Case: how does Google Plus help attract customers from search results? Social network Google Plus – registration, login. What are circles, ribbons, how to create a branded page What to choose: a profile or a page on Google Plus

Hello, dear readers of the Goldbusinessnet.com blog! Today I would like to try to persuade you to register on the well-known social network Google plus, which is wildly popular. This is not surprising, given the fact that it is the property of Google.

It is precisely the fact that this social network belongs to the world’s largest search engine that allows you to quickly, with the right attitude, promote your brand and get the target audience to your website. Not to mention that here you can find a lot of useful information and interest groups, which goes without saying.

In today’s article I will try to tell you, taking into account all the nuances, how to register on this social network and log into your account, find friends and include them in your circles, create a plus page for business, what the feed is, and where to download the application Google+ for Android, which is very relevant in modern realities.

Google+'s place among the world's social network leaders

Time moves forward, so the largest projects like Google strive for constant development. Due to the growing popularity of social networks, it was necessary to take a step in this direction. To solve this problem, at one time Google even tried to acquire Twitter (here - what is Twitter and how to register in this microblogging service).

However, he failed in this endeavor and was forced to start creating his own social network. The moment when this social network took its first steps has already sunk into oblivion and it was unclear how successful the final result would be. Now, after some time has passed, we can say with confidence that this was not done in vain.

On this moment monthly traffic to Google+ is in the hundreds of millions, and, very importantly, user activity has increased, which was very small at the beginning of the creation of this social network.

According to all key indicators, the social network Google Plus very seriously threatens the positions of its main competitors in the person of Facebook (here about registration, logging into Facebook account, and here about basic setup My page) and VKontakte, if we talk about RuNet.

It turns out that Google manages to successfully compete in all areas of development modern Internet. This was the case, for example, with Google browser Chrome (here - how to install Google Chrome, update and configure), which in popularity in a short period of time managed to bypass such monsters as Internet Explorer, Mazila and Opera.

Ordinary users have long appreciated the simplicity, convenience, and ample opportunities Google plus, that's why use this social network for the soul, so to speak. I'm not even talking about Google value+ for webmasters, where you can not only conveniently maintain communication with your colleagues and friends by sharing information, but also attract an audience to your site.

My Google Plus page - how to register, log in and use the social network

Registration in Google+ can be described in a nutshell; to do this, it will be enough to create a Google account and get almost all of its services and applications at your disposal, including a link to your Plus profile will be automatically generated for you, which can then be configured according to to your desire:

My profile URL originally looked like this:

Agree, the numbers in the link don’t look very nice. However, Google allows you to fix this matter and create a beautiful URL.

However, to obtain this opportunity, you must fulfill certain requirements (the account was created at least 30 days ago, has a generally positive reputation and at least 10 subscribers, and the profile contains a photo).

In principle, if you are going to seriously engage in online activities, fulfilling these conditions does not seem to be a difficult task, but as a result you will get a pleasing to the eye and a memorable URL:

But this is a Google Plus profile link for all users who can view it. If you log in (and, therefore, will be able to perform all the necessary configuration and editing actions), then the following URL may be valid for you (naturally, instead of “+IgorGornov” you will have a different ending):

So, after registration, you need to first log in and log into your main account to go to Google Plus. You can also log in by simply going to the Google+ home page, where you click the “log in” button, then enter your username (email address) and password.

If you are logged into the main web page, then by default it will display news feed with messages (including videos), including announcements containing links to websites with full information, which will appear as they are published by other users of this social network (the most recent messages are at the top):

On the left there will be a menu containing all possible options, the number of which is very extensive and varied. You can immediately look for the profile of a person you know (friend, acquaintance, colleague) by going to the section "People" from the mentioned menu:

Enter all known data into the search bar. The more precise they are (for example, First Name + Last Name of a person), the smaller the selection in the search results you will get:

The information entered for specification may not be enough, because in such a huge social network there is usually more than one person with a similar first and last name (as in the screenshot above). Take a closer look at the photo or avatar of the users that appeared as a result of the search. Perhaps this will help identify the person you need.

Just below the links to the profiles there will also be entries authored by these people, or materials somehow related to them:

In the same way, you can also find any materials on a topic that interests you that have been published on the Google social network. Instead of your first and last name, you can enter the name of the section or area of ​​your interests, and you can narrow the search by adding additional keywords.

Once you have found the right person, you can view his profile by clicking on his name, or immediately follow him (second screenshot up). This action means you have enabled by default given user V your circle “Subscriptions”.

However, you can immediately move it or simply add it to another circle or even several. To this end, immediately after you have subscribed, click on the same button with the text that has already changed, after which from the list that appears you can select by ticking which circles you would like to include this person in:

By the way, you can adjust the circles as you please by going to the tab "Subscriptions" in the same “People” section, where just below the list of Google Plus users you have subscribed to, there is a setup form:

All these circles are divided according to the nature, closeness of relationships, and the interests of the individuals included in them. In each of them you can add friends, members of your family with whom you will have the closest communication; just acquaintances and people whose materials or announcements are most interesting to you and whom you want to subscribe to.

