Many of heard of Google+ but few use it. Why is that? Google is usually the creator that conquers, but very few businesses get on Plus and even fewer customers actually use it. This causes business owners to ask – why bother? Here are six reasons that absolutely prove you need to be on Google+.
Google’s Reputation
Google+ is still experimenting with their design and offerings, as well as having some fierce social competition from other platforms. Google has a tried and tested staying power, meaning Google+ will one day be the ruler of the social media world as platforms like Facebook and Twitter lose their relevancy. Since social media is becoming more necessary to marketing every day, it is good to be ahead of the curve.
Local Business Page
When you first set up your page, you will be able to choose what kind of Plus user you are. After choosing, make sure you set up your page as a local business. Labeling yourself as local (even if you serve the country) gives you more search engine visibility and makes it easy for customers to find information about your physical location. This includes hours, address, phone number, and email.
Communities
Much like LinkedIn groups, Communities on Google+ are extremely beneficial to join and participate in. Start or join discussions about topics in your industry to showcase your expertise. As long as you don’t try to sell yourself at all, contributing to valid conversation on these topics will result in brand authority, reputation, and reach.
Interactions
While you may not have a huge pool of potential customers, like you do on other platforms, your interactions on Google+ go a long way for your brand. Target as many customers as you can to comment and share their content. You will also gain an understanding of how your customers use the platform to better interact with them.
More importantly, use your time conversing on Google+ to target influencers. Establish yourself as a credible and knowledgeable brand with influencers and they will return the favor by spreading your brand name. Besides, every interaction you have on Google+ increases your credibility in Google’s eyes, which improves your search engine ranking!
SEO
Google+ is integrated with Google as a search engine and we all know the majority of the internet uses Google as their primary search engine. Even though the amount of interactions from your customer segment is lacking on Plus, Google wants to promote its own products so your page will appear with your website in search engines. Google also considers your brand more valuable and authentic if you have a Plus page, allowing your search rankings to rise.
Keywords
Proper use of keywords throughout your page and on all of your posts will also greatly help your search engine rankings. Google will index everything you put on your Plus page. Once those keywords integrate, your credibility with Google related to those topics will increase (as well as your credibility).
So, the short answer is yes. You should have a Google+ page for your SEO rankings as Google is the biggest search engine platform on the internet. You can also use many of the cool tools Google+ offers in interesting marketing ways.