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More on Google+ Communities and Why I Like Them

I have been doing some testing on running and participating in Google+ Communities. Many SEO’s including myself feel that Google+ Communities may be the next “big” thing for getting SEO placement on Google.com.

Here’s what I’ve found out while using Google+ Communities.

1. I like them! They are interesting fast paced and fun to use. I am involved in several in my industry and the quality of information exchange is excellent. It’s like Quora but focused only in your industry.

2. What a great way to get Google+ followers. With some interaction in your own and other communities you can really build your circle numbers fast. I am now in 400 circles and not only is this great for getting your message out, but this number now appears under your AuthorRank tag in Google.com on anything you write. This really gives your content credibility and may push your content up in the SERPs.

3. By setting up your own communities you widen your circles and add to the ability so share your message plus your message when shared and +1’nd may receive more authority in the SERPs as others in your own industry are talking about you. Additionally, your Community posts may actually appear in the Google index. If you have verified your Author status, you get even more juice and exposure.

Here’s what Google just sent to me this last week about my own authorship status. You can click the image and read the full information.

Google Authorship Status
Google Authorship Status

I like Google+ Communities and see only positives at this point for their use. Although they do take time because there is nothing you can automate for business owners the time investment appears to have really big benefits when it comes to web visibility and web authority.

Join our own Google+ Communities we have two: AdWords Strategies and Bing Ad Strategies.

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Getting Your Listing in Facebook’s Graph Search

You've got to be popular to be shown on Facebook's Graph Search.
You’ve got to be popular to be shown on Facebook’s Graph Search.

You may love it or hate it, but Facebook’s Graph Search is here to stay and just another way that Bing and Facebook are drawing closer together and another way your data is being used to sell products.So, who gets shown in Graph Search results and how do you get there?

The bottom-line is you get there with popularity and good placement on Bing. Here are a few of the things that help your site to appear in Graph Search.

  1. Number of check-ins to your location using Facebook.
  2. Number of shares and likes.
  3. Size of your fan base. This may also include number of subscribers and not just likes.
  4. Relevancy of your location to the searcher. Closer will be better.
  5. Relevancy and interaction from the searcher’s friends.

So in other words your listing and information will show when you have worked your Facebook plan to grow your activity, encouraged share-ability, become meaningful to your fans and subscribers, and have grown your fan base.

If Facebook does not have enough information about a search it will then show Bing.com search results.

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Google+ Local Allows Multiple Locations

Finally Google+ Local has listened to businesses that have multiple people in an office building or location and is now allowing more than one Google+ Local page per address.

Previously if you were a real estate agent located in an office the first person who grabbed that location in Google+ Local owned it and you could not set up an account to show your business. What was worse was if someone other than the legal business owner grabbed the location, you were stuck!

Now Google has allowed multiple businesses who may be in different suites, cubicles or floors to now verify an address. That’s great news for many small businesses and consultants.

Here’s what Google says specifically that is a nice new change:

“Individual practitioners may be listed individually as long as those practitioners are public-facing within their parent organization. Common examples of such practitioners are doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate agents. The practitioner should be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.”
“Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances.”

To find out more about the Google+ Local guidelines, please visit this Google information page.

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April 8, 2013 is the Big Day for Skype and Microsoft

April 8th, 2013 will be a big day for Skype and Microsoft. That’s the day that Microsoft pulls the plug on Live Messenger and other Live products in favor of Skype. Personally I loved the Live products. I used Live Mesh and Live Messenger for business and found both easy to use. Plus I used Live Mesh remote desktop when I traveled to connect to my computer all for free.

I like Skype but have not used it much, however I have already started to move ahead of the April 8th deadline to embrace these new products. When you set up Skype you are now asked to login with your Live ID which then migrates all your Live Messenger settings.

Here are just a few things you will be able to do with the new Skype:

• Broader device support for all platforms, including iPad and Android tablets.
• Instant messaging, video calling, and calling landlines and mobiles all in one place.
• Sharing screens.
• Video calling on mobile phones.
• Video calling with Facebook friends.
• Group video calling.

You can read more about this important new update in this interesting article.

What I find very exciting is to consider what Microsoft will be doing with Skype in the future. Will we see Bing Ads integration for click to call options for advertising? Will we see Skype used on Facebook as Bing tighten their partnership? Who’s to say what’s in store, but this is just the start of an exciting new integration with Skype and Microsoft products.