Here you create as many circles as you need, and, as you already understand, you can distribute people into narrow areas, which in the future can have a positive effect in many aspects, especially when promoting your resource or brand on social networks.

Visiting and studying his profile will help you make the right decision about placing a particular user in one circle or another, where you can find out all the details that will clarify his passions, as well as the direction and nature of his activities.

For example, when creating a Google+ community on a certain topic, you can invite people who are truly involved in this area of ​​interest, and not random fellow travelers who will simply be unnecessary ballast who are not active.

For each of the created circles you can perform all possible actions. To do this, click on the three vertical dots located on the right; as a result, a window will appear from which you can delete the selected circle, view the records of the people included in it, or configure it accordingly:

Settings include the following options:

1. Number of posts from users in this circle, which will appear in your feed. To do this, select one of the items from the drop-down menu (by default, in my opinion, it is set to “many”).

2. Notify about new posts. If you want to be informed about new messages from people in this circle, then enable this option by moving the slider to the right.

3. Add to My Circles list. By default, all groups you create are included in your circles list. If you do not want to share your posts with users of the selected group, move the slider to the left.

After you configure your circles in this way, do not forget to save your changes by clicking on the button of the same name. Subsequently, when publishing your entries on Google+, you will be able to determine for which circle of people this or that entry is intended (details below). By selecting one of the circles and clicking on it, you will get a list of all the people included in it:

Here you can view the profile of any of the participants by clicking on their name. In addition, you can perform other actions on this user, namely, move him to another circle or delete him completely by unchecking all the boxes. To do this, click on the right side on the name of the circle in which he currently resides.

In general, this approach is very convenient, since it allows you to systematize communication in Google plus. Moreover, no one will know in which of the circles you created this or that person is present; this information will be available only to you.

Now let's try to figure out how to optimally set up a Google+ profile so that it is recognizable and attractive. It is quite possible that you already had a Google account before you decided to take the social network seriously.

In this case, it is quite possible that you already have it configured at the very least, for example, you have installed a photo that will also be displayed on Google+. If not, then this matter can be fixed. Therefore, first of all, let's move on to special web page “About Me”. To do this, click on the links located on the cover (shown in the screenshot):

Essentially this is your single profile for all Google services. After logging into your account, all settings there will be available for editing. To change any information, you need to click on the pencil icon. which is located opposite each item:

To get started, you can change (set) your photo and upload a cover. After you click on the pencil, a camera icon will appear right next to the photo and cover, which you need to click on to download the images:

Here you can not only enter your first and last name, but also come up with a nickname that will be displayed in all services associated with this account. Many people wonder: how to change the name in your profile and is it possible?

I’ll say right away that such an opportunity exists in this section of the settings. However, Google allows you to change names extremely reluctantly, which is quite natural (in my opinion, only once in 90 days), which is quite natural. It's good that such an option exists at all.

You can upload pictures from your computer by selecting the appropriate graphic files on it, or take them from the album of your Google account, if, of course, they are there:

Next, in each section of your profile, indicate the information that you consider necessary. To do this, there are several blocks (“Work contacts”, “Education”, “Sites”, “Career”, “Residences”, “General information”, “History”).

As I already noted, to edit and enter data you just need to click on the pencil symbol located in each of these sections:

For example, in the “Sites” block you can add the URL of your web resource and several of its most important sections or publications. Click on the pencil, and then write the link text and the link itself sequentially:

And so on. In each of the blocks, it is also possible to configure access to the information provided there, that is, to determine the circle of people who will be able to view it (“Only me”, “Everyone”, “My circles”, “Extended circles”):

Here the question may arise: what does the point mean? "Extended Circles"? I will explain the essence of this group of people in simple example. Let’s say Vasya is part of your “My Circles” group, and Slava belongs to Vasya’s circles. That is, you are not directly connected with Glory. However, Google monitors such chains in order to create a list of supposed acquaintances.

Selecting an item from this list "Other", you will be able to produce fine tuning access:

Here you can not only select circles, but also individual users by ticking them, and also find people for whom access will be allowed, but who do not belong to any of the circles (use the search bar to do this). In addition, you can delete an already selected circle or person by clicking on the corresponding cross.

On the same “About Me” page, it is possible to view a collection of albums, which include all the images uploaded to Google services (Picasa, Blogger, Google+):

Well, using the plus button located at the bottom right, enter those your contact details, which you consider necessary to enter (phone, email, chat, home address). Naturally, you can also configure access for them.

So, we seem to have figured out the setup of the general Google profile, which is located on the “About Me” page. Now let's go back to the web page of our own Google Plus profile, where you can also configure something. To do this, click on the button "Edit profile"(see the ninth screenshot from here up):

From here you can also upload a photo and cover image, as well as enter and change the description. Well, there are options that can be configured specifically for a Google plus profile, for example, specifying all or some of the Google+ communities in which you are a member by filling in the necessary checkboxes. Once saved, they will appear on your profile.

Now let’s move on directly to practice and see how we can send messages or announcements of site articles, which for webmasters is one of the most important aspects SMO promotions(promotion of the project on social networks).

