3 Reasons to be on Google+ Right Now

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably heard all of the hub bub about Google+ and have probably been debating whether you should be on Google’s new social networking site or not.

Before you think that you just don’t have the time for another social network, it’s important to remember that Google has around 60% of the search marketing share and that Google is doing it’s hardest to tie this newest product into it’s search engine.

So even if you’re still finding it hard to dedicate time to Twitter or even to post things on Facebook, it’s time to get on the Google+ bandwagon. Google+ is now impacting search results now, and if you’re not on this new social network you could miss out on hundreds if not thousands of potential customers. It’s no longer a question of whether you should be on Google+ and more of a question on when are you going to start.

Why should you be on Google+?

Here are the top 3 reasons why if you should be on Google+ if you’re a business owner.

1. Google  Places is no more, instead we now have Google Local. If you’re a small business owner the first thing that your local search engine marketing agency probably told you to do was to claim your business location in Google places. Well now this feature is no more. Google Local, a combination of Google Places and Google+, now takes the place of your old Google places account. By creating a “local page” you are now also creating a Google+ page, forcing your brands into the enter Google+ arena.
2. Google’s +1 button serves as a way to influence the SERPS. It serves as one’s way of validating that content is good, to someone’s social network similar to Facebook’s like button. The +1 button however, also has a more important feature, as it can influence the search of the people in your circles. By +1’ing websites, you are telling your friends that these links and websites hold valuable content, thus forcing this content to get a higher positioning in your friend’s search engine results.
3. Google’s Rel Author button is less of a Google+ feature and a lot more of an author validation tool that is tied into Google+, but none the less it’s an important feature to know about. Similar to the +1, the Rel Author attribute plays an important part in search. This tag tag helps define you as an author with the content that is associated with you the creator. So if someone searches and their Google+ account is turned on, they will see your face and name beside your content, validating it in many people’s eyes.

Now keep in mind, these are just 3 features of Google+, not even mentioning hangouts and YouTube integration. As more and more features become available in Google+ it will be interesting to watch the affect that they have on not just social but the search engines as well.