3 Ways to Use Google+ to Increase Search Rankings

Do you want to increase your search rankings?

Did you know your Google+ page and profile could help?

Google+ can help you increase search rankings for your website, but you have to take the time to optimize your page, profile and content.

This article shows you three ways you can maximize your Google+ presence and tells you why that’s important for SEO.

Why Google+ for search?

Google+ isn’t just another social media platform; it’s a powerful weapon in your SEO arsenal.

Check out Moz’s recent Future of Search Report for the latest on ranking factors.

SEO ranking correlations. Image source: The Future of Search: 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors Released, by Moz.

Editor’s Note: This article has been edited as there’s been a change and the links on the About tab of Google+ Page and Profile are no longer DoFollow links.

The reason Google+ is an SEO goldmine is that the first link added to a Google+ page post is a DoFollow link, which means it passes link equity, or link juice, on to the website you share. If you’re sharing your website, you’re getting the link juice.

DoFollow links are a core building block of SEO. They work in conjunction with PageRank, TrustRank and link context to determine how you rank for specific keywords.

#1: Optimizing Your Google+ Page for Search Ranking

Spending a little time to optimize your information can reap big rewards. With five easy tweaks to your Google+ business page and personal profile, you can build a strong foundation for SEO success.

SEO Title

The SEO title is the name of your Google+ business page (be sure you’re using your company name here). Avoid trying to stuff any keywords into the SEO title—it’s unprofessional and has little SEO value.

Custom Page URL

Google+ recently rolled out the Custom URL feature. This is great news for companies that want to include cleaner links in their marketing. Your new customized URL looks like this: https://plus.google.com/+YourCompanyName.

To set your custom Google+ page or profile URL:

• Go to your page or profile and click About.
• Scroll down to the Links box. You’ll see your existing Google+ page URL.
• Click on the link and Google+ asks you if you want to convert to a new custom Google+ page URL.

Below you can see where I’ve customized the URL for my personal Google+ page to JamesThomasUK.

Google+ Links section.

SEO Meta Description

The SEO meta description for your page combines your tagline and the first two sentences of your introduction. You only get 160 characters, so make them count.

Google+ Intro section.

To edit your meta description or tagline, go to your Google+ business page and follow these instructions:

• Click the Manage This Page button at the top of the page.
• Click Edit Page on the section with your page name on it.
• Click Edit in the Story section on the next page.
• Make your changes and click Save.

It’s smart to include one or two of your target SEO keywords in your description.

Google+ Authorship

Google+ authorship is an important ranking factor and one that you may not know about. Authorship tags each piece of content you create and lets Google know you created it.

Without Google+ authorship, you’re losing potential link juice and SEO. Eric Schmidt, author of The New Digital Age, says, “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification…”

There are two ways to set up Google+ authorship to “claim” your own content:

• If you have an email address that matches your domain (i.e., john@yourURL.com), you can go to the Google+ Authorship page and simply enter your email address to complete the process.
• If you don’t have an email address that matches your domain, then you’ll have toinclude a Google+ link to your profile in the author bio of any site you write for. You’ll use this format: <a href=“[profile_url]?rel=author”>Google</a>

If you need more help, Google has provided a more detailed guide in the Support section of Google Webmaster Tools.

The image below shows what a correct Google+ authorship looks like. You can see that my picture and Google+ information are included next to my name.

Google+ authorship information as it appears in search engine results.

#2: Posting Content

Once you’ve optimized your Google+ page and profile and correctly set up authorship, you’re ready to start posting content. This is the quickest and easiest way to build a solid following on Google+ because at the end