Entries Tagged 'Google +' ↓

There is only one thing that’s certain in internet marketing – that Google will constantly evolve.

Its latest change involves the removal of profile pictures and circle count from search results that include Google+ authorship.

The official line is that it leads to a “less cluttered” design, but many SEOs believe the move has been made by Google to protect its ad revenue.

How does that work?

Well, the addition of a profile image next to the natural listings makes them more noticeable than the paid results.

Once upon a time, the sponsored links (paid for advertising) were highlighted at the top of your search results page. Now they just have a yellow “Ad” next to them making them blend in with the other results.

The images that appeared with the organic results made them stand out too much, diverting attention from the sponsored links.

Is authorship still worth having?

I would say yes.

Granted, the addition of the profile picture against search results was definitely bonus, but I still want Google to know the sites that I write for on a regular basis.

I opened this blog by saying that the only thing certain about internet marketing was that Google’s always evolving. Well, there’s a chance that Google might bring in a future update that makes use of the authorship facility once more and I want to make sure I’m there when it happens.

The upshot of this latest update will probably be that fewer people sign up for authorship because the prominent visual incentive has been taken away.

But no one knows what’s going to happen in the future so I’m going to sit tight for now.

What are your thoughts?

Did you sign up for authorship?

Has it made a noticeable difference to you?

What do you make of this latest change?

Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

In my last post I talked about the potential end of the road for Google+ following the recent resignation of Vic Gundotra.

What does that mean for your business?

If you are a forward-thinker and have invested time, money and resources into a social media marketing strategy, where do the rumours leave you?

Well that rather depends on how you regard the platform.

Is it an SEO tool?

Google+ has never been (and is unlikely to become) an SEO sure thing.

Certainly, the public content and links offer potential SEO benefits, but they should by no means be the sum total of your SEO efforts.

One of the main benefits is Authorship that places your Avatar beside your content in the search results, which potentially offer a visibility benefit over the other search results, but that’s pretty much it.

It’s at the core of my social media marketing strategy

Having a business or personal presence on Google+ isn’t going to lead to fame, fortune and a shed load of business.

If you have gathered some connections and used the circles feature to organise them into like-minded groups and customer segments, then your Google+ account will be beneficial. You can send relevant content by email to specific circles, which can prove beneficial.

And, of course, there’s also Google Hangouts, images and post tagging that all help you build your profile.

Content marketing amplifier

One of the great things about Google+ is the ability to add blog length posts as well as just sharing links and images.

As with all other social media platforms, the more you share the more you’ll get back. If you just amplify other peoples’ posts, you won’t be listened to.

So, does it have a future as part of your marketing strategy?

As with every other decision you make, evaluate its impact according to your current needs.

Is it effective?

Are your customers and those who influence them active on it?

Can you create value for those audiences to support your business objectives?

Above all, keep an eye on what’s happening. If there’s a chance it could be shelves ask yourself if there is any point in investing time and resources into it.

And, if you were hoping for significant SEO value boost in the near future, forget it, it’s not going to happen.

Author: Sally Ormond – UK Copywriter at Briar Copywriting Ltd

I’ve spent ages trying to get to grips with Google+

Yes, it’s yet another social media platform to get your head around, but considering it’s from Google it’s got to be good for business, right?

You can imagine my horror after reading a recent report in Techcrunch announcing that Google is planning to move 1000-1200 employees from its three-year-old social network to other divisions (its thriving Android mobile platform) just a week after the news about Vic Gundotra’s resignation, one of the chief architects of the Google+ project.

Techcrunch writes:

What we’re hearing from multiple sources is that Google+ will no longer be considered a product, but a platform – essentially ending its competition with other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Google has apparently been reshuffling the teams that used to form the core of Google+, a group numbering between 1,000 and 1,200 employees. … As part of these staff changes, the Google Hangouts team will be moving to the Android team, and it’s likely that the photos team will follow. Basically, talent will be shifting away from the Google+ kingdom and towards Android as a platform, we’re hearing.

Initially launched in 2011, Google+ has served both as a social network in an attempt to take on Facebook and Twitter and an identity service for Google to track users across services like YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps. The report suggests that Google are now backing away from this original strategy.

Google was quick to deny the report, with an issue stating: “Today’s news has no impact on our Google+ strategy—we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts, and Photos.”

Have your say

I’m interested to hear your thoughts about this, especially whether you’ve found Google+ useful.

Many people have found it confusing and at times clunky. How about you? Are you a Google+ fan?

Author – Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting Ltd

OK, I’ll admit it. Despite being ‘active’ on Google+ for a while, I still haven’t got to grips with it yet.

How about you?

Are you making the most of it?

Probably not.

My lack of Google+ knowledge got me searching for some answers. I wanted to know how to link my Google+ account with my other social media accounts. After all, it’s relatively easy to link the others up, especially with flexible tools such as IFTTT. There had to be a similar solution for Google+.

My search took me to SocialMediaExaminer and their post about 3 Google+ tools that take your marketing to a new level.

For sharing your posts, it looks at Chrome Do Share and Friends+Me. As I don’t use Chrome I thought I’d check out Friends+Me. It is fairly easy to set up giving you different scheduling options, the option to selectively publish posts and it allows the integration of tracking links. The free option allows you to link 2 social media accounts and there are various paid options to link more.

That’s all well and good, but how do you know whether your Google+ posts are being effective? Well, that’s where their third tool comes into play.

Steady Demand provides analytics for Google+. It shows you what’s working on your page, graded using 3 criteria: post length, mentions and hashtags.The pro version of the tool analyses the activity on your Google+ business page.

All in all, these 3 tools will give you the edge when it comes to using Google+ as part of your marketing strategy.

Thanks SocialMediaExaminer, another informative post.

Author: Sally Ormond

For many, Google+ is a bit of an enigma.

They know they should be using it (after all, it is from Google so it’s got to be beneficial), but have no idea how to use it.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger just happens to be in one of my Google+ circles and one of his updates caught my eye.

He was talking about a post on his blog that offers 64 Google+ content strategies through a fantastic infographic, so I thought I’d share it with you here:

The post also offers 10 tips for effective Google+ing, such as:

1. Link Google+ to your blog
2. Build strategic networks with circles
3. Offer live video chat with Hangouts
4. User hashtags to make your posts search friendly
5. Link to your blog posts to rank higher in Google+ and Google search
6. Use ripples to add influencers to your cirlces
7. Write long posts inside Google+
8. Use direct connect so people can add you to circles from Google search
9. Use tags to reach out to people and brands
10. Display your photo in Google search results

Have a play with it.

Like this infographic? Grab a proven framework for content marketing that works from Copyblogger.