasons, you can’t ignore Google+ for much
longer.
Google Local
Search
results on Google now show Google+ pages of the listed websites. For
example, I Googled ‘spa in Bangalore’ and got 7 results from the local
listings- 3 of them had Google+ links showing up next to the listing.
This will definitely build traffic and hence social reviews on their respective
Google+ pages. With greater traction, the social currency of these listings
would improve, thereby leading to a much needed network effect for this social
platform.
SEO
SEO
experts are unanimous in their opinion that Google+ links are positively
impacting SEO results. So if you are want to improve organic traffic, you’ve
got to have a Google+ strategy. There were two developments in the recent
past which are significant.
First,
the new hashtags feature in
search results- you search for #hashtag in the search box and it will display
the Google+ posts on the right side of the screen. It is granted that people
will probably expect to see a Twitter feed there but this does provide some
solution to people’s need for searching for real time news. For e.g. During
Jacques Kallis’ final test match, here’s what the Google news feed for #Kallis
displayed on the right. In terms of real time news, this development was
monumental from Google+
Second,
Content Authorship. Google SERPs
are impacted by authority. Authority is dependent on the author. Google has
provided the opportunity for the publisher to declare the author of the article
via Google+. All you have to do is to link your domain email address to your
Google+ profile at plus.google.com/authorship. Once you sign up, Google
recognises you as a named author. As you blog, guest blog and publish more and
more articles, Google will account for your domain authority and this will have
a positive impact on the SERPs for your articles.
Youtube
With
recent changes, if you want to comment on a Youtube video, you will have to do
this via your Google+ account. The comments will show up publicly or
privately within your circles depending on the commenter’s choice.
Incidentally, this is making some people very unhappy. For most users, they are
signed into their Gmail accounts and hence into Google+. This means that
commenting is not as anonymous as it used to be. If you feel strongly about this,
you can sign a petition against this over here
Picasa
Picture
editing has never been easier. Picasa offers features such as ‘Basic Fixes’ and
‘Auto Awesome‘
. These are tremendously useful for amateur photographers (read – almost all of
us) and the popularity of the platform is steadily increasing. With a one click
share to Google+, picture sharing on this platform is rapidly increasing.
This is sure to attract large traffic as demonstrated by Facebook and
Instagram.
Google Hangouts
This
video chat feature from Google+ is setting new standards for the industry. It
is more intuitive, allows more free participants and has better integration
with apps such as Youtube and Google docs. Since participants have to sign in
via a Google+ account, it is bound to increase the number of users of Google+.
One of the most impressive features is the ‘Hangout on Air’ which basically
provides a free Live video streaming platform via Youtube. It’s simply awesome!
Make
sure you incorporate Google+ in your 2014 digital marketing
strategy.
.jpg){kind=link}