The Benefits of Google+ for Business

We have said it before and we will say it again....social media should be a major part of a marketing plan for almost any kind of business. When you think of social media, we are guessing your mind goes straight to Facebook or maybe Twitter, but what about Google+? Though it is a very popular site, it has not quite garnered the same attention.

For this reason, many have been reluctant to jump on the bandwagon for personal use, let alone for business. But with Google+ growing in popularity, the tide is quickly turning. The Business Insider recently reported a jump in Google+'s active users. In fact, Google+ is in line to take over Twitter's position as the world’s second largest social media site! When all it takes is a quick set-up of a personal Google+ profile to begin creating and administrating a Google+ Business page for your company, it would be crazy not to capitalize on this opportunity.

Now that we have your attention, we thought we might let you in on some of the unique benefits that come with utilizing a Google+ account for your business:

1. Get Found with Google+ Local. We have talked before about the importance of having a Google+ Local Listing online. Think of Google as a spider web. The more weaves and connections you can make, the stronger the web. If you are found on Google+ Local, there is a good chance that the searcher is seeking more info about your business. Having a full and up-to-date Google+ profile will give them just that, while increasing the chance that they will turn into a customer or fan.
    
2. Engage Using Google+ Communities. Creating a Google+ Community for your products and services is a great way to get feedback from your customers. Any content shared within communities is also indexed by search engines and could help to improve your page rank.Your business can also join other Google+ Communities relevant to your particular industry to help stay up-to-date on industry news and networking events.
    
3. Gain Credibility with Google+ Authorship. With plagiarism on the rise, it is important to claim your work as your own. Google+ Authorship allows you to do just that. By linking your website or blog to your Google+ account, your content will show up in search engines next to your Google+ profile photo. This not only gives your content credibility, but it also means a higher click-through rate, more visits to your Google+ profile, and more traffic to other content authored by you or your organization via the “More By” link which will appear alongside the search result.
    
4. Google+ Influences Search Engines--a lot. Did you know that around two-thirds of online searches are conducted through Google? With this in mind, it should not be surprising that having a Google+ account for your business can give you a bit of a leg up when it comes to SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). Most search engines take into account social signals from social media sites when they crawl the web for information. Since Google is by far the most used search engine, and since it also owns Google+, it makes sense that Google would be able to more easily read and accurately measure social signals produced by Google+ over any of the other social media sites. This makes it possible for Google to tweak their search engine algorithm to better pick up on social signals created by Google+. In short, relevant information within Google+ will be more accurately represented in Google Search, while relevant information within other social sites may not be as easily detected.

Do we have you convinced? Contact Global Reach to take the next step. We offer Social Media Consulting and would love to show you how we can make Google+ work for your business.