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Hints to help you get to the top page of Google

How to get on the Top Page of Google!

There has been many statistics which prove people don’t click beyond the first page of Google search results, so if you want to be seen, you need to be in the top listings on first page. To do that, you need to learn a bit about how search engines work and how to optimise your site, more commonly known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Once the search engine knows your site exists, they scan your site and index the information, then analyse the content to determine how and where your website should display on the results page. If your site isn’t optimised, then it won’t rank well at all, and could end up well below your competitors.

Some Key Elements to Help Increase Your Rankings:

Each search engine has its own set of rankings and listing criteria, but they all work the same way, let’s look at the same basic elements.

Keywords – These are select words and phrases that someone would use when searching for your product/business. You want to choose 5 to 10 words or phrases that best represent your product/business, then use those words and phrases frequently on your site (but only where it makes sense — whatever you do, don’t cram them in because Google will know).

Title Tag – The title tag is a short summary of what potential customers can expect from your page. It displays in a few important places, including the browser’s title bar, and as the title for your listing in search engine results. If you target a specific audience, possibly consider including that in the title, like “motorcycle accident in Arizona.” It helps if each page on your site contains a unique title, but keep it concise — around 65 characters.

Description Tag – The description tag displays below your website’s link in search results and should entice people to visit your website. Every page in your site should include a unique description using the keywords for that page. Keep your descriptions less than 250 characters and avoid non-alphanumeric characters.

Header Tag (H1 Tag) – Every page in your website should include only one header tag. It doesn’t display in the search results, but it’s the largest or most prominent text on your page. The header tells a visitor what they’re reading. Keep it brief – no longer than a short sentence.

Page Content – Your content, the text that your visitors will read, is really important for search engines. Use between 350 and 650 words, including those keywords we mentioned above, one good thing is to bold each of the keywords once on the page. And always make sure everything on your site is original material, do not copy and paste from other competitor websites. Google will know.

Interesting Fact: Google can tell (and will probably penalise you) if your content has an excessive number of keywords.

Link Building – Links can be a big factor in how search engines rank your site. There are two: interlinks and back links. Interlinking is creating a link from a keyword or sentence on one page to another area of your website. For example, the sentence “Find an lawyer near you” would be linked to the list of office locations on your site. A Back link are other websites that link to your site. Google weighs this more heavily when determining your site’s rank, and unfortunately these are more difficult to achieve. An easy ways to create back links are listing your business with online directories (such as Yelp, TrueLocal and social media). You could also contact other business owners online in your area of business and offer them a link exchange.

Menu Navigation – Navigation refers to all the links on your website. Visitors and Google both rely on good navigation to get around your site. Broken links are like hitting a wall, so be sure to check your links regularly and make sure they are all working.

Sitemap – A sitemap is essentially the map of all the pages in your website. Sitemaps will guide a search engine throughout your website with the names and locations of pages. They can speed up indexing and, in some cases, increase site traffic by indexing previously buried pages.

Image Tag – Images are good to break up the text and add a visual appeal to your website. Be sure to include an image on every page, and format it with an “alt” attribute using those keywords we mentioned. Because search engines can’t see images the way we do, they depend on alt attributes to appropriately catalog and index the image.

Tip: Optimising your images, so the file size is smaller and the image loads faster, can also help your search rankings.

May 20, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

How to get to the top of Google rankings

We have all heard the phrase “Location, location, location!” in real estate. This also applies to your search engine ranking for your website — the higher your site is listed, the more traffic you get. Getting to the top of Google is what every business wants to achieve. And there are some simple steps to getting your business high up the Google rankings. And it’s possible to do it without spending a dollar.

Here are some of our tips:-

1. Understand what the demand is for your product

First step is to spend some time understanding what your customers are already looking for, and then align your services and content around that. Google’s Keyword Planner & Google Trends are free tools to use, and will give you an idea of what people are searching for online. If you can place a search box on your site to help you discover what your customers are looking for.

2. Prioritise key words for your website

Think about how relevant the key word term is, and how you can best compete with other online businesses. For example, we target the term “graphic design adelaide” rather than just “graphic design.” Despite having far fewer searches, this keyword is far more likely to convert to a lead, also because targeting a location helps better narrow down a potential customer finding you geographically.

3. Keep your site with good internal linking

This helps Google understand what pages are important for your’e site, and will allow users to find helpful content. And there are many tools online to help you spot and fix code errors, one example is the IIS Toolkit.

