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Google+, the very own baby of Google Inc., was launched as an invitation-only "field test" on June 28, 2011, following the steps of other popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It did take some time for Google+ to take off initially but once it gained popularity it emerged as a strong social media platform. In January 2013, it surpassed Twitter to become second largest social networking website after Facebook. As of May 2013, Google+ boasted of 500 million registered users, with 235 million being active users in that very month. Though Google+ imposes some restrictions on direct marketing initiatives to make users refrain from using Google+ for aggressive marketing campaigns, there are certain practices that can help you draw advantages of Google+ for SEO. 1. Display your socializing skills on Google+ Google+ being a social networking site appreciates and values communications, interactions and socializing. Follow great personalities, add people to your circles, read others’ posts more than you post yours, +1 and comment on posts, and share the content that is worthy of transmission. It is not always important to post your own content. When you share some good posts, it will show your socializing skills and keen eye for quality content thereby increasing your popularity on the Google+. 2. Post the content that is informational,relevant and worth sharing Engaging, educational and informational posts attract shares, comments and +1s, which help your get natural links. Make sure, you do not just walk away after making a good post. Track the progress of the post. Do reply to the comments; thank users for the appreciation, acknowledge the feedback and respond to further queries. Google values socializing in the form of user engagement activities like comments, sharing and +1s helping you get back links to your site and improve your search engine ranking. 3. Claim ownership to your online content through Google authorship Google Authorship allows you to associate your name and profile with the unique web content, you have developed. It will help people identify your content with your name, therefore, building your authority and influence. Claiming Google authorship offers a number of benefits. It helps you beat plagiarism and the Google would know the original author. If you are contributing to some highly ranked and renowned website, you can ask the publisher to add the author mark up to your bio. For Google authorship markup refer to the official page of Google. 4. Link your works to your Google+ "About" page Google+ allows you to link all your works at different destinations to your common profile at Google+ profile page. You can enter the URLs of online sites that you contribute content and your writing works to. Google+ Home Page ? Profile ? About ? Links ? ‘Contributor To’ (add the URLs here) 5. Add Google+ social sharing button at your site of blog It is a simple and effective practice. Even blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger offer this facility to their users. Make sure the social sharing buttons of Google+ along with other sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr are present on the top or bottom of your every post. It allows the readers to share your content on their personal accounts which in turn improves the ranking of your website or blog. 6. Provide your complete and engaging details on Google+ profile Readers and other users get to know about you through your profile. Therefore it is very important to provide complete and catchy details about you. An interesting profile that catches people’s attention scores better on search engines. 7. Make your posts public Sharing a post privately has a very limited reach and when your posts don’t reach to the target audience how can you expect to attract traffic. Make sure you mark your posts as public, especially when it is intended to gain visitors. Google+ can work wonders for your SEO campaigns, provided you use it wisely and as per the guidelines of Google. After all it is Google’s offspring.
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