Before continuing, I want to say the following. You can post your entries both on your profile page and in any community you are a member of. You can select a community on a topic that interests you and join it by clicking on the corresponding link from the menu on the left in your Google Plus profile:

You can immediately join one or more communities recommended here by clicking on the button of the same name, or first evaluate its content and composition of participants by following the link as a result of clicking on the picture, and then join it there if you wish.

In addition to the recommended ones, the page also presents those communities that you have already joined (the “Subscriptions” tab), as well as those that you are the owner of (“My”). By the way, it is in the “My” tab that you can very quickly, without leaving the checkout, create a community on any topic, and not even just one:

Here you can configure the type of Google Plus community (open or closed), request to join (that is, the user will have to get approval from the owner, that is, you). It is also possible to configure additional actions:

That is, will posts be moderated before they are published and the content management option applied, which, as I understand it, involves the use of advanced filters to filter out spam (fight spammers!).

After clicking on the “Finish” button, you will immediately be redirected to the web page of the newly created community, where you, as the owner, can make other settings (for example, add thematic sections), as well as use tools for its promotion.

There are options that allow you to invite users, talk about creating a community on Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter, and publish the necessary links. In general, a good kit for promoting both the community itself and your related web resources.

Now I want to talk about another option that appeared in Google plus relatively recently. We're talking about the ability to create collections, which are an excellent tool for distributing all your posts into thematic sections. To create a selection, click on the plus located on your profile page:

Enter the name of the collection and its short description(within 80 characters), and also configure the degree of access (by default, all users will see the entries). You can even customize your own option:

There you can include circles, individual users, and even people who are not members of any of the circles, that is, by analogy with what we looked at in the general profile settings (scroll up the page to the eighth screenshot).

Once the required number of collections has been created, you can begin publishing thematic entries in them. By the way, the moment has come when we need to understand the nuances of sending your messages to Google+.

In the form that appears, enter the text of the message:

It is also possible to attach a photo and a link to the message. It is even possible to start a poll and report on an upcoming event.

To create an invitation to an event, go to the tab of the same name from the menu on the left. There, in the settings, set the theme, indicate the name of this action, its beginning, end, add it to the list of those to whom the invitation will be sent, etc.

As soon as you insert the link, instant generation will occur based on the metadata and the image associated with the article, its title and description will immediately appear:

If you suddenly don’t like something, or you entered the wrong URL by mistake, click on the cross on the right that says “Delete” and you can repeat the operation. The icon on the opposite side allows you to load another image from the available ones.

By clicking on the icon with three vertical dots in the upper right corner, you can set a ban on comments or on the appearance of this message in other feeds:

In order to send the current announcement, click the “Publish” button. After publication, you can edit the entry at any time until it is complete removal. To do this, move the mouse cursor to the upper right corner, where the same icon with dark dots is located. Clicking on it brings up a list of possible corrective actions:

At the very bottom there is an option to insert comments for all readers who will read this message, including you. Also, everyone can evaluate your masterpiece by marking it using the Google+ button. Likewise, you can tag other people's posts.

In addition, if you wish, add an image, any link, and also share a link to this entry on Google+, Facebook and Twitter. After editing, click the “Submit” button.

In the course of the story, I to one degree or another touched on the sections “Feed”, “Collections”, “Communities”, “Profile” and “People” from left menu. Now let’s continue and go through, as far as possible, the rest of the functionality of this social network. There is a lot of useful and interesting things here. But everything is in order.

"Activity"- just above, I already mentioned the possibility of creating an invitation to an event (it could be a party, conference, dance evening, etc.) by adding it to the message. Such invitations can be very beautifully designed and immediately attract attention. Google+ allows you to do automatic download photographs taken of the event participants into a single online album. A short video on this topic:

"Alerts"- here you can familiarize yourself with the actions of other users of the social network concerning your person. For example, who gave a “+1” rating to one or another of your posts or published a new announcement in a community of which you are also a member.

"Settings", which allow you to fully optimize your Google+ profile to suit your needs. By default, they are very well thought out and are already selected for the standard user (I, in my opinion, did not change anything here). However, you can edit any of the items at any time if the need arises.

This includes General settings related to photos and videos published on Google+, profile, feed, alerts, geodata transfer, privacy. Also present here additional settings, as well as those related to recommendations from friends and target audiences.

Well, in this same section you can delete your Google Plus account (profile), if you suddenly need it. How? The deletion link is located at the very bottom of the web page.

Another interesting option "Hangouts", which allows you to broadcast video, as well as view currently ongoing video meetings in live, was previously part of the Google+ social network and was also available in the left menu of the Google plus profile.

Now, as I understand it, the status of Hangouts has changed a little, and now it is a full-fledged Google product, which is available at a separate address, like all other services. By the way, you can also use the services of this service and, if necessary, organize, for example, a video chat, inviting people from your circles to it. All this is in the spirit of modern realities.

So, your personal Google Plus profile has been created. But, if you want to promote your brand, product or service using this social network, you can create a business page, making it easier for customers to find your company on the Internet. To do this, scroll to the very bottom of your profile page, where there will be a very inconspicuous link on the left:

Click on it, which will take you to the section for creating a brand page, where you come up with and enter its name:

You can first visit the help section using the link provided and get acquainted with the details if you suddenly have any questions. After clicking the “Create” button, a window will appear in which you will need to include your freshly baked +page:

Before you take this final step, you may want to read the terms and conditions of use. Of course, their content is standard and the same for all users, but perhaps in your case some items will be unacceptable.