4. Track everything – for free

There are a number of tracking tools available to help you understand how well you’re doing online. Google Webmaster Tools will give you an indication of exactly what Google sees when it visits your site. Factors such as site speed, 404 errors, broken links and site significance are all listed here.

5. Ask others to link to your site

Make a list of the people your business deals with on a daily basis and then ask them to link to your site, pointing out the fact that your site ranking well will also benefit them. Also try searching your own brand name online to find people who already talk about you, then ask them to add in a link. Another easy win is to submit your site details to relevant directories.

6. Get your business out there

Get involved with your customers on social media. Share your insights and thoughts with your market to show search engines you’re an authority in the space. Not only will this give you an advantage over competitors, but it will encourage your customers to recommend you on social networks, or write positive reviews online. Google considers all the signals it can when ranking sites, so the more you’re doing, the better.

7. Organic vs. Paid Listings

You can attract visitors to your site a variety of ways, but one of the most effective ways is being listed at the top of the “organic” search results on search engines like Google and Yahoo! Unlike paid listings, which are advertisements that display in sponsored areas, organic results are free and based on, among other things, the site’s content and how closely it matches the keywords being searched.

See You At the Top.

Search engine optimisation can have a large impact on the success of your business online. The good news is that with the tips presented in this blog, you have the basic steps you need to get started. Take a little time to tune up your site and watch your customers grow with your search results.

May 12, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

Mobilegeddon Google is here!

Mobilegeddon Google is upon us! Run for the hills.

Google next big update is going to target non-mobile friendly sites and is expected to roll out April 21, 2015, and roll out for a few days to a week.

This is a big one, and could affect a large portion of your web traffic and seo results.

In the last few years, mobile traffic has increased dramatically. It’s speculated that more than 50% of Google searches are performed on mobile.

Even Google is saying this update is going to have a bigger effect on search rankings than Panda or Penguin, the biggest updates Google has ever launched, as quoted by a member of Google’s Webmaster Trends team, Zineb Ait Bahajji at SMX Munich.

The problem is many sites are not responsive, meaning that they were only built for desktop computers and are hard to navigate on mobile devices.

Google doesn’t want to serve up results that are not mobile user friendly, so they are implementing a new algorithm change to demote sites that aren’t usable on phones and tablets.

Google has officially announced the update and it’s coming on April 21, 2015 so you still have time to prepare your site.

Google has said there is no degree of mobileness, it’s either yes or no.

Test it for yourself by clicking on www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly and if you’re concerned we’ve got a fantastic ‘mobile friendly’ website package available.

If your website isn’t responsive, call Spiros on 0431 926 575 or email us info@designlab.net.au .

If your website is responsive, relax and pour yourself a cup of coffee and grin:-)

April 24, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

Content is King #5: How to Use Google+ for SEO Boost

Compared to other social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Google+ often is mislooked when it comes to creating online marketing strategies. This is because Google+ does not have as many users as the other larger social platforms.

But, while Google does not command as large a slice of the social media pie, it does have a lot more elements that provide your business more value than say Twitter or Facebook, especially when it comes to increasing a website’s organic SEO traffic.

Here are a bunch of ways you can use Google+ for an SEO boost for your business.

#1: Personalised Searches

One of the most individual ways that Google+ helps businesses with their organic rankings is through a personalised search. Simply put, personalised search takes place when a user is logged into their Google account and as a result they see different results compared to what people would see when they are not signed in. This is because Google logs a user’s preferences when they sign into a Google account and tries to rework search results based on these preferences.

There was a study researched by Eric Enge in 2013 who found that some webpage results can be lifted higher for individuals that follow a user or business on Google+. This is because Google recognises a user’s preference for that particular business, or author and wants to display those subsistence higher when a query is typed into Google that already was answered or discussed by that business or individual.

#2: Google+ Local

Google+ local is Google’s social integration of a businesses into it’s social media platform. It can be very useful to set up a Google+ local profile page so you can get added exposure. When a user types in the name of the business or the services that the company offers, it triggers a knowledge graph that pulls data from the Google+ local page and adds it to the search results.

Service/Product Results
When a user types in the name of a service that is viewed to be geographically important to the user, Google will implement knowledge graph listings below search advertisements in the results page. If you hover over a particular business, it will set off an additional knowledge graph that overlays in the right trail of the search result page.

