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Why Google+ is Good for SEO Marketing

Google+ is just a little more than one month old (on the publish date of this post). I’ve been using the new social networking site everyday and closely following the media coverage. I must admit my enthusiasm for Google+ continues to grow, even if it is currently limited to individuals. That said, there are business marketing benefits today and long term with Google+.

4 Reasons I’m Excited About Google+ for SEO Marketing

It was born as an adolescent…

Since this is Google’s third attempt at social marketing (Buzz and Wave) they’ve had some practice. This time, they seemingly got it right. The most notable and differentiating feature is the genius of Circles. As simple as it is, Circles seals the deal because it emulates real life. Now, when I use Facebook and have no efficient way of sorting through my stream, I loathe it. The result is I’m spending A LOT LESS TIME IN FACEBOOK since joining Google+.

It makes sense…

Circles is a great feature because it makes sense! You probably have friends from work, from school, from your kid’s soccer club, from church, from previous employers, from golf, etc. Google+ Circles allows you to organize your friends according to how you live your life. You can create as many circles as you like and decide which streams (Circles) you want to see when you visit Google+. That just makes sense! But, let’s talk business. Sparks is a great feature that allows me to select the external content I want to see according to any topic I choose. I create the content categories and Google+ finds it for me. That’s an SEO benefit out of the gate! Your content can be found and consumed inside Google+ just by doing the requisite SEO best practices to get your content indexed and displayed. Think about the extended reach that offers your content strategy as Google+ continues to grow.

SEO marketing potential is already apparent…

As mentioned above, I can find your content using the Sparks feature. If you have the +1 button on your content, others can “+1 it” and Google is tracking that. Google is already using +1 as a ranking signal. We can expect the +1 influence on SEO marketing to grow even more as Google+ evolves. Additionally, Google didn’t renew their contract with Twitter for real-time search results. They’ve let us know that they plan to integrate Google+ content into real-time search results. So, if you have breaking news, sharing it in Google+ will get it displayed in Google’s real-time search results.

Forthcoming business features should be worth the wait…

At the time that I published this post Google+ business features are not yet available. In other words, Google+ is currently only useable by individuals.  According to a credible Google spokesperson we can expect to see the business features later this year. I won’t guess when we’ll see them. But, I will speculate what types of business features we might see from Google. Think Google Analytics. Think Adwords. Think Maps, Places, Video. We’ve already seen Gmail integration. While I expect that we’ll see some “me too” Facebook features I’m hoping the game changing features will be around metrics, which is where Facebook is weakest. If you have a Facebook page and you’ve studied the analytics in Facebook Insights, you know how lame it is. I expect the analytics Google will provide businesses will blow away Facebook’s equivalent, thereby attracting more businesses to Google+.

Companies that have been using Facebook for brand marketing have experienced firsthand its many shortcomings. The long term success of Google+ will depend less on how many individuals flock to it, and depend more on how many businesses flock to it. If the much anticipated business features are rock solid, I expect Google+ to explode in popularity with brands and with users.

Don’t wait for the business features to be available later this year to start using Google+ and to start experiencing the SEO marketing opportunities for your content. Start sharing your content in Google+ today. And, create keyword rich content that can easily be found in Google+ by users of the Sparks feature.

If you want an invitation to join Google+ drop me a comment below with your Gmail address and I’ll send you an invitation. Soon enough, Google+ will open up for general availability and an invitation won’t be required.

The video below nicely explains the early differences and long term potential differences between Google+ and Facebook. Although this video doesn’t address business features, it makes compelling points about Google’s treasure chest of assets while giving credit to Facebook’s rapid rise to social networking stardom.

 

What does your crystal ball say about Google+ from a business perspective? Leave your comments below.

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