Google Plus - Social Animal or SEO Henchman?

We know what makes your customers click.

Who on Earth is Equator?


Who am I?

Marketing Director of said large full-service digital agency

Almost 20 years online

» Been social networking online since 1992

» Built my first website in 1994

» Built my first web server in 1995

» Thesis written on Marketing on the Internet in 1996

Never looked back!

» Been doing internet marketing and spending too much time online ever since


Why am I here?

Social is important to Google

Google made $38,000,000,000 last year - 96% of which came from Adwords

• Targeting consumers right at the point when they want to buy…

It’s been a hugely successful business model – one that others have struggled to beat

Audi car insurance Best prices Apple Ipad 3

Cheap personal loan

Social is important to Google

However, that’s on the decline – seeing an 8% drop in revenue YOY

Meanwhile, Facebook has come from nowhere to grab more than $5,000,000,000 from social advertising

Facebook understands your demographics, your emotions, your relationships, your motivations and a lot more…

Google needs to succeed in social to get in on this

But it’s not for want of trying…

It’s been a long journey


Started wayyy back in 2004 – a month BEFORE Facebook

Been a Google project from the off - but never been a priority for them.

Shares many features of Facebook including embedding photos and videos, live chat, likes and more…

But… it never took off in the USA or Europe….but it was HUGE in Brazil, India and Estonia

Now losing ground to Facebook and Twitter – over 86% of its Indian audience leaving in a year – dead soon?


What even was Google Wave?

• A replacement for email?

• A new kind of instant messenger?

• A collaborative project management tool?

• A cloud storage tool?

• An open platform for new social media tools?

It sort of did everything – but something else did each thing better…

It died on April 2012


Google Buzz was Gmail on steroids – take all the sharing that exists on Facebook and plug it into email…

Not quite Facebook, not quite Yahoo Messenger, not quite Twitter but did all of this within Gmail

Privacy was chucked out the window in an attempt to garner takeup

Again the purpose of it was unclear and the product was far from street-ready

It died on December 2011


Google Plus is their BIG push into Social media

Taking all the best bits of Buzz, Wave, Orkut and…Facebook… and removing the geeky bits

The success of G+ will directly affect Googlers’ bonuses

They’re pulling out all the stops to make this a resounding success

And it’s definitely got some stuff going for it….

Is it a better social network?

Integrated with other Google Services – Gmail…Docs…Picasa…Drive… and a lot more

Circles make more sense as a way to manage your contacts

The mobile app works well and is slick

Privacy settings are more intuitive and easier to manage

Hangouts are genuinely cool – chat rooms and video meet-ups on speed

Much more intuitive interface than Facebook and constantly improvements

Search is not crap!

More targeted ads (currently)

Far better manipulation and storage of photos and videos

So is it working?

Launched just a year ago it is already claiming to have over 400 million users (100Mn active)

AND… companies like Cadbury have garnered a million followers and reasonable interaction

AND… they’re attracting SOME celebs - Britney Spears has 2 million followers…

AND… photo sharing is taking off in a reasonably big way…

SO… it must be good news then ?

100Mn is not that many really…

G+ Active Users Facebook Active Users

And 3 minutes is just tragic…

G+ Time on Site Facebook Time on Site

What’s to be done about this ?

It’s clear that G+ for all its take up is not getting adopted and Facebook continues to grow…

Google is getting more desperate with every passing day to make G+ a success

It could be argued that they’re coercing people into using it – specifically businesses

And there’s good reason to…

Where it’s at...

Despite well documented issues (merged business info, duplicate listings etc)

Google has the most complete and accurate local search database in the UK

Consumers find local listings to deliver the most relevant and trusted results

Ahead of PPC and traditional organic results…

Where it’s going...

34% of Adwords budget now being spent on local keywords

Google increasing visibility & creating new ad spaces in local and social markets

Visible in universal results pages and in Google+ Local business pages

Increasing visibility & capitalising on local and social advertising space

What happened next to Google+ was inevitable…

PPC ads

PPC ads

PPC ads

Merging the properties…

It was inevitable that to get people using G+ - search was the place to start

And so Search Plus Your World was born….

That didn’t work…

So they got stuck into schlooping lots of important Google properties together…

• Google Places, Local Business Centre, Google Maps & Google Local

Shifting sands…

Still shifting…

Now you can expect to find a floating map

Up to 17 results shown on Google's 1st page

• 7 local results

• 10 organic listings

And now all of this relies heavily on G+

• Reviews

• Plusses

• Offsite content that is linked

G+ vs. Organic

Why do I want in this space?

