Google Plus page - keep or delete?
-
Do you guys think that if we are not going to be able to maintain a Google Plus page, from a SEO standpoint is it better to keep or delete the page?
Also, do you guys think there's still SEO value to having a Google Plus page in general? Is it worth it?
Thanks!
MS
-
You need to keep it for local SEO. Although Google has decided this is a separate product now, its role will certainly change in the future. They have already made changes to the Google Plus app
-
If the listing has good customer reviews, I would not delete it.
-
There are brand pages aside from local pages.
It really depends on how this was set up. Brand page or local?
You should be able to transition it.
See this article as a reference.
http://localu.org/blog/google-now-allows-brand-pages-become-local-pages/
-
-
I'm going to stick my neck out and disagree with most of the comments here....
If your business is local, yes keep it.
If your business has a lot of contacts on G+, yes keep it.
If you've got it just because you feel like you need to be on every network and it feels like a burden.... get rid of it. From a customer's perspective, it'll be irritating to go to a business' G+ page if it's obvious it's never used and questions asked there will just be ignored.
Better to spend more time on fewer networks so you can really add value in the places you invest time in.
-
I'll answer this using the words of a former neighbor who, when asked why he kept three vehicles when he could only drive one at any given time, said "Unlike horses, they don't cost me anything to sit in the yard."
I see G+ much the same way. No matter what is said, no one knows for sure what's going to happen with G+. However, if you're looking closely, many of the earliest adopters and staunchest advocates have cooled to it, preferring to devote resources elsewhere, such as Facebook or Twitter or even newcomer Blab.
I'd say do the same: till the most fertile ground for your brand.
If you've invested in G+ and have a large audience who shares and engages around your content, continue to nurture those relationships. But to cover your bases, begin building relationships elsewhere, too, on platforms where your prospects are likely to congregate. Begin by following the influencers, sharing and engaging around their content. Share your content there as well, then enlist the help of your G+ followers - many of whom are also on the newfound platform - to amplify and engage around your content.
In this way, you're plowing new ground continuing to tend your existing flock.
This approach ensures that you're not beholden to the whims of Google and you needn't fret over what becomes of G+.
RS
-
Thanks, all! Very good and thoughtful answers.
-
Although most of our traffic comes from other social networks, you never know who's looking and yes it does help as others have said with local search. I update it is as and when we have new products, special offers etc. It does help with our location and is good for driving directions as Sat Nav doesn't always take our customers as far as where we are in our postcode area (we are rural) and we weren't included on Google Streetview as the section of our lane was closed at the time the google car came round!
-
I would say it's better to keep it. Using my own experience I have found it to be helpful from both a branding and SEO perspective in that it does show up in Google's Knowledge Graph for our brand name and has managed to drive people to our site since we have seen some sales attributed to the page's presence.
Although our brand isn't a local one (we are purely online) I would definitely take that into consideration because it can be more helpful when attracting local customers.
-
In my opinion Google+ will always be around and as its Google's own property it will remain important to keep included in the list of your SEO strategies. Maintaining the page isn't hard if you are already doing posts on other channels, it follows similar guidelines to Facebook. You need to gain followers by building circles, but as Marty mentioned it cant be done with advertising at the moment so will take some time doing some outreach, join industry communities, follow others in your niche, optimise your profile etc
Having a verified Google Plus page, and Google Places page correctly setup and optimised for your brand name with the right citations is also advantages in local search, as when done correctly, your Google Map will show up on the right, with reviews of your business underneath, which can help you dominate more of the page.
-
Depends on what you're using your Google+ page for.
If it's for local SEO, then yes. Maintaining it and accumulating more reviews through it are huge for local search. Worth the time and effort.
If your physical location doesn't matter (like a software-based business), then Google+ works just like a social network. You'll have to evaluate whether or not enough of your target audience is there to make it worthwhile to invest in getting them to follow you there. You can't run ads there like you can on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, so it would mean a lot more hands-on work to build the audience.
-
Hi.