Brand Search Results
When a user types in the specific name of a company it triggers another knowledge graph. The information that is shown in a brand knowledge graph is more detailed than a service/product knowledge graph.

With brand knowledge graphs, the user will be able to see a Google+ profile picture of the company, or, if Google already has a picture of your picture in its database, it will show a map of where the business is, reviews from users, and business details like address and a phone number. All of this is all pulled from information on the Google+ business page.

#3: Indexing

Unlike other social networks like Twitter and Facebook, Google+ has their search bots crawl through each article / post in Google+. This keeps for content that has been posted on here to be discovered very quickly. In the same study by Eric mentions how he has witnessed his content being indexed faster by Google when he posts it into Google+.

Sometimes Google will index content 1-3 days more quickly if it is posted in Google+ right after launching the article on my client’s websites, but other times it doesn’t work.

#4: Google+ Ranks Your Social Media Posts

Not only is every post on Google+ crawled by it’s bots, but it is also indexed and then ranked into the search results pages. This helps in extending the value of each of your posts, and then makes it more important to get right. Google has ranked other social networking pages previously in the past but these are mainly just community and profile pages, not actual posts.

One advantage is there is no character limit on Google+ posts, so you can easily re-post your current website content, then post it on your Google+ profile page under a related keyword, and have the ability to rank twice on the same topic. How great is that!

#5: Gets Your Web Content Viral Quickly

Google+ may not be the biggest social media platform yet, but it’s network has some of the best engagement on the world wide web. This is true for webmasters and content writers that use Google+ communities to heighten their work and network with professionals.

Connecting with people and using Google’s advanced capabilities to share posts to certain audiences could be your best shot at using social media to market content to contributors, bloggers, and webmasters who then pick up and share the content on their websites.

#6: Keeping Up with SEO Best Practices

The world of SEO is always changing and it’s real important to keep up-to-date as best as you can on the latest news, trends and tools. Although Google+ may not have as many users as other social networks, it does have one of the most active communities on the web for SEO professionals, so do we need to say more.

From social communities like Technical SEO that has SEO pros and webmasters actively helping each other through optimisation issues, to Google’s own John Mueller, who is in charge of webmaster relations at Google, doing regular Google+ Hangouts to answer webmaster questions is one of the best ways to keep track of SEO best practices.

#7: Google+ Hangouts

Online videos have become very valuable to SEO these days. With Google+ Hangouts, recording and uploading an online video has never been so easier. Google+ Hangouts is a live video streaming utility and recording service where you and other Google+ users can get together to talk about topics, or have meetings. Best of all, it’s a completely free tool! Although the actual videos do not show up in the search results, you can still rank the actual post containing the video and automatically transfer your Hangout video to YouTube to get it ranked that way.

#8: Author Rank

Last year Matt Cutts, head of Google’s search spam team, mentioned of an intention for Google to start recognising authorities on certain subjects. In a video Matt recapped that intent and even added that Google will begin to rank pages based on that authority. Though it is unlikely that Google+ will be the only way that Google determines authority based on a user’s popularity within the social network, it is very likely Google+ will be tied into the algorithm somehow based on its current features and capabilities.

#9: Rich snippets

Another way to get recognised by Google+ is impacting search results via Authorship and Publisher rich snippet markups. By entering code to your website then linking to a website on your Google+ page, webmasters and writers have the capacity to integrate Google+ information like author name, Google+ follower count, and profile picture into the search engine results page.

Summary

As you can see that it is really important all businesses make the time and effort to register a Google+ page, it adds value to your online marketing and helps boost SEO. At DesignLab we now offer creating Google+ pages for all our customers, because we feel it is an important step to getting more hits.

April 15, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

Content is King #4: Can Online Reviews Impact Your SEO

I guess that you’d would stand up and either pat yourself on the back if your business has a strategy already in place for getting reviews and managing your online reputation.

Online reviews are important for a number of reasons, and have significance through their ability to affect:

Your rankings in search engines
Which search results actually gets clicked on
Consumers purchasing decisions

This means reviews online as critical to your SEO as building reference and on-site optimisation.

How Do Consumers Use Online Reviews?

Before I get started about data surrounding and how online reviews are used by consumers and how it impacts their decision, it’s vital to consider where it all fits into the purchasing cycle for services and products.

Usually, by the time someone has started looking at a review, they’ve already know their needs/wants, how a business might fulfill that need/want and are now are ready to select a business.

