Does Google Plus Improve SEO

Even though Google+ has been around for more than five years, it continues to remain largely not quite understood by businesses as to how it can help them to improve their online visibility. For those who question the utility of adding yet another social media platform to their digital marketing, the answer is a resounding yes. Here’s why businesses should really try and unlock the power of Google+.

Advantage of a Large User Base

Google+ has a user base of more than 540 million and is witnessing a substantial growth rate. Even though there are quite a few other social media platforms that have gained a fair amount of traction in recent years such as Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. in addition to big daddy Facebook, businesses can hardly afford to ignore Google+. With most businesses still not having a presence on Google+, the advantage of having moved faster than the rest is undeniable. You can expect many of your customers to already have a presence on Google+ and your joining it will be a great advantage.

Optimized Pages

Google treats Google+ pages just like any other web page. When optimized properly, these pages will be able to get a fair page ranking because Google will index them too for the purpose of including it in its search results. There is a view among experts in social media marketing in Mumbai that Google+ profiles that perform well are also indexed faster by Google. Businesses should also appreciate that increasingly search engine results pages are including Google Plus business pages. This makes the case stronger for businesses to create a presence on Google+.

Google+ Reviews Advantage

Increasingly, Google+ reviews are being included in the search results of Google. It is quite likely that potential customers encountering positive reviews will be influenced to select your business. There is, after all, nothing quite as powerful as word of mouth recommendations for an impact on traffic and sales. If your Google+ page has Google maps embedded in it, then customers searching for local businesses, especially those using mobiles will be able to locate your store more easily, especially if the page carries the information on the business hours and phone numbers.

Leverage Google+ Ripples

As a social media platform, Google+ is extremely rich in features; businesses can profit from marking their presence on Circles, Communities, Hangouts, and Ripples. The last-mentioned is especially useful for businesses that are small. It is essentially a graph for visualization of data that business owners can refer to for understanding the way in which sharing of the content has been done. With the help of Ripples, business owners can very easily learn more about their influential and enthusiastic followers. Apart from SEO, brands can leverage the opportunity of connecting with the Google+ communities. Each community is focused on a certain subject, and members of the community can post, comment or like the content on the platform and connect with prospects and community professionals. Interacting on Google+ is a very effective way of building brand awareness and promoting brand relationships with customers.

Use Hashtags

Using hashtags on posts made on Google+ enables users to conduct searches for posts of their choice and also helps Google to index profiles for specific hashtags. This makes it easier for businesses tagged with terms specific to the industry to be discovered more easily and quickly. However, unlike Instagram, it is best not to add too many hashtags in Google+ posts; a mere one or two is adequate for the task.

Use Google Hangouts to Reach Out

Small businesses can access the free video conferencing facility available on Google Hangouts to set up meetings with as many as 10 participants that could range from salespersons to vendors, dealers, and customers. Small business owners can also participate in similar Hangouts that have been initiated by other people and make their presence felt with information and opinions about industry trends and more.

Conclusion

Google+ has lots of features and facilities that make it a social platform that most small businesses should participate actively on. With its integration with Google’s search engine, the SEO opportunities are limitless while facilities for community participation and brand building make it a very attractive destination.