When Google developed Google+, it created a SEO powerhouse designed to dominate search results above Facebook, Twitter and all other social media platforms.
Want to take advantage of this domination and get your resort noticed in search results?
Here’s a simple guide to using Google+ as a powerful SEO tool.
Your Google+ Profile
Let’s start with your resort’s Google+ profile.
Page Title
The SEO title for your Google+ profile is simply your property’s name followed by Google+.
Meta Description
Your profile’s meta description should include a brief but compelling overview of your services and location, targeting relevant keywords. Only 160 characters of what you write here will display in search results, so keep that in mind.
Links
Google+ allows you to embed links back to your resort’s website within your Introduction. You should also take the opportunity to link to your resort’s most used social media profiles in the Links section. These are dofollow links, which means Google uses them to help determine your search ranking.
Google+ Pages
Now let’s take a quick look at how to optimise your resort’s Google+ pages.
SEO Title
The title of your Google+ page holds considerable SEO weight. As before, it should simply be the name of your property, followed by Google+.
Meta Description
Located beneath your page title, your meta description will be your page name, tagline and the first part of your intro, cutting off at 160 characters.
Links
Once again, you can embed links within your page introduction and link to your resort’s Facebook and Twitter accounts in the Links section. These are dofollow links.
Google+ Local Pages
If your resort has set up a page on Google+ Local, there are a few on-page optimisation strategies to try out.
SEO Title
This should be your resort’s name followed by Google+.
Meta Description
The meta description should be a short overview of your property, describing your best features and facilities.
Links
Unfortunately, the website link for your Google+ Local page is nofollow, which means it will have no impact on your page’s search ranking. However, since it will show up in local search results and Google Maps, it makes good sense to add one anyway.
Google+ Updates
Google+ optimisation doesn’t stop at pages and profiles; you can optimise your updates too…
SEO Title
As you might guess, the SEO title for your update should include the title of the page, followed by Google+ and then the first lines of the actual update itself.
Meta Description
The meta description should describe the update. For instance, if you’re drawing attention to a new blog post on the best local restaurants, you might put ‘Discover the places to eat everyone’s talking about on the Gold Coast. Check out our latest blog post now!’
Links
If your update includes a link (to your latest blog post, for example), the link will be dofollow.
These simple on-page SEO techniques, coupled with all-important social signals (whether the searcher is a member of your Circles or following you) determine your ranking position on Google+.
And thanks to the way Google gives favour to its own social network, Google+ profiles and pages tend to rank on the first page when it comes to regular search results too, so you’re missing out on some valuable visibility if you’re not onboard.
Have you optimised your Google+ presence for search? Let us know in the comments!