The important thing to now is that the mental gap between reading a review and making a decision to purchase from a business is very small, and results in a yes/no decision almost straight away. So as a small business, your reputation online can directly influence your business.

But, how many people actually read reviews? According to a survey conducted by BrightLocal, roughly 83% of consumers reported reading online reviews.

But, how many reviews do potential customers they read before making up their minds? The survey also has an answer to that. About 65% of consumers will read 6 reviews or less before they form an opinion about a given business.

Meanwhile, another survey conducted by Dimensional Research found that 90% of their respondents claimed that positive online reviews influenced their buying decisions, while 86% had responded saying that negative reviews impacted their decisions.

Hopefully this helps you understand at least from a customer’s perspective how important online reviews are in helping push their purchasing decisions.

Why Reviews Matter For SEO

All search engines love online reviews for one reason, customers love online reviews. They are in business of providing consumers on the go or at home with the most accurate information to help them make decisions around their purchases. The faster you do that, the more customers will turn to them time and time again. Have a look at the below screenshot of results from Yelp for the keywords “boutique fashion Toronto.”

According to MOZ’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, reviews make up 10% of how Google decide to rank search results. Here’s chart they provide to break down the different parables:

Preparing a Review Strategy

Before you start on creating a review strategy that works for your business, it’s a good idea to have some thoughts on which review platforms would work best for you’re business.

To figure out that, start by going to Google and doing the following search, “[Industry] + reviews” and see which sites pop-up on the first page. For example, have a look at what shows up for “shoe store reviews”:

Something else you can do is click over the leading search results and you will see two arrows pop-up that help you to open up what Google refers to as the “Knowledge Panel” for that business and look at the sites listed under “more reviews.”

Something else to keep in mind before we show how you can obtain more reviews is understanding the different review policies all platforms have that you should stand by. For e.g. Yelp forbids any small businesses from approaching online reviews and will act quickly if it detects something off. Meanwhile, other platforms don’t really have any issues with businesses making the ask.

Here are some review guidelines for some of the most critical review platforms:

Once you’ve had a look through, here are some hints and tips to help you start:

Use this “Review Handout Generator” by Whitespark and Phil Rozek that helps you create handouts for clients to give clear instructions on how they could leave you a review on Google.
Link to your review profiles from your website.
Create a Google+ page and invite customers to leave a short positive review.
Create print or digital materials that list all the different sites customers can review you’re business.
Request a “Find Us on Yelp,” if you haven’t gotten their “People Love Us On Yelp” sticker.

We hope this has helped a little in understanding the importance of online reviews.

April 8, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

Content is King #2: Is SEO Dead?

SEO isn’t dead; it has evolved and now requires descriptive keywords, as well as engaging content to help your online marketing succeed.

Quality content is very important when it comes to today’s marketing online. But it hasn’t replaced search engine optimisation (SEO). What has happened is that SEO doesn’t work without good, quality content. Your website and its content still needs to include rich keywords that your target market uses to search for your services or products, but stuffing your pages with keywords will see your page penalised by Google, which means it will rank low.

What we really should title this blog is: “Keyword Stuffing is Dead, Long Live King Content!”

Search engines i.e. Google, look for content based on the words the online user enters and then returns what it thinks deems most relevant in the search results. These results are still based on programming and algorithms.

So to optimise your website’s, you still need the proper keywords as well as engaging, well-written, well-researched and informative content. But, you can’t just write great and informative content, with a few keywords and hope for the best.

What you need to do is create content that converts your readers into actors, readers that do something, react to your content. Some ways are to make them to sign up for your newsletter or download your free e-book, in exchange for giving you their e-mail address so you can send them newsletters, and possible marketing e-mails. They could share your video from their social media sites, so that you can hopefully reach more people and possibly get more followers. They may even – buy from you.

Here are some ideas to get your customers to act:

Have you ever though of going back through some of your old posts and see if you can re-link them to newer posts. (This is best to do this with your most popular older posts). Doing this can help your readers of older posts read newer posts, plus Google really loves it when inside links do this.
Look carefully at your calls to action headlines. Check to see if any links are getting clicked on. Then possibly tweak the calls to action of those pages where the few people act.
Your page load should be no more than three – four seconds. These days people have exceptionally short attention spans. If you want people to click a link on a page or give you their e-mail, they have to stay on your page. “Long” loading time means people could leave your site.
Use your old content in new ways. Take your posts and maybe turn them into an e-book, or any case studies. If you have a long post on an interesting topic, think of re-writing it into two or three posts.

