18 ways to getting the most traffic out of google plus
We all can argue that the social media sites including Facebook and Twitter are strong channels for driving (referral) traffic back to your site.
Social media sites have been good utilities for bringing the mass closer to what you offer, more because they also offer you a lot of strong useful features.
Google Plus has been known for a while now to be another source of great traffic, but it was not generally known to be a strong contender in this case.
Today, it would be great to realize that Google Plus is getting richer and richer with capabilities, and more and more people are taking advantage of the free platform.
The number of people and business using Google Plus is growing exponentially. Features are also getting more social-friendly, making it a good tool also for connecting with people with Gmail accounts.
You heard it right: all you need to take full advantage of Google Plus is a Gmail account, and if you already have, check out below what you can do to bring the Google Plus users to your site!
1. Treat your profile like any other websites or blogs.
It’s right. Google sees your Google Plus profile like any other websites you encounter. As google as a search engine is crawling up your site with which you are trying to direct traffic into, so is the search engine crawling your Plus profile as well.
This said, your profile can appear as a search result which can be stronger in chance that using some social sites. Be sure to give your profile the best of what you can, or you can put it, search-engine-optimize it.
2. Note your keywords.
Being an independent page that Google can peek into, you might want to check out the best keywords that you can use.
If you already have it with your main site, you may want to use them also on your profile for consistency purposes. If you can come up with another set of highly relevant keywords, that will boost more chance as well.
3. Use high-quality images.
It would be a big mistake if you just put any image as your profile image or cover photo. If you can source it out, you may want to ask for a creative designer to do a cover photo for you, where people can instantly know what you are offering or what you do.
Your images are keys to your identity, and if maintained a consistent branding, you can sure be remembered easily.
4. Copy-write a tagline.
Almost all professional brands that we encounter on the real market come with a tidy branding tagline.
Taglines don’t have to be long and don’t have to be too technical to hear; in fact, the shorter and the more interesting your tagline will sound, the better it would be for your product or business.
You may call out a group of creative individuals for a brainstorming, and once you have one, you have to stick to it; it’s part of your branding.
5. Quick introductions only.
Introducing yourself, your product, or your company don’t have to be long. In reality, people only read a sentence or two and go straight to the other sections.
If you can make a direct introduction saying who you are and what you do, that should be enough. Again, you may want to use keywords again.
6. Achievements and identity
Don’t be hesitant to let people know how long you are in business.
If you are short with this, you may want to stick with other options like the range of services that you do, the principles or mottos that you are behaving with, the awards and recognitions you receive, the number of unique visitors that you acquire every month, and so on.
People love to know if you are worthy enough of working with, and if they would love to entrust their projects to yours skills.
7. Don’t miss the essentials.
Essentials like basic information should be at most not to be left unfilled. Details like a complete address, all contact numbers, e-mail address, social media links, and of course, your full name should be there at all times.
Some people would not spend too much time reading about the whole of you and go just straight to your contact details, so you better have them available.
8. Make your website visible.
Yes, you are implied to include your website address in the list of contact details, but you might want to put the URL of your site on the front face as well.
Much better, you may want to incorporate it on the cover image that you have so it can be easily seen. The more visible your website address is, the better the chance people will remember it even via the visual way.
9. Don’t overstuff.
Being so Google-friendly (a surprise?), Google Plus must be the least in chance when we are talking about spam. It’s always good to use keywords, but you must not overstuff your texts with keywords in a very obvious way. Another way to turn this around is to use different terms of the same annotation so that they will not sound repetitive, and by all means, do not sacrifice the value of the content for SEO purposes.
10. Don’t fall on shortcuts.
Don’t be lazy. Yes, you may be tempted to just use links on your profile rather than describing it separately, but this could be very wrong when you want to establish a well-founded identity with your soon-to-meet friends and circles. The same goes when you will be adding new posts: don’t just paste links and post but include even a quick but exciting description of what they are about to see.
11. Use Hashtags.
It’s been allowed already, and it is a sure fire if you want to spark convenience with your customers and followers. Using hashtags allow visitors to filter their search queries, and even aid them just in case they do not know yet in particular what they are trying to achieve.
Hashtags also aid keywords and help them to be more organized or categorized, and by referring to a hashtag, one can get all related contents or posts related to that cue.
12. Maximize Google Authorship.
In particular, I am referring to the photos that you encounter when you are trying to search something on Google. Having a photo beside the search result is not only fancy and tempting, but is also highly effective in harvesting better traffic.
BlogTyrant offers a video tutorial as to how to set up your own authorship with Google.
13. Use the same e-mail address.
Having a Google Plus account means that you have a Gmail address, and you should want to use the same e-mail address to almost—if not all—of your campaigns and transactions. It is then important that you have an easy-to-remember e-mail address, and if not, you can always create an ‘alias’ which forwards the incoming mails to the same inbox you have.
Having a consistent e-mail address not only boosts traffic, but is also great for sustaining great and loyal relationship with fans and followers.
14. Set identity expectations.
The matter here is about consistency, and when you are consistent, people will expect the same results over and over again. If you plan having approximately ten posts per day, then you should stick to that rule like every day.
If your posts always have images within them, then make it consistent. If you plan on giving on something bigger or better, you should announce it properly to let your audience know of your incoming plan or anticipated changes.
15. Titles but not updates
If you post anything, be sure that what you right is a good heading or announcement rather than the usual ‘update’ trend as seen on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.
Be sure that titles are compelling enough for people to react upon, and one way of doing this is by asking questions with a link to your post or anything relevant. Remember: it’s not status updates; it’s a new, interesting entry.
16. Shout out events.
Nothing gets more interesting more a website if they are gathering audience for an incoming event. You may want to discover what Google+ Events can offer.
Using the said tool from Google allows you to make announcements to virtually anyone, and you may want to take advantage of this if you want to market a product, a service, or make a big announcement. Again, use keywords and links.
17. Engage. Engage. Engage.
Remember that you are dealing with real people, not traffic-generating machines. Learn to interact by posting beneficial contents rather than simply system or company updates.
Learn to reply and to make comments not only to the ones who interacted first with you, but take the initiative to do the same to others as well.
If someone asks a question that you seem capable of answering, enjoy the chance! If somebody else has posted something, feel free to interact. You may also want to start sharing contents and resources, and even invite these people to your community. Remember: be tactful and be nice as these people will rather help you than pull you down.
18. Widen your horizon with communities.
Communities are a great way to boost your reputation as a member and even as a leader. Start interacting with relevant communities, and even join them.
You may also want to start a community, but this can be harder if you are just a start-up. Be sure also that the communities you are interacting with are but relevant to what you do or what your business is.
By going with communities, you can have stronger chances of ensuring better and consistent traffic from the same group of people that you trust and trust you.