OK folks, before you roll your eyes and say "Google Plus is a ghost town!", let me make myself clear that it's not as quite as it looks. Yes, I though it was a graveyard but as I did more digging, it's actually a cool site to hang out on. Well, at least I am comfortable enough to say that Google Plus actually bring my blog more exposure, if not readers. Plus, it's very easy and simple to use. I don't feel like setting up a fan page of Facebook nor I understand Twitter enough with all its hash-tags to chime in, so I think Google Plus is a good choice for me. Here are what I do to get more lookers on my blog from Google Plus:
Join community
At first, I joined tons of bookish communities on Google Plus because I was trying to find new blogs to read as well as to promote mine. Usually, each community has a section for blog posts updates, so make sure you utilize it. It's a free promotion tool that is too useful to ignore. So, if you haven't joined any community yet, start now because just sharing your content on your profile doesn't help as much.
Use tall vertical image to get people's attention
So you've joined, a few communities and are ready to interact. To test the water, let's promote one of your blog post, shall we? When sharing a blog post (or any content, actually), I find it works a lot better to use the bigger picture, preferably a tall and vertical one. In this case, Google Plus works pretty similarly with Pinterest. It's just how human eyes work, I think. So, if your current posts don't have image yet, why not try to add one. That way, your post won't appear with funny (a.k.a ugly) thumbnails on social media sites, which of course, would leave it being ignored.
... and you might see your content climb to the top spot of search result
Don't quote me on this for I am not a SEO savvy, but you may want to take look at these screen shot. This one is search result from Google for the keywords "the hundred year old man".
Notice that the content I shared on Google Plus reaches the first page
of the search result, which is a very good position in order to be
found.
Here's another one for the keywords "the moonlight palace", and still on page one, not very far from Amazon's and Goodread's position. Yay! Google loves its own products, so use it for your benefits!
However, Google is a very dynamic search engine. I personally won't rely on Google Plus alone. It's a nice boost, but since Google's algorithm changes very often, don't be surprised if someday your content is not on the top page anymore. Sometimes it climbs back up, other times it stays at the bottom, that's just the nature of search engine, I guess. Although it may not be permanent, every boost helps, doesn't it? How to make it stay at the top, well, I'd leave it to SEO expert, they know what they're talking about.
OK folks, convinced enough to use Google Plus yet? Whatever your answer is, try it for yourself.. Start by sharing a couple of your posts and see what happens. It can't hurt, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right? Do you have any other tips on Google Plus or other social media sites? Please share!
Here's another one for the keywords "the moonlight palace", and still on page one, not very far from Amazon's and Goodread's position. Yay! Google loves its own products, so use it for your benefits!
OK folks, convinced enough to use Google Plus yet? Whatever your answer is, try it for yourself.. Start by sharing a couple of your posts and see what happens. It can't hurt, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right? Do you have any other tips on Google Plus or other social media sites? Please share!