SEO isn’t dead. It’s just changed. For the better we think. Google has forced marketers and SEO companies to do what they should have been doing from the start: provide engaging, informative, and trustworthy content.

March 18, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

Content is King #1: Video – The future of content marketing

There is no doubt Content is King! Are you stuck for ideas and content for your online platforms?

Whether it be updating your blog, creating new Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram posts or LinkedIn updates, just to name a few, we have learned in conversations with our clients we have learned that coming up with content is one of the toughest (and most time consuming) aspects of online marketing.

For the next couple of weeks we are going to write a different blog to help you, and our clients in learning about writing quality content for their website. This week we are going to look at how video can really boost your SEO performance.

Let’s begin…..

Not only did video kill the radio star, it’s now aiming for online marketing. Already a key entertainment and information medium, studies predicts video will account for 75 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2018. Video IS the future of content marketing, and the future is now. This now means it’s no longer a luxury, but more of a necessity for all businesses to include it in their marketing strategies i.e websites, Facebook, Twitter, etc .

Here are some more reasons why your business needs videos:

Effective information tool

Constantly writing content is unavoidable these days. This means you have to hit the nail of the delivery if you want your message to stick. Video makes that much easier. 85 percent of Internet users remember watching a video in the past month.

Perfect for decision making

Potential customers don’t have time to look through heaps of text. They want to know what is important so they can make their decision and move on to the next. According to Forbes, 75 percent of executives will watch work-related videos at least once a week. And 65 percent visit the marketer’s website after viewing the video.

Powerful reach

Content marketing’s purpose is getting a message in front of your potential audience. And video is the quickest way to get your message in front of as many people as possible. Video content gets shared like no other, with audiences larger than any other. YouTube alone receives more than 1 billion unique visitors every month. You won’t reach everyone, but with the right content, you can reach the right audience for your business. The goal is to create something that your viewers will want to share with their friends or customers. Engage viewers and they will engage others, fueling organic and meaningful brand interaction.

Quickly establishes personality

Your website should display personality and culture, but it probably takes reading through a few articles and a handful of posts before your customer gets a good sense of what you are about. Most people don’t have the time these days. But with video, it’s immediately laid out in front of their eyes. The script you use, the way it’s shot, the aesthetic you promote — it all reflects your company’s personality and culture in a matter of seconds. And if folks like what they’re seeing they’re that much more likely to invest elsewhere in your website.

Made for mobile platform

Worldwide, more users access the Internet via their smart phone than any other kind of device, and that gap is likely to grow. So, clearly, the content you produce should be made for mobile. Today’s consumer is an impatient bunch. With video, all you have to do is hit play. You can consume on the move, pause if you need to, rewind if you want. Exactly the freedom you want on your mobile device.

March 11, 2015 admin Google, SEO, Video Production Comments Off

SEO Strategic Plan

We have plenty of clients come to us and ask us ‘how can we make their website rank on the 1st page of Google’. First thing is first, any successful project starts with a plan. We call it a SEO Strategic Plan. We sit down with our client and ask a series of questions which help us determine what content and action plan we can create to help them rank in a good spot on Google.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is often about making small modifications to parts of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like improvements, but when combined with other optimisations, they could have a noticeable impact on your site’s user experience and performance in organic search results.

We recommend that you should base your optimisation decisions first and foremost on what’s best for the visitors of your site. They’re the main consumers of your content and are using search engines to find your work. Focusing too hard on specific tweaks to gain ranking in the organic results of search engines may not deliver the desired results. Search engine optimisation is about putting your site’s best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but your ultimate consumers are your users, not search engines.

The below Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) customisations will be help your site. Following the best practices outlined below in this post will make it easier for search engines to crawl, index and understand your content.

Create unique, accurate page titles on all your pages – a title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is.

Make use of the “description” meta tag – a page’s description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about

Improve the structure of your URLs – simple-to-understand URLs will convey content information easily.

Make your site easier to navigate – the navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important.

Create HTML and XML sitemaps on your website – a simple site map page with links to all of the pages or the most important pages on your site can be useful. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps ensure that search engines discover the pages on your site.

Write better anchor text – anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link. The better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you’re linking to is about.

