If you were ever looking for a reason to post on Google+, as much or more than you post on any other social media, read on....
So, according to all the number crunchers and bean counters from businessinsider.com, Google+ has lots of active users, more than Twitter. Cool. Groovy.
Then you say, "But Travis, I rarely talk to anyone on Google+ like I do Facebook and Twitter, and my Google+ shares and +1 activity doesn't even hold a candle to the hundreds of RT's and Facebook shares I get every week."
Yep, you're right.
So why use Google+?
Here's a little something the number crunchers didn't seem to understand:
Take a look at this Google search for the novel HERS TO COMMAND by Patricia A. Knight, published June 4th, 2013 (2 weeks ago).
There are several results from a book published in 2006, from a different author. BUT, its plain to see, within the first 6 results, there are 2 Google+ postings from 10 days ago. How do a couple postings on social media, with no significant number of shares or retweets, get into the top 6 results of Google's search engine in only 10 days? These Google+ postings have a higher ranking than the Goodreads giveaway for signed copies of HERS TO COMMAND!!!
Well, it is Google's search engine isn't it? And its their social media....
Google, being the megamonster search engine, has given
Google+ an unnatural, instant and viral ranking. Google+ posts for a given subject matter always show
up in the first page of search engine results. This is not organic
SEO, like what websites are forced to go through over months and months
of backlinks and other time-resource consuming junk. Its an instant, mouse-click SEO, with a
very unusually high ranking.
Google gives preferential treatment to posts in Google+. Why?
Well, most likely, to compete with Facebook & Twitter. And its their
search engine, so they can do what they damn well please.
Another example, a Google search on my novel THE NIGHTLIFE PARIS, published May 1st, 2013, by Travis Luedke (me).
You have some actual stuff on the nightlife in Paris, tourist stuff, and my own website twluedke.com (needs updating badly). That comment in my website, about THE NIGHTLIFE PARIS being scheduled for release, has been there for the past 8 months. Took 8 months to get that kind of SEO on the words THE NIGHTLIFE PARIS for my website. And yet we see there in the #6 placement on the search, my good 'ole Google+ post about my book release, on May 4th 2013.
Amazon and Goodreads listings of my novel have not yet seen the same level of SEO rankings that my Google+ post received instantly.
Conclusion:
If you never speak to anyone on Google+, if you never add people to circles and friends and post those hilarious GIF images like the one I posted a few days ago,
If you never have a single ounce of fun with Google+, at least make damn sure you POST EVERYTHING RELATED TO YOUR BUSINESS, WITH LINKS. Instant SEO rankings, like that which Google+ receives, cannot be purchased for any amount of money. But it can be had for FREE, with a couple mouse clicks on Google+.
Until next time,
Travis Luedke
Author of The Nightlife Series novels