The created plus page will have its own address. As an example, I give the profile URL of my +page (as it will look for other users):

It can be converted in the same way as the URL for a personal profile, I talked about this above. After modification it looked like this:

So, now you have not only your personal Google Plus profile, but also a professional one to promote your brand. In principle, the settings and options +pages are similar to the main ones, you can also account enter data that will be useful in promoting the site, as well as publish entries, photos, videos, create circles and collections.

However, there are significant differences. In the upper right corner there is an icon representing a +page or photo or avatar if you have already installed them. By the way, from here you can go to all the accounts you have created, your personal Google plus profile and brand pages. There is also a link “Settings + pages”:

If you click on this link, you will be redirected to the section where you will be provided basic information about the brand page, and where you can make a variety of settings, some of which may be very useful in the future.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that simultaneously with the inclusion of a business page, not only a profile in Plus will be created for it, but also general brand account on Google, the settings and deletion of which you will proceed to if you use the “Change account details” and “Delete account” links, respectively:

It is also possible to invite assistants, setting up access rights for them, who will track the necessary information and develop the brand:

The initial work has been done. Now you can go further in terms of developing and promoting your plus page, using numerous tools, and publishing on it interesting materials so that users would like it as often as possible, repost it, and add it to their circles.

How to download Google plus app for Android for free

Time flies, and information technologies are rapidly developing along with it. Now it is impossible to imagine life without mobile devices, which are playing an increasingly important role. Therefore, almost all major services and social networks offer versions of their products for tablets, smartphones, and phones.

In this sense, Google is no exception. Its specialists developed special application For Android platforms, and the functionality of Google+ in this case is practically not inferior to the range of features that are available to PC users:

You can download Google Plus for Android absolutely free from the official service Google Play(why is it important to use only official sites for this?) directly and install on your device:

It seems that's all for today. I hope that all the basic aspects of registration, profile settings and how to use the Google+ social network have been sorted out, and you have virtually no questions left. If, however, some detail remains a mystery to you, please contact us using the comment form. Good luck to all!

6

It must be said that today, people’s communication with each other is taking on more and more new forms, and not without the help of modern IT technologies, from regular email to direct video calls!

This state of affairs in some places facilitated, and in others made direct communication between people possible. This is especially true for those who are far from each other.

So Google decided to give the world a fundamentally new social network! Everything is different here, although there is a feeling of something familiar. However, you still have never seen anything like this anywhere before!

That is why I advise you to go through this guide to using the social network Google Plus. Here you will learn about the main interface of the program and be able to understand this amazing, bright, colorful and fascinating world of Google+.

Let's start in order!

All about Google Plus +

Main interface

home work panel located vertically along left side screen. There are 8 main use buttons on it:

1. « Ribbon» – here you can read or view information published by people who are added to your circles (see below). You can also publish something for general viewing.
2. « Profile" - this is an important option in which you can leave information about yourself, upload your avatar and view all the posts you have ever published.
3. « Review» – here you can view the most popular videos, news and statements of the network.
4. « Video Meetings“This is a great opportunity to see your family, loved ones and friends. With this option, you can gather all your friends for communication without leaving your home, creating a video meeting with several people at once, or joining an already created meeting.
5. « Photo» – this button speaks for itself. Here you can create your albums, upload interesting photos, and also post photos in the “Photos with me” column, where you can tag your person.
6. « Circles» – this button is one of the most visible Google differences+ from other social networks. Using circles you can divide people into groups. Initially there are four of them: “Family”, “Friends”, “Acquaintances” and “Subscriptions”. If necessary, you can create new circles (see below). This separation allows you to control the accessibility of the information you have on your page. For example, what the “Family” circle of people will see, people from the “Friends” circle will not be able to see. With circles you can add new people that interest you. Read more about how to use circles below.
7. « Games"- the name speaks for itself. This column contains a large number of flash games for every taste. To start playing one of them, just click on its icon. And you will find yourself in an amazing virtual world!
8. « More“- when you hover over this button, a small tab “+Pages” appears on the right. When you click on this tab, a window will appear in front of you displaying all the pages that you have been given access to or that you have created yourself. Pages can be in five categories: Business or Place, Product or Brand, Company or Organization, Arts, Entertainment or Sports, and Other. In the community, you can also use video meetings, create circles and publish events and news that interest you.

Home page

If you click on the “Google+” icon in the upper left corner, the main page of the network with your account will be displayed on your screen. At the very top there is a search bar with which you can find news, communities, videos or people on Google+ that interest you.

Below the search bar there are four tabs: “Feed”, “Friends”, “Family”, “More”. When you click on the “Feed” tab, you will see all the news, events and publications from the pages to which you have a subscription and to which you have access. The remaining tabs are circles. When you click on one of these tabs, you will see publications by people belonging to a particular circle.

To the right of the tabs is a gear icon. If you click on it, a dialog box with four columns will pop up: “Settings”, “Help”, “Leave feedback”, “ Short review» .

