[Build Backlinks Online] 10 Smart Tips to Leverage Google+ for Increased Web Traffic

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '10 Smart Tips to Leverage Google+
for Increased Web Traffic'

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This time, it's about engaged traffic.
While checking our stats here at Moz, we noticed that while visits sent to us
from Facebook keep decreasing, traffic from Google+ has started to appear
significant by comparison.

While not everyone has an audience active on Google+, the number of people who
interact socially with any Google products on a monthly basis now reportedly
exceeds 500 million.
What's different about Google+ is that beyond the direct social visits as seen
above, Google offers marketers the opportunity to interact withvisitors
throughmany more touch points, including YouTube and directly in search results.
This means that for visitors who engage with you through Google+, the potential
traffic channels multiply.
For this method to work, it requires that your visitors actually engage.
Facebook and Twitter experts know this and perfected their engagement craft
over several years. Engagment with Google+ means a new set tactics and best
practices. These are areas that I consistently see otherwise expert brands fall
short and miss easy opportunities.
Let's discuss supercharging our Google+ engagement.1. Headlines, every time
The more users notice your Google+ posts, the more likely they are to engage.
The challenge is to stand out in a sea of thousandsof posts.
First things first. Unlike other social platforms, Google+ posts act more like
miniblog posts, and every post needs a headline. Not only does adding a header
help your post stand out, but Google uses the first words of your post in two
different ways:They incorporates your headline into the title tag of the post
The headline is typically what displays in Google search results

Adding the right headline can help your post stand out in search results, and
can greatly influence the number of people who both notice and click through to
your content.
Use a headline, every time.2. Formatting for attention

Easily break up your long blocks of text with formatting to make your posts
simpler to read and skim. This allows you to communicate more clearly and makes
your text more accessible.
In addition to adding
bold to your headline, copyandpaste the formatting cheats below to help compose
a post that stands out from the rest.



G+ Formatting Cheats:


*This is a Bolded Headline*


_
Italic_

*Bold*
-Strikethrough-


Mix and match styles: _*Bolded Italic*_


Numbered List:


*1.* Point One


*2.* Point Two


*3.* Point Three

Bulleted List:


Point 1


Point 2


Point 3

Link:
http://example.com

#hashtag1 #hashtag2



How it Looks:



3. Use your words
Google+ is a both a visual and atext medium, so make them both count!
Don't be afraid of writing
longer posts. Instead of simply posting a link to your latest blog posts and
hoping for the best, add a summary of your important points. Explain why this is
important. Give people additional context as to why they should click and share.
Personal example of Google+ posts where I
embraced the long-form:Introducing The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0 308
+1s, 222 Reshares
5 Takeaways and Assumptions from Matt Cutt's Video on Authority vs. Popularity
194 +1s, 94 Reshares
New Google Title Tag Length Guidelines: 55 Characters 152 +1s, 180 Reshares
The few minutes it takes to jot down your thoughts could result in multiple
reshares and thousandsof additional eyeballs on your content.4. Use your images
too
The vast majority of top posts on Google+ use images. In fact, the most popular
post I've personally ever shared was a simple animated GIF.

For increased shareability, it's usually best to upload your own photo.
By default, Google+ tries to include an image for any URL that you share.
Unless you define the right Open Graph images and the proper social meta tags,
the images are often not ideal, or aresized wrong.
When you upload your own image, the image links to the full-size version, not
the URL you want to share. In this case, don't forget to include a link to the
URL in the text.5. Smarter sharing > targeted
Most people set their post to "public," thinking this gives them maximum
exposure. In fact, there is a much more effective way to gain exposure to your
top content, as long as you don't abuse it.
By also adding your circles and select individuals to your share settings, this
triggers a notification for those users that you've shared a post directly with
them.
Used smartly, these notifications can greatly influence the amount of activity
on a post.

Warning: When targeted sharing is used too often, it turns spammy. Be careful
what you share.
Only choose your very best, most important posts.
Amazingly, Google+ also allows you to notify people in your circles via email
when you share. In order for this to work, the individuals must have their email
notifications set up correctly. Be extra careful with this function, as it can
turn people off fast!6. The mighty, mighty #hashtag
Twitter and Facebook have made us accustomed to hashtags, but Google+ uses them
in entirely different ways to organize and recommend content.
Google uses hashtags and semantic analysis to form relationships between
topics. For example, consider this hashtag search for #linkbuilding. Notice the
related topics Google associates with link building:

These associations aren't random. In fact, Mark Traphagen demonstrates how you
can "teach" Google these relationships by tagging your own posts.
By default, Google often adds hashtags automatically to any post with
sufficient text. Best practice is to add your own relevant hashtags at the end
or within the body of each post.7. Find the followed links
The followed link on Google+ has gone the way of the dodo.
When Google+ was born, it was a bonanza for links, and seen as an SEO paradise.
Since that time, Google has replaced most equity passing followed links with
nofollow, which pass no link equity. This includes profile links, "contributor
to," and shared URLs.
There is one exception. Public +1's remain followed.

For now, whenever a visitor +1s your content without sharing it to their
stream, this results in a followed link as long as the visitor has +1's set to
"public."
This could be an oversight, or Google could remove these followed links soon.
While the value of +1s for SEO has been debated again and again, this may be
the last remaining place that a +1 may actually pass link equity.8. Leverage
Google+ comments
I'm sort of in love with the Google+ commenting system.
Much like Facebook's popular commenting plugin, you can embed Google+ comments
on your own blog. What makes this so powerful is when visitors leave a comment,
they are given the option of sharing your post to their own Google+ followers.
This can greatly increase engagement among these users and their followers.

Officially, Google+ comments are only supported for Google's own Blogger
platform. Fortuneatly, clever folks have devised a number of plugins and
solutions for Wordpress, Drupal, and more.9. +Post Ads: the future of social
engagement?
Google's +Post Ads offer an interesting premise: take your most successful
Google+ posts and turn them into ads that show all over Google's massive display
network.
This exposes your posts to more people who otherwise would not have interacted
with your brand on Google+ alone. This interaction drives more social sharing,
and the sharing can continue after the paid promotion is over.
For example, if you are a car manufacturer, you could target your Google+ posts
to appear on auto parts websites.

While still early in adoption, +Post Ads present a unique opportunity for
businesses to attract customers at different stages of the buying cycle, and
then keep those customers engaged through social media.
While the jury is still out if +Post Ads will be effective, it will likely take
some time for marketers to learn how to effectively leverage this channel.10.
Interactive posts
Interactive Google+ posts allow you to perfectly customize how your content is
shared, but they also allow you to prompt your social audience to take a
specific action.

Google maintains an impressive list of actions which you can automatically
embed into your post. These include:Watch a video
Sign up for a newsletter
Reserve a table at a restaurant
Open an app
...and about 100 more.
Mike Arnesen wrote up a good overview of getting started with Interactive
posts, or you can find more at the Google Developers blog.Building your
influence
Google+ isn't so much a social media platform like Twitter and Facebook, but an
identity platform that works with Googleto connect across all our different
devices and web services.
This means that while sites like Facebook and Twitter can still deliver traffic
to your website, Google+ is so integrated across so many platforms that it has
many more places to touch potential visitors. Business that build up their
audience base today potentially position themselves to collect bigger rewards in
the future.
Do you receive traffic from Google+? Is it a part of your social strategy? Let
us know in the comments below.Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer
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Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com