Posts Tagged Google Plus
Seattle Social Media Marketing – Google Plus
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on April 11, 2014
If you’re like the majority of business owners then you have a Facebook and probably a Twitter, and if you’re on top of things, then you might even have an Instagram. Despite that, only around 5 million businesses worldwide use Google Plus. That may sound like a lot but statistics show that there are over 23 million small businesses in the U.S. alone. That means that less than 1/4 of the United States small businesses are using Google Plus, without even considering big businesses and corporations. Unfortunately, that could be a mistake on their part. Google Plus can be a huge part of your Seattle social media marketing, and you don’t want to miss out.
Google Local
Google Local is a powerful tool that Google offers to Google Plus businesses with a Page. Google Local essentially puts your business on the map in Google Search when you verify your address, sign up for Google Places, and make your page public. So, if you had a coffee shop in downtown Seattle, you would show up as a dot on the map whenever someone searched for coffee shops in the area.
Reviews
Google Pages allow users to review the pages, and these reviews show up in search. If you’re running a quality establishment and you encourage happy customers to go and leave you a review, you could build your potential new customers by increasing user based trust. Reviews show up in the form of stars next to search pages with Google Plus Pages, and you can be sure that this does increase click-through rates.
Hangouts
If you have any sort of product reviews, interviews, chats with customers, or similar that you would like to share on the web, the Google Hangouts give you the opportunity to do so. Hangouts on Air are live video chats that can include up to ten people with a single host, and then afterwards, they are saved onto the host’s page. They also show up in search, so you can continue to benefit long after the Hangout is over. Google Plus also integrates YouTube videos uploaded with the same account onto the same page.
Local Communities
On Google Plus, you can join and build local Communities by joining Communities, Groups, and Events. You can also create any of these that you choose and allow local people to join. Creating events allows you to promote specific items and have them show up on Google Calendar. Creating a community allows you to follow and track discussions, start conversations, and build hype around your business. Creating or joining groups gives you a place to share and promote your content with like minded people
There are dozens of reasons to join Google Plus and best of all, most of your competitors wont’ be on it. However, you can’t expect to join and get hundreds of followers. You’ll have to interact with your fan base, use hashtags, and promote it to your in-store customers if you want it to take off and truly benefit your business. If that sounds like too much work, consider hiring a professional Seattle social media manager to get the job done for you.
Seattle Social Media: 5 Reasons Google Authorship is a Must-Have for Any Blogging Website
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on January 12, 2013
Google Authorship is one of Google’s newer tools for authors, and one of the newest ‘SEO kittens’ available for site owners. With recent and forthcoming updates to Google’s search engine algorithm, Google Authorship is expected to be very important to blogging websites, and an integral part of Seattle social media optimization sometime in the very near future. So what are the benefits of Google Authorship, and how can you utilize it for your site?
Attract More Attention to Your Post in Search
The first and most obvious result of using Google Authorship is that you will eventually see a photo, a small bio, and a link to your Google + directly in search. While this might not seem like much more than a vanity point, consider two things. The first is that the post is bigger than any posts that do not have authorship, this immediately attracts more attention. Second, and most importantly, anyone looking for a quality article can see who wrote that article and that you are confident enough of its quality to put your name and your face on it. Google Authorship has sometimes seen as much as a 30% increase in click through rate based on impressions, meaning that you could be getting a lot more traffic just by adding your name and your face to your results in search.
Increase Author and Site Credibility
Not only are you putting your name on your post, you’re allowing Google to see what you are claiming. Based on your user reaction, the helpfulness and SEO quality of the blog, and of course, the amount of social media sharing you get, Google will ‘remember’ that you post good content, and start placing you higher in search. Readers can also see how many followers you have on Google +, a great indicator as to whether or not you deserve to be read.
Easily Access Statistics and Click-Through Rates
If you’re attempting to track your content to see click through rate, traffic, or even average position in Google search, there is literally no better tool than the Google Authorship statistics. Currently the tool is only accessible via labs (meaning that it may break, vanish, or disappear at any time), but it is well worth your time and effort to check out. Want to see for yourself? Log into your Google Webmaster Tools, click ‘Labs’ and then choose ‘Author Stats’.
Does Google Have a ‘Favorite’ Child?
It has been rumored in the past that Google has a tendency to ‘play favorites’ with its own content, so you might want to consider using Google + and utilizing Google Authorship with it for that reason. Google currently owns about 65-75% of internet search, meaning that of the estimated nearly 300 million internet users in 2012 at least 195 million used a Google search engine.
Benefit Your Local Seattle Social Media Optimization
Last year, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam, talked about how a well ranked Google Authorship website might continue to place well in search, even if the site changes hands to someone who doesn’t worry quite as much about quality. But this doesn’t mean you should start being lax with grammar and content, instead, it means that once you have a reputation, you will keep it for some time. Google authorship allows you to build your SEO over time by simply posting great content and engaging with your readers, customers, or clients. Social activity involving your posts, sharing, number of clicks, and of course, your number of followers will all contribute to your ‘credibility’. With the many new changes to Google search engine algorithms, including the introduction of Penguin, Panda, and Google Authorship; you can’t afford to exclude this great tool from your Seattle Social Media optimization. If you have not set your Google Authorship up yet, you can find out how here.
Seattle Social Media: Four Easy Ways to Get the Most out of Your Google Authorship
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on January 11, 2013
Google Authorship is a relatively simple tool that uses rel-links to create a link back to your Google + profile, adding your photo and bio to the description of the post. The result is that you get a link back to your profile which will mostly help to increase your social sharing, and that readers can see who wrote the post, and how many people are following you. Seattle social media experts, including us, have begun using Google Authorship to integrate social and SEO. If you’ve already set up your Google Authorship, here are a few easy ways to optimize it for the best results.
Use a Clear Head Shot
A photo certainly does not sound like it might be important to a search engine, but in this case, it’s not Google you’re trying to please, it is your readers. While implementing Google Authorship has been shown to increase click through rate on a site by as much as 30% or more, you won’t see good results if you have a bad picture. For example, let’s say you created your Google + one night when it first came out, uploaded the first image you found on your computer and then left it at that. You don’t use Google + so it was never that important. Now that you’ve implemented Google Authorship, you can see a rise or fall in your traffic based on your image. Is it clear, professional, reflective of your business? Chances are that unless you are a professional comedian, you probably shouldn’t be making a face. Instead, try using a passport photo, smile, look professional, and make sure there is enough light.
Interact on Google +
Whether or not you like Google + or just have it out of necessity, you can increase your Google authorship optimization by interacting and engaging with users on Google +. Invite your friends to the social site, chat and interact with them, and always remember to share your content to your Google +. Leaving a personal message instead of a simple share also helps to increase conversion rates.
Check for Links
Did you know that a study last year of each website that had implemented Google Authorship showed that only 9% had actually linked back to their Google + profile? If you link to your content by confirming your domain email, ensure that you also add the site in the ‘Contributor’ section of your Google + profile. You should also use a Google + link using the rel-me and rel-author tags on your site. An author page should contain ‘rel-me’ and each post should contain he ‘rel-author’ in the biographical section of the post.
Set Yourself Up As a Professional in Your Field
Does your bio say absolutely nothing about what you do? If you spent the first few sentences in your Google + profile talking about your dogs, you might want to go back in and rewrite it. Try drawing attention to your area of expertise from the start rather than talking about it later. Google Authorship does not show the full bio in search, so you will be relying on those first few sentences to convince potential readers that you are indeed an expert in your field. Start off with what you know, and talk about your life later. For example, if you were an expert in Seattle social media, you would mention that in the first or second line of the post.
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