August 22, 2016
Your digital marketing strategy is built on building visibility online. Whether that is building communities on Facebook, viral marketing campaigns, promoting engaging content or SEO. Everything is about putting yourself in front of potential customers.
Google + is another method of putting you in front of your customers.
But Nobody Uses it
On the face of it, Google + is huge, with over 2bn accounts. However, these accounts don’t necessarily equate to ‘users’ as every new Gmail account is automatically linked to a Google + account. People get a Google + presence even if they don’t want one, and the vast majority of these accounts are never used.
Your customers aren’t likely to be using Google +, but Google does.
Google Uses it
It is believed Google weights its own content higher than content on other networks. If you are on Google + you could benefit from being active on your account in the following instances:
- When someone searches for your company online
Google + profile pages rank higher on the search than your website. If people click through to your Google + page and you haven’t paid any attention to your profile, this will affect the user’s perception of your company and its marketing.
- Active Google + accounts have an effect on SEO
And here’s the main benefit, Google is in complete control over its algorithm and can rank Google + content more highly than other content. A strong, active Google + account could improve your search ranking.
- Google + reviews
Google places reviews from Google + above other review sites such as Yelp. Encouraging customers to review your product or service on Google + can help you leap frog more established businesses, simply because you are utilizing Google’s services.
Getting Ahead of the Game
Google + is important simply because it is part of Google’s service offering and its algorithm uses the content on the service to rank content. Having a strong, active presence on Google + can help you rank higher than more established businesses for search terms, simply because of how Google weights content on its own services.