» For searches with local intent G+ Local listings now dominate search results

» Over 40% of results on 1st page being G+ Local results

» Most G+L results sit below the 2nd or 3rd organic listing

Not in G+L or in top 3 spaces? You’re not in the top 10!

» You’ll struggle to catch the attention of searchers!

What can a poor man do?


Can you optimise?

Optimising for G+

For businesses it’s about being found and G+ is proven to help with local search results

Needs 3 main areas of focus

» The information on your G+ Local page

» The information on your website or webpages if you have more than one physical location

» Offsite optimisation and authority

Glasgow Airport Car Hire Dentist in Glasgow

Glasgow restaurants

Needs some foundations…

Need a business with a physical address in city you are optimising for

» Ideally, your business is located within 2 mile radius of centroid

» Depends on competition

» Proximity is one main ranking factor

Before optimising G+L for generic keywords - research competition levels within your radius

Consistency is key…

The SINGLE best way to rank well in Google+ Local

Maintain consistency with your business information

• Especially your business name, address & phone number

• Otherwise known as NAP

Then it’s a case of ticking some more boxes…

A partial view of G+L Dashboard

Optimising G+ local pages

Set up account with company domain email address

Ensure you have Local area code phone number on place page

Get your listing verified

Use service & location keywords in business title

• Against Google guidelines but works!

Optimising G+ local pages

Use service & location keywords in place page description

• Think keyword focus in everything you do within G+

Place latitude and longitude coordinates in custom attributes

• Unexciting but works!

Get Proper category associations

Optimising your site

Google measures a lot of the traditional SEO signals when analysing on-site factors

Such as

» Domain authority, page authority, geographic keyword in title tag, URL, H tags, Copy etc

The main unique onsite signals Google look for when factoring results for Google+ Local are

» Name, address and phone number or NAP for short

» This must match the details given in your Google+ Local account

» Make sure phone number used has local area code

» Wrap the NAP in hcard or schema mark-up

» Add KML file to tie up coordinates with Google Earth & Google Maps

Optimising off-site

Just as with organic search, Google takes into account the traditional offsite SEO signals

Quality and authority of back links

Quantity of back links from locally relevant websites

Location keywords in back link anchor texts

Business title keywords in back link anchor texts

Optimising off-site

Gaining citations from local directory sites - whitespark!

Gain links from locally focused business websites kills two birds with one stone

Gaining reviews!


This stuff works!

Ranking with nothing…

Despite having a one page website

» Being located 3.6 miles from centroid

» No use of geo keyword “London” in the title tag

» And no instances of the search term being

used in the anchor text

Agency Republic rank 1st place in Google organic and

in G+L results

For the moderately competitive search term “digital

agencies in London”

No1 in Google

It’s all plus points

Local area code phone number

Location & keyword in text - albeit thinly spread

Address wrapped in hcard micro format

Low number of citations however, NAP is consistent throughout

Google maps show as a key ranking factor…

• even one page websites with light content

• In unfavourable locations

• And no use of search term in external anchor text links

Ranking with something…

Something more competitive…

» Restaurants in London

» 22,200 monthly searches

Ranks well by more traditional means…

Ranks in 3rd in G+L

Going a bit further…

Close proximity to centroid – less than a mile

Geographic keywords in <title>

Decent volume of quality links

Local area code phone number

Address wrapped in hcard micro format

Link to Google maps

Reasonable number of decent reviews (160)

Address with link to maps


Is sharing worth it?

Not quite in the searches…


But isn’t Google+ a

SOCIAL tool too?

Not quite at the races…


Roundup

Rounding up…

Google+ may yet turn into a genuine social network to reckon with

• It’ll take some doing to make it happen though

However, it’s definitely gearing up to be a tool that can influence search

• And they’re still working on it

If you’re a business with local presences complete every aspect of everything Google gives you

• Use Google+ and populate it even if your customers don’t…

Stay tuned!

GIMME SOME QUESTIONS!

How to fix inaccurate information

No quick fix and no guarantee

Google+ Local Ranking Signals

Zagat Reviews

Tracking in Google

What are the pros & cons

Pros

» Chance to rank well ahead of global websites

Cons

» Wrong info

*

Google Plus - Social Animal or SEO Henchman?

Documents

Transcript of Google Plus - Social Animal or SEO Henchman?