My point of view is that if you don't update G+ page, it's still worth having it simply for google maps and straight brand SERPs, because if link it all properly, you gonna get easy way of updating/creating your address/name etc.
Cheers
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does Google give more ranking weight for Shares for One Social Network over Another.
We are using BuzzSumo to explore the types of content that generate the highest number of shares per article. Does anyone have data to suggest that a share on Google+ carries more ranking weight than a share on Twitter or Facebook, or LinkedIn? We have seen a recent case with one of our client's competitors where they significantly grew their Google+ shares within a relatively short period of time and gained a higher rank for a key search phrase that my client is also targeting. Thank you, Rosemary Brisco
Social Media | | RosemaryB0 -
Is it possible to modify the default social sources in Google Analytics?
In the newest Google Analytics there's a section called 'Social' which tracks traffic from FB, Twitter and other social sites. For some reason it doesn't include Instagram (which is the one that matters to me, though I'm sure there are many others that it doesn't include either.) Is there a way to modify that and add Instagram as a social source?
Social Media | | storemachine0 -
Google+ currently DOES support hidden addresses?
We noticed yesterday that many of our clients with hidden addresses are now able to get a verified G+ page through the Places dashboard. Anyone else have any insight on this? Are they classified as "Local" pages, or just verified "Business" pages?
Social Media | | AvalancheSearch0 -
Why isn't my Facebook page showing up in search results?
When I search directly for imageworks creative facebook page on Google, I get many results - some of which are not mine and some of which are listings from other citation sites like Manta. I did a site: search and I do see that the page is indexed by Google, but it's pretty important that we get a better ranking than we currently have! This is the Facebook url: https://www.facebook.com/ImageWorksCreative As part of our rebranding, we did have the URL changed from /imageworksstudio, but that was well over a month ago. I feel as though Google should have caught up by now. Any thoughts on how we can get our FB profile onto the front page?
Social Media | | ScottImageWorks0 -
Share post on google plus profile VS google plus page?
Hello friends, I have a website, linked to my google plus profile and google plus page of the website. But after reading the post http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations , something is not clear for me... To gain some seo benefit when I share a post, Should I share it on my google plus profile or in the google plus page of my website ? BTW, Its better to gain more followers to my google plus profile or to the google plus page of my website? Thanks...
Social Media | | lans27870 -
Google + Profile in Serps
Hello, Ive noticed some of my competitors show up with both verified and non-verified Google+ Icon, and recent activity showing to the right usually where PPC shows. Is it possible for smaller sized businesses to accomplish something like this? Im assuming this is not paid? Thank You
Social Media | | TP_Marketing0 -
Google Auth and brands/individuals problem
So you can auth pages with personal google+ profiles - and its being suggested by some that this could now help rankings if that person has lots of people in their circles. So what about brand/companies content? why cant they auth the content with their Google+ profile to get the content ranking better. It doesn't seem right an individual blogger can do this but a company cannot who has written lots of guides. An example is a holiday company has written some awesome content on resorts around the World - how to use the auth for that content to rank higher? - currently only possible to link up an individual as writing the content not the brand/company itself. Any suggestions on this much appreciated. I do not want to lose any gain there might be from this new bonus given from Google.
Social Media | | pauledwards0 -
SEO w/o Social Webinair experiment - how can RTs of a URL of a google search possibly affect the position of one of the search results?
I missed the webinair but have just been going through the slides. Looking forward to watching the video when its up. I have a question however regarding the experiment conducted by Rand to find out: Is Social Influencing Primary Algorithms (slides 7 - 20) The suggestion is that an RT of a google search URL affects the ranking of one individual ranking site. The +1 side of the experiment I understand completely - it is clear how Google can see that there is a social preference for the site and reward accordingly. But how would retweeting the search result URL possibly affect its rankings? Is the suggestion that those doing the experiment also clicked on the relevant link? And if so, how is Google discerning that this additional traffic is down to Twitter? I feel I am missing something incredibly obvious. Anyone want to help me out here?... otherwise I'm not going to sleep tonight...
Social Media | | seomasters0