The “Settings” column allows you to adjust your Google+ page. When you click on “Settings” you will see notification settings, basic privacy settings and working with photos. There will be six sections on the left side of the screen: “Account Settings”, “Privacy”, “Google+”, “Products”, “Language”, “Data Export”. When you click on the “Settings” button, you are automatically taken to the “Google+” section, where an almost completely intuitive interface is made, and in those places where questions may arise there is a “More details” link, when you click on it you are taken to clear instructions that allow you to complete the action you need.

"Account settings" . There is nothing complicated here either. In this section you can change your password, change your email address, enable or disable the “+1” function (it allows Google system+ find content and ads that suit you from other websites, based on the data in your profile, while maintaining your right to privacy), connect accounts from other servers (Facebook, Yahoo, Flicker, etc.) to Google+, delete your profile and all information about it, as well as delete the entire account. Here you can set up “Two-Step Verification”. This feature will help you strengthen the access security of your page.

In order to do this, you need to click opposite “Two-Step Verification” on the “Change” link. You will see a window showing the preliminary steps for authentication. Next, you need to click the “Continue” button on the right side of the screen. In the next window you will be asked to enter the mobile phone number to which the code will be sent. Enter and click “Send code”, after receiving the code via SMS, enter it into the field that appears and click “Next”. After this it will be written that everything was successful.

On no reliable computers this procedure will need to be carried out every time, and on reliable ones only once every 30 days, and if your number changes or another one appears, you can always change it (or add it) in your profile using this algorithm: Account Settings/Security/2-Step Verification/Edit/Phone/Edit (to change); Account Settings/Security/Two-Step Verification/Edit/Additional Phone Number/Add Phone Number(for adding).

"Confidentiality". Here you can configure information access to your page, privacy (which of your friends can be seen by other users), change access settings for photos, visit Personal Area(in which you can make a large number of profile settings), read the system’s privacy policy. In this section, everything is built on intuition, so there is no point in thoroughly analyzing each aspect. The only thing is that you should talk a little more about setting up the circles. When you follow the “Setting up circles” link, you will be taken to the sixth button of the “Main interface” (see section I. Main interface). All your social circles will be presented to you. If you want to expand your social circle, simply drag the desired contact into it.

You can also perform several manipulations with circles

When you click on the “Change circle” button, a window will pop up in which there will be two lines: the upper (narrower) one for entering the name, the lower one for describing the circle. Delete the previous information and enter new information, click “Save”. That's it, the circle has changed.

When you click the “Delete Circle” button, a window pops up with a number of warnings about the consequences of deleting a circle, including the loss of communication with circle members.

You can also create a new circle. To do this, you need to click on the dotted circle or drag the contact you need into it. In both cases, you will need to click on the inscription “Create a circle” located in the center of the circle. After this, a window will pop up in which you will have to enter the name of the circle; if you want to make a description of it, you will need to click on the sentence under the name line “Click to add a description”. Next, you must select circle participants. This can be done by searching on the right side of the “Search in a circle” window, or through the “+ Add” button located in the left corner of the window. After all this, click “Create circle”.

These are some simple manipulations with circles.

"Products" . This section shows you which Google systems you use, and also displays the services of other users with similar preferences.

"Language" . This section allows you to change or add the language of Google products.

"Data Export". Here you can download photos, videos, profile data, circles, contacts, posts from the Google+ system to your PC.

Also in the gear sign there are columns “Help”, in which you can find all the information you need, “Send feedback” and “Brief review” (here we talk about new products on Google+).

Also on home page in the upper right corner there are three buttons: “Start a video meeting”, “Account name” (to change the state), “Chat with the user”.

When you click the “Start video meeting” button, a message will pop up in front of you. separate window. In order for you to be able to communicate via Google+, you will be asked to install a special plugin. Click install. Installation takes no more than three minutes. Further in the center at the bottom is the image of your webcam. Above the image there will be the inscription “Add more people”. Click on this button and select your interlocutors, then click “Start”. You can also create a public meeting that anyone can join. To do this, click the green “Join” button.

When you click on “Account name”, a dialog box will appear in which with one click you can select your state: “On the spot”, “Do not disturb”, “Invisible”. You can also use this button to exit the chat by clicking on the line of the same name.

The “Chat with user” button allows you to invite the person you need to chat. You just need to click on the inscription, enter the contact’s address, press “Enter” and click on the inscription to send an invitation.

These were the most basic tools for using the Google Plus system. This is quite enough to start an exciting journey through the vast expanses of the new social network. There are many additional features, tricks and subtleties here. But it would take a whole book to describe them all! And it would hardly be interesting to find out everything at once, without even having time to log into a social network.

So, for the rest, you'll have to figure it out yourself. This will not be difficult, because the Google+ developers have made sure that everything is very clear on their social network.

“Project manager of the Business Motor team, webmaster, copywriter.
Google Plus is a great opportunity to get high rankings in Google. We show a real-life example of how to reach the TOP with posts from your Google Plus account.”

