Your essential guide to Google Plus - Webfactory

What is Google Plus?

Google Plus is pretty much Google’s attempt at creating a social media platform. It’s pretty similar to Facebook in structure but with some differences. It’s also a lot more content driven as you’ll discover. But regardless of what you think of Google Plus it does seem to have positive effects on a website’s search rankings.

Who uses Google Plus?

There are roughly 170 million registered users on this platform. The average users of Google Plus tend to be young male adults who are pretty technically minded. However the audience is a little difficult to pin down as the platform is fairly inactive. This is likely down to the fact that Google have made having an account necessary to be able to use their other products. For example everyone who has a Gmail email account will have a Google Plus account, and when the log in to check email they will be shown as being active on their Google Plus page, sneaky eh?

In line with its prime audience, the platform is more content driven rather than by images and media like Facebook and Pinterest. It’s more of a venue in which to talk, hangouts being a prime example demonstrating this (more on these later).

Is it suitable for your business?

The answer here is simply yes. Google Plus works with all manner of businesses much like Facebook.

The big thing with Google Plus is the search optimisation value it seems to provide, like it or not, simply being present on Google Plus will likely have an effect on your search ranking. Arguably the more active you are on your Google Plus profile, the better you’ll show in organic search rankings.

How to get started:

• Set up your Google Plus account here, click on to create an account and fill out the information required and simply follow the on-screen instructions. Note that this is a personal profile, which is needed before you can create a business page.
• Next you can find contacts you know by searching email addresses.
• You can also ‘follow’ things you like such as businesses, brands etc.
• Then you can edit your profile, much like a Facebook profile.
• Whilst on your profile, click on the home icon in the top left corner of the page.
• Scroll down and select the Pages option, once through simply selected create a page, this will be your business or product page.
• Select a business category.
• Add some business information, website address, audience etc.
• Customise your page, let people know some more about your company, images to grab people attention and so forth. Also be sure to add links to your other social media platforms to link everything together.
• Once this is done you’re all set to go, get writing some great content and build your following.

Top Tips:

• Hangouts: This is a new feature for social networks and something you won’t find on Facebook, Twitter etc. The feature allows you to make virtual conference calls with video chat with up to 9 other people. You can invite others to join in, a great way to discuss ideas host a webinar and a chance to promote the business and its products. Used correctly, it could offer improvements to your search optimisation.
• Hash-tags #: Much like Twitter and more recently Facebook, Google Plus uses Hash-tags. They’ll help you explore related topics and find similar posts, so use them effectively and make sure they relate back to what you are posting and you’ll get discovered in return by people who have genuine interest.