Optimise your use of images – We will optimise your use of them. All images can have a distinct filename and “alt” attribute, both of which you should take advantage of. Media assets influence search rankings – i.e. photos, videos are all great ranking material.

Use heading tags appropriately – heading tags to emphasise important text. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with <h1>, the most important, and ending with <h6>, the least important (1).

Make effective use of robots.txt – tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site.

Outbound links – Make sure all outbound links in site are not named ‘Click here’ or ‘For more info’, but are named after your keywords.

Create profiles on all small business directory sites – Such as Yelp, True Local, Yellow and White Pages. It is very helpful to fill them with as many videos, photos and reviews, this helps your ranking.

Use reviews – the profiles are so powerful, everyone is comparison shopping, so it’s important to generate positive reviews.

Google’s Webmaster Tools – this helps you better control how Google interacts with your website and get useful information from Google about your site i.e how many people are linking to your site, HTML problems, how fast your website is, keyword research tool and much more.

Google Analytics – provides information on traffic and tracking information, i.e. bounce rates, website statistics, average visit duration and much more.

Google Keyword Suggester Tools – focuses on correct keywords for your business by identifying what keywords your site ranks for.

Create a Google+ account – content posted on Google+ is crawled and indexed far quicker than on competitor sites. The most straightforward way Google+ impacts search rankings is with personalisation. For example, if someone is following you on Google+, the chances that they will see your posts in Google’s search results go way up.

Google AdWords – is a system Google has developed to assist you in marketing your products or services in the Google Search Engine, and its affiliate sites, via the use of a placed text ad that appears when people search for phrases related to your offering, this appears as a “sponsored link”. We will help set-up your account and create the first ad.

WordPress SEO Plugins

Yoast – The most complete SEO plugin for WordPress available today offers you everything you need to optimise your site.

Google XML sitemaps – A plugin that generates a sitemap of your site which makes it much easier for search engine bots to review your site, which is important for SEO. Another feature is that it notifies major search engines when new content is added.

Super Cache – Speeds up your site, one of the things Google looks for is a fast loading site.

No Ping Wait – Every time you publish a post, it pings the internet which means you can be found quicker.

Recommendations

Google is creating new algorithms all the time. Search engines are constantly changing and evolving; they are consistently refining their techniques and algorithms to supply the best, relevant results to your searchers. That is the reason why we stress to our clients that SEO should be considered a marathon instead of a race to the finish line. Using legitimate and effective SEO strategies will deliver more impressive and lasting results.

Once we handover your website we highly recommend to stay ahead of your competitors you must continue to do the following outlined below:

Ensure you write unique, valuable and relevant content for your site, it will increase your chances ranking higher than your competitors. You must make sure to use your targeted keywords in the content. Around 400-500 words per page is what Google prefers.
Consistently update your website and your Google+ account for better SEO ranking.
Social media – lots of tweets and posts to show Google your business is popular and active.

February 18, 2015 admin Google, SEO Comments Off

21 Simple Ways to Get More Followers for Your Google Plus Business Page

Google Plus Business has more than one billion registered (and 359 million active) users, as well as some of the most business-friendly features of any social network, this is the time to start building out your business page, if you haven’t done so already.

As additional incentive, Google Plus has been shown to dramaticallyimprove search engine rankings, which, in itself, is a sufficient reason to join the platform. By building your brand through this social media channel, you will be able to boost your SEO efforts and increase your business’s online exposure.

So, let’s jump in and take a look at some of the awesome ways to increase your exposure on Google Plus.

21 Simple Ways to Get More Followers for Your Google Plus Business Page

1. Create a Personal Profile In Addition to Your Business Page

Use your personal profile to build and reinforce your business brand.

Just because getting followers for your business page is the ultimate goal, that doesn’t mean you should stop using your personal profile altogether. In fact, your best bet is to use both your personal profile and business page in tandem, as this will allow you to improve your personal and business brands. With the potential influence of Google Authorship in SEO, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ensure your personal profile is a strong one.

Two of the best examples of people who use their personal profiles for business are Mark Traphagen and Martin Shervington.

If you take a look at their profiles, you’ll see that, while the profiles are all about them personally, each post and conversation they get involved in helps to increase the brand awareness of their particular employer or business.

2. Treat Your Google Plus Page Like a Micro Blog, and Post Valuable Content

Don’t just comment and Plus One the content of others. Post your own engaging content.