For many webmasters, marketers and owners of commercial sites, promoting a project on Google Plus does not seem so necessary. Indeed, in comparison with other social networks (for example, VK or Facebook), it can hardly be called popular and quite “alive” - especially in RuNet. It seems that the target audience in Google Plus is extremely limited and inactive, which means there is no point in investing resources in this area of ​​SMM.

However, as practice shows, the benefits of promoting on Google Plus go far beyond social communications. Proper management of a business account helps to attract customers from organic search engine results and solve a number of important problems. We will talk about how this works and why Google Plus should be used to attract traffic in our article today.

Google Plus and SERP: history of relationship

Google began experimenting with incorporating materials from its own social network into organic results almost immediately after its creation. At one time, the possibility of assigning authorship to materials and displaying information about the author of the content in the search results generated quite a lively response from webmasters. It looked something like this:

However, Google was not satisfied with the implementation of the idea, and changes to the algorithm followed one after another. First, most of the authors disappeared from the search results: only the most authoritative ones remained. Then the photo was completely excluded from the snippet, but the link to the author’s Google Plus profile remained:

Finally, in August 2014, the search engine completely abandoned the use of authorship markup. Official confirmation of this has been posted in the Search Console Help.

Fortunately for the social network, this was not the end of the attempts to introduce results from Google Plus into organic search results, because for a not very successful project this could have become the engine for development - thereby giving it a competitive advantage over Facebook.

One of the trends that is still relevant today is adding to SERP ( Search Engine Results Page - search results page) of the most relevant posts from Google Plus. Read below about the practical application of this tool and its effectiveness in attracting traffic.

Case: posts from Google Plus in the TOP of search results

An example of how activity in Google Plus helps to attract traffic from a search engine is the position of the official website of the Business-Motor Company in organic Google results:

The post from the social network was in second place for a group of highly competitive low-frequency queries: “creating a website for a medical center”, “creating a website for a medical center”, “creating a website for a clinic”, the same key phrases with the word “development...” and also a number of others. At least the abundance speaks about competition on demand contextual advertising: Absolutely all advertising spaces on the page have been purchased. There is no doubt that the cost of a click on these ads is very significant. It is also important that due to the account avatar, the snippet becomes more visible and attractive than other search results.

It is noteworthy that the page itself, to which the post refers, is not present at all in the TOP10. In other words, if it were not for promotion on Google Plus, the chances of attracting customers would be this request would tend to zero.

The conversion of clicks to a post on a social network can also be very high, because technically it represents one large, bright link to a page on the company’s website:

The moral of this observation is quite simple: relatively low-cost promotion of a company’s official Google Plus account allows it to rank high in search results. Even where competitors spend impressive budgets on SEO and contextual advertising.

The only “but”: posts from Google Plus in SERP will be seen only by the user who is currently authorized in any of the Google services. Fortunately, today there are still a majority of them (just look at the popularity of the Gmail email service).

In the event that the user is anonymous in relation to the search engine, he will receive only “regular” search results, without inserts from Google+:

What else is useful for promoting on Google Plus?

There are other positive factors associated with promoting an account on the Google social network:

• Speed ​​up indexing of new pages. Let links from Google Plus be closed with the nofollow attribute, they are indexed and can attract attention search robots to new materials on your site.
• There is an opinion that links from Google Plus are taken into account when calculating, which, in turn, affects their ranking.
• A certain part of users who switch to an account on Google+ become subscribers, like (+1), share interesting posts, etc. All this happens even in the absence of an effective selling website as such and can become additional channel attracting clients. By the way, an increase in the number of views, “likes” and subscribers makes the company’s account more authoritative, which, in turn, affects the ranking of posts from it in search results.
• Contacts from Google Plus can be pulled into AdWords ads, which can improve their effectiveness:

That I will write an article about the advantages of the Google+ social network, and now it’s time to fulfill my promise. This is a really cool social network with a lot of advantages that many people simply don’t know or don’t notice. Even those who are registered there do not quite understand why they should be there. “There are no people there” is not an argument. There are a lot of people there, just not many post-Soviet ones. In general, let's sort it out...

U Google+ there are actually a lot of advantages. Yes, it itself is written with a plus sign, which ambiguously hints to us that the social network is not simple, but with a lot of advantages and a small number of disadvantages (where would we be without them).

Pros of Google+:

Beauty. Undoubtedly, Google+ is one of the most beautiful social networks. The sexy feed, the layout of the posts, the design, the animation - all this is very pleasing to the eye. Minimalism, which frees the mind from heavy details and gives room for imagination without excesses. Google+ is a beautiful social network.

User-friendly interface. Everything is as simple and intuitive as possible. You don't have to know much to find something. Minimum clicks, maximum control with just mouse movements. Move the arrow to the left edge of the monitor and a menu and tabs will immediately appear. Point the arrow at your avatar and a small window with action options will immediately pop up. Everything is light and everything is fast!

Integration. Google+ is strongly interconnected with everything that has at least something of Google at its root. This helps a lot, from using chrome to managing a blog on a blogger. Do you have an Android? Oh-oh-oh, there’s not even anything to say, your smartphone is full of Google+, he’s in love with it and everything, from photos to documents, can easily go back and forth!

