If you don’t have a Google+ business page setup, I’m going to explain why you’re doing your business a huge disservice! Find out why you don’t have to like Google+ but you definitely have to use it.
Ok, so to preface this, I definitely HATE Google+. Google went around buying YouTube and then forced all of it’s users to get a Google+ page and showcase their real name for everyone to read. As well as the fact that no matter what Google product you’re using (other than it’s world famous search engine) they’ve made it so complicated and convoluted that you can barely use them. Compound this with the fact that they created a social media platform that they made everyone use and spout out the fact that they have 300 million users. (A ghost town of over 300 million people that they’ve annoyed.) Bottom line is that Google is not very likeable at this point.
Regardless, You Should Still Have A Google+ Business Page!
Ok, after all that I still have the nerve to tell you that you should have a business page on Google+. What gives? Why is this annoying social media platform which no one uses of any importance to anything?
Short answer, if you have a brick and mortar store a Google+ business page is a fast track to showing up on the first page of Google for many local searches!
That’s right, even if you have the worse SEO (search engine optimization) in the world, you can still show up on the first page of Google for local searches. This is because the results for Google searches vary from computer to computer and demographic to demographic. However, if you are on a home computer and you search for products and services in your area, chances are you may encounter a large group of search engine results from Google Maps.
Over to the right you’ll see a page of Google results for the phrase “Michigan Diesel Performance”. If you’ll notice, the top 3 results are organic search results. Meaning that these 3 pages have done a TON of work to their website to optimize it for SEO. However the bottom 3 results are all Google Maps pin points. All three of those results are because the businesses set up their page on Google+, claimed their spot on the map and have positive reviews on their page.
P.S. you can click the image to the right to see a larger view of it!
Get Your Business On The Front Page Of Google In 3 Steps:
- Claim Your Spot On Google Maps
- Follow The Steps To Make A Google+ Page For Your Business
- Have A Few Of Your Best Customers Leave You Positive Reviews
And that’s it! 3 simple steps and you can make sure that your business will be seeing MORE business. That is the bare minimum confrontation you should have with Google. However, I also recommend posting the same things you would post to your Facebook page to your Google+ page as well. While Google+ may be a ghost town, Google will always award you for using their platform.
Small Tip
As I mentioned before I HATE Google because of how complicated it is. I wrote this article because I recently created a Google+ page for a client. However, 3 months ago I created a YouTube page for the same client. The YouTube page created it’s own Google+ page which I branded for his company. THEN, when I went to place a spot on the map for his business’ address Google had then created a SEPARATE Google+ page for his spot on the map.
So now my client has 2 Google+ business pages which cannot be merged. This is an issue which a ton of people have and Google still has no solution. My tip to you is to get your spot on the map and then create your Google+ page using the forms that follow. Also create your YouTube and gmail accounts at the same time if necessary. That way you can avoid having 2 pages for the same business. This consolidation of pages is great because Google’s social platform is powerful for SEO and you want all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to having a Google+ business page. That way you can reap the maximum benefit from your efforts.