Make sure you are updating your Google Plus page on a regular basis. The content needs to be exclusive, valuable, and compelling, both in terms of visuals and substance. Knowing that Google Plus posts are searchable, you should treat them like a micro blog (and a very powerful one at that). For your business page, you should keep the content strictly on topic, but you can use your personal profile to post content on other areas of interest.

3. Add Relevant People and Businesses to Your Circles

Follow people and businesses you are interested in, and many will follow you back.

Unlike Facebook or some other social networks, where you will find lots of fake profiles, Google Plus is not very crowded. Plus, the restrictions are not as limiting as they are at some other networks. If you have spent time buffing up your profile, description, and image, etc. simplyadding relevant people to your circles will result in a majority of the people adding you back.

Remember that you should be doing the networking and outreach mainly with your personal profile. That will benefit your business page indirectly, since the more you can manage to get into the circles of other people, the more exposure you will get for your business page, by sharing your business posts.

4. Engage with Other Users In a Meaningful Way

Be more than a page. Get active and engage with people in a one-to-one fashion.

Apart from posting regular updates, useful links, or images, you need toengage with users on a one-to-one basis. For your business profile, the engagement will be limited mostly to people posting queries, messages, and posts on your business page, with some occasional posts made on some community, etc.

But the real networking will be carried out via your personal profile, and it will take a lot more than liking (+1) others’ posts. You need to follow and interact with relatively active people in your niche, take some time to go through their posts and make thoughtful comments, and participate in relevant discussions, communities, and hangouts.

5. Watch for Trending Topics to Find Out What Your Users Are Talking About

Use the explore feature to check out what’s hot in your niche.

Keep tabs on trending topics, and it will give you an idea as to what kinds of posts, images, or GIFs are getting exposure among your target audience. In most cases, you will notice that a lot of content is not very creative, or entirely original. Again, your content needs to be on topic in case of a business page (though you can use polls, questions, or surveys to make it more engaging), and you always can use some off-topic posts, images, or GIFs on your personal profile to win new friends.

6. Search for Users You Want to Connect With

Use the search function in Google+ to find your target audience.

While trying to engage people, or simply adding people to your circles, you should be focusing on your target audience, especially the people with active and high authority profiles. To find these people, you can use the search function on Google Plus while using the Ripplesfeature to see who’s worth investing time with, and who’s not.

7. Figure the Optimal Time to Post for Your Audience

Rotate post time until you figure out when you get the best results.

Depending on the age group, time zone, or occupation of your target market, posts or updates made at different times can yield significantly different results. Not that the quality of your post doesn’t matter, butknowing the optimal time to post is important for getting maximum exposure and response from your target audience. And, the only way to figure that out is to test and compare. If it’s not feasible to post manually at a specific time on a regular basis, you can use a tool likeBufferapp for custom scheduling.

8. Get Familiar with Notification Triggers, and Use Them Wisely

Don’t annoy people with random notifications.

Know the notification triggers and use them wisely, but, remember, there’s a very fine line between taking advantage of these triggers and stepping into the forbidden territory of spam.

Depending on the preferences set by users, there are almost 20 actions that will result in a notification being sent to their emails or phones. To know these triggers, you can visit the Google Plus settingsat your profile, and look under the “Receive notifications” setting.

9. Use Hangouts On Air to Build Your Authority

Hangouts On Air are a great way to brand yourself or your business as an expert.

If you are an authority on your subject (or you can get an expert on board),Google hangouts-on-air can be a great platform to engage and impress you target users. While it will take quite some time to plan, prepare, and promote a hangout on air, it’s worth the effort. You can build a good following by organizing a successful hangout-on-air every once in a while, and it can be a nice step toward establishing yourself as an authority.

10. Create Events and Invite Your Followers

Be social and create events through Google+.

To promote your hangout, create a circle of Google Plus users that you are looking to target. Create an event for your hangout, and send the invitation to the people in that particular circle. Use a compelling title and banner to entice more people. Also encourage the invitees to share the news with their contacts. And make it a public event so that anybody can participate (unless you’d like some sort of restriction on attendees).

11. Mention Other Users In Your Posts

By mentioning other users, Google+ automatically will send them a notification.

Like Twitter, you can address specific users in your posts by using a plus sign (+) and choosing the contacts from the drop down menu.Mentioning other users in your posts is a good way to involve other people in the discussions, especially the influencers.