Possibility of flooding. Some may consider this Google+ feature a minus. But I, as a person who has been promoting my project on social networks for many years, can say that this is a gift from above. Publics that mostly belong only to admins? Pfft, there's no such thing here! Material in communities is constructed and collected by community members. This is cool and it helps when promoting your blog and when you want to show off your creativity and efforts.

Facilitation and automaticity. Everything is automatic and done in such a way as to make life easier for Googlers. For example, here’s a feature that automatically writes hashtags for you: did you post a photo of the Eiffel Tower? Google+ will write the hashtag #travel or #Paris for you. Yes, these are not fairy tales. And in the settings of your Android, you can configure automatic uploading of photos to an album on Google+. This makes it easier and eliminates unnecessary body movements.

Flexibility. Google+ is a flexible social network. It adjusts to your screen size. If you have a desktop, big size screen, then the screen will show 3 columns in the feed, which in some places will beautifully alternate with large posts on all three or two columns. If you have a small screen size, for example, if you have a netbook, then a single-column ribbon will be visible. What I mean is that Google+ is not like VKontakte, where the SATIC feed and page offers only one (very small) font (when simply scrolling), which can only be seen after you press “Ctrl +” several times.

Google+ Hangouts. Hangouts are the biggest and most significant advantage of this social network! This is a service for video calls. Don't rush to snort, this is not your ordinary Skype. In addition to conversations within hangouts, you can also conduct live broadcasts from it, free conferences for up to 12 people simultaneously, stream a video conversation (address) directly to YouTube, record videos and automatically configure video uploading after the conversation to YouTube. It's very convenient and incredibly original! In addition, hangouts is a messenger. Two androidophiles should not call or write to each other through the services of a telecom operator at all, just get yourself unlimited Internet and go ahead.

Cons of Google+:

Unusuality. After VKontakte and other well-known sites in which you are usually used to surfing, you will feel some discomfort. But it won't last long. After a while you will easily get used to it.

Few people are on the RuNet. What is, that is... There are few Russian-speaking people there. At times I compare them to pioneer seafarers who show others the way and new lands. There are quite a few Runet ones there, but the main part still lives on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki. And even those who are on Google+ post links there, just for show. I hope this will change over time. After all, writing on Google+ is a pleasure!

Transparency. This is true. All your movements, letters, etc. - all this is visible to Google itself and they have the right to read all this if they want. Well, show me a social network where this is not done. Even if they say that, under no circumstances, etc., etc., this does not mean that they are not monitoring your market, roughly speaking. Here everything is extremely clear and there is nothing even to say. The only difference between Google+ and other social networks is that Google+ at least openly admits and warns about this.

Results

If I had the courage, I would really completely switch to Google+ and would only work with him. But it turns out that your desires do not coincide with reality. All your friends are on VKontakte, all your studies (classmates, university groups, conferences with questions about classes) are also there, so all you have to do is rush back and forth. Whatever it is, over time we will learn which social network is best.

Leave your thoughts on all this in the comments. Thank you!

Has recently gained enormous popularity (40% search traffic Runet belongs to Google) due to its versatility, ease of use and a huge range of auxiliary tools and services. All these qualities brought this search engine leaders in such services.

One of the company’s successful developments was the Google+ project. This is a social network model that allows participants to unite depending on their interests, hobbies or any specific events, allows for video meetings, online chat and mobile communication. Its main difference from similar social networks is the relative simplicity of the registration process and the minimum provision of necessary information. Today, there are more than 1.8 million Runet users who have an account in the Google+ service.

The basis of Google+ and the main principles of its work was the ability to create so-called communication circles, or interest groups. In other words, this is the formation of communication, where participants unite into one cluster and independently determine which of the participants will have access to this or that information, files or applications. The service is also useful for those users who, due to the nature of their profession, can and want to share their product with potential consumers of services or other material.

1. How to register for Google+

Registration in the Google+ service begins with creating an account in common system Google. To do this, you need to log in to https://accounts.google.com/SignUp and fill out the form with the relevant information. When you register an account, your postal address Gmail, this service is a development Google and is included in all Google applications. Please note that when registering, you can use another email address from other postal services. In this case, the form will undergo minor changes.

When you create an account, you have the opportunity to use many Google services without additional registration.

After successful creation account, the user has the opportunity to add his photos, change contact information about yourself, edit the calendar of planned events and join various communities, or circles, as described earlier.

2. Search and add friends on Google+

Adding to your circle of friends is done by searching for them by last name and first name in the corresponding search section. It is also possible to find colleagues in a certain field of activity or for specific life events, for example, it will not be difficult to find your classmate by first indicating the school and region in which you studied together, or by the name of the company where you have ever worked, it is possible to find your a colleague I know.

Once you have found the right person, simply click on the mouse button on his profile to “Follow” or “Add to Circles” and you can start communicating with your friend, colleague or classmate.

3. Create and manage circles

It is not difficult to create a circle based on the interests of communication. To do this, you need to go to the “My Circles” subsection in the same “People” section and click the “+” icon to create a social circle based on your interests. By default, 4 types of communities are provided - “Family”, “Friends”, “Acquaintances” and “Subscription”. The names of these circles can be edited, for which you need to click on one of them and click on “Edit circle” and enter the desired name for it.