12. Use Hashtags to Link Your Posts to a Certain Topic

Hashtags help your content get seen by many users.

Hashtags are used to tag posts or updates related to a certain topic, news, or event at social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. And now they are searchable at Google, so you need to make the most of hashtags. You can go through the trending topics and incorporate some of those hashtags in your posts for some quick exposure.

13. Ask People to +1 Your Posts for More Exposure

Don’t be afraid to ask people to +1 and share your post.

When someone +1 your posts, it will appear in the feed of people who are following them. And there’s nothing wrong with asking people to +1 your post if they like it (needless to say, you need to make it like-worthy first). For some, it might sound a little desperate, but, at times, a simple call to action can make the difference.

14. Post Updates and Content Regularly to Stay In the Streams of Your Followers

By posting regularly, you will stay at the tops of your users’ minds.

It goes without saying that it’s important to update your Google Plus page on a regular basis. It will take some time before your social media activity starts to gain traction, but many small businesses abandon their social profiles, simply because they don’t see any tangible return on investment. By updating your content and profile regularly, you will be staying fresh in the minds of your users; and when they get around to needing your services, you will be “top of mind.”

15. Invite Your Friends and Other Contacts to Like Your Business Page

Use your real world contacts to build up your numbers initially.

Don’t forget to invite your friends, colleagues, customers, and any other contacts to like or follow your business page. It’s good to have some followers (especially for small businesses) because, just like money begets money, page likes or followers beget more page likes or followers.

16. Train an Employee to Manage Your Google Plus Page for You

Upskilled employees let you focus on strategy and planning.

Encourage and train your employees to use social networks like Google Plus, LinkedIn, or Twitter. You can offer some kind of an incentive. And it can be beneficial for both your company and your employees.

17. Add Your Google Plus Page to Your Email Signature

Make sure your Google Plus profile is in your branding.

Promote your Google Plus page in your email signature, business cards, or any other advertising or promotional material you are using.

18. Place Your Google Plus Profile In the Bio of Any Content You Provide

Build your author rank and become an expert.

Place your Google Plus profile in the author bio whenever you get a chance to be featured as a guest author on other blogs. Not only will you get some followers (if the guest post and the blog are good enough), it also will contribute to your author rank.

19. Use Google Ripples to Find Influencers In Your Niche

Google Ripples is a great feature which helps you identify people to connect with.

Make use of Google Ripples to find authority people with good reach and influence in your target market. Google Ripples will let you see exactly who is making waves and who isn’t. Needless to say, you should try to target both people who are getting the most shares and people who are actively sharing their posts (and here’s how to make use of theRipple Effect).

20. Join Or Create Communities Relevant to Your Niche

Get active in relevant communities and interact with others in your field.

Google Plus communities are similar to online forums, message boards, or Facebook groups, where people with similar interests can come together and share information, ask questions, or initiate discussions. You can search and join relevant communities (while using your business or personal profile) to interact with your target audience. And if there’s no community which suits you perfectly, you can create one.

21. Use a Google Plus Badge on Your Website

Add a badge to your site to show people you have a social media presence.

It has been more than two years since the launch of Google Plus, but while we see many businesses promoting their Facebook or Twitter pages, very few businesses have posted a link to their Google Plus page on their website, mainly because it’s not in fashion as yet. You really shouldn’t be waiting for some SEO bigwigs to declare it an absolute-must, or for your competitors to take the initiative, before you decide to do so (because by then it will be too late).

Once you’ve created a Google Plus page, you shouldn’t waste any time placing a link, badge, or widget on your website. You can use the official Google Plus badge, widgets, or a simple icon linking to your Google Plus profile. Using a Google Plus badge also will make your brand eligible for the Direct Connect feature.

However…use these site badges with caution and don’t forget your end objective. If your real goal is to have your visitor purchase an item or make an inquiry, then think carefully before adding the badges to your site, as they may lead your visitor away from your site and away from the sale.

Google Plus Badges for your website

Summing It All Up

As you can see, there is a huge variety of ways to interact on Google Plus. Jump in now while the momentum is building, and watch your business ride the Google Plus wave.

This story originally appeared on KISSmetrics

July 14, 2014 admin Google No comments yet

Google+ for Business – just about everything you'll need to know!

Here is a presentation given to Toyota dealerships in Northern California, June 2014. All about using Google+ for Business
By +martin shervington of +Plus Your Business!

#googleplusforbusiness #Toyota #Google