In addition, in the “People” section you can track which circles you are in with other users.

You can add friends to any of the circles by simply dragging the person’s profile into the selected circle, and convenient function Importing contacts from other services will allow you to quickly expand your circle of friends.

An interesting application “Change Circle Images for Google+ Plus” will allow you to diversify the graphical selection of circles and add zest to your account by selecting appropriate pictures to highlight a particular circle.

Privacy management allows you to hide your information from unwanted circles and limit it, for example, only to the availability of a phone number or email address. The level of publicity of information about the user is established directly during registration.

4. Manage your own profile

Designing your own profile allows you to make your online personality unique and easily recognizable. Visualizing you as an interlocutor begins with choosing a photo of yourself that will be reflected in your friends or colleagues. To do this, you need to move the cursor to the location of your photo and click on the “Change profile photo” button and select the appropriate photo. Using a similar action, you can change the background of your profile, or the so-called page cover.

After setting the desired result, it is possible to see how your profile is reflected among other users by checking the box next to “..for everyone” in the “What my profile looks like” section in the upper left part of the screen.

Your profile has a convenient function for managing surveys among members of a particular circle. By asking questions, you can determine one or another inclination of your friends to certain interests, and depending on the results obtained, it is possible to move them to other, more suitable circles, which gives you the opportunity to filter topics for communication.

The Google+ service allows you to monitor current events in the world in the “Feed” section. Your friends can share information that interests them and leave feedback. It is possible to subscribe to news resources depending on your interests and social circle. This principle is used on Twitter and has proven itself to be the most functional and effective method obtaining information.

The ability to filter news from certain circles allows you to stay up to date only on topics that interest you, without clogging information space other publications. Also, to avoid tape overload, it is possible to install maximum amount news both from a certain circle and from the entire feed.

Additional features allow you to post excerpts or a complete news feed from your Google+ account on your website. Obtaining a code for posting a post on a website page is possible by clicking on the pointer icon in the post and selecting the required item from the menu.

The ability to translate both the entire news feed and individual entries is provided by a relatively new addition to the service - Google Translate for Google+. A dictionary database is used for translation Google service Translate.

6. Communication via Hangouts

The Hangouts section allows you to share your photos, short messages and hold video meetings with everyone who has a Google account. If your friend does not have an account, a message will be sent to him by e-mail with an invitation to hold a video meeting. You can watch the best video broadcasts live and leave your comments. It is possible to communicate with several users.

Options for communication between users using Hangouts features:

• chat (a traditional opportunity to correspond with your interlocutors);
• video conference (communication using a webcam);
• phone calls;
• short messages;

During video conferences, it is possible to take screenshots, for which you just need to click on the corresponding button at the bottom of the screen and share them with your friends or post them on your website.

7. Photos on Google+

Google+ allows you to auto-upload and save your photos and videos taken using mobile device or downloaded from desktop computers and laptops. By default, photos can only be accessed by the account owner, but based on the access granted, other users of the service can also view the content.

Photos that are uploaded manually or using an automatic service can be edited in terms of size - standard and original. The first ones are more suitable for posting on the Internet, and the second option for printing. It should be noted that photographs standard size It is possible to upload unlimited quantities to your account, unlike the original photographs. This is due large sizes source files.

Users with whom you have shared access to your photo collection have the option of downloading photographs, but it is also possible to prohibit downloading by the copyright holder, in which case the photographs will only be available in viewing mode.

The set of tools includes the ability to add a variety of effects and edit photographs, which adds the functionality of a small graphic editor, and the photo search function will allow you to determine the location of the photograph.

Universal login using Google+ account
Google+ developers have made it possible for account holders to authorize and log into third-party sites without registering on them, using the information contained in their Google+ account. This, first of all, saves the user’s time and eliminates the need to fill out lengthy registration forms again. Such third-party sites include other social networks, gaming or information sites, resources containing music or video content.

8. Google+ Security

The Google+ service has multi-level protection of information contained in a member’s profile, as well as dynamic protection of the password and other unique account components. You can change your password at any time.

Two-step authentication when logging into an account is further confirmation of the administration’s emphasis on security in the information field. This function is not provided by default, but is activated at the request of the user. The two-step authentication mechanism involves, in addition to specifying the login password, entering the received code into mobile phone as an additional password, which allows you to verify the authenticity of the user.

The service also offers to set this or that computer as reliable. This function ensures that there is no need to confirm a password each time you log into your account, but the user must be sure that only he has access to this computer, otherwise the administration is not responsible for the safety of information.

Personal data management and account operations
Data management allows you to personally manage certain settings of your account, choose the optimal formats for a particular application and the amount of available space for storing information. For example, upon registration, the user is given a free limit on the volume of content (15 megabytes), but if desired, it is possible to increase this volume, however, this service is already in the paid section of the service - the “change tariff” function.

It is possible to delete your account, but this procedure should be treated with special attention, since the information and contacts contained in the account disappear irrevocably, and existing unfinished financial operations must be closed.

We can conclude that Google+ today is very powerful service with a variety of tools and functions. Google developers and administration are constantly adding to their portfolio additional features and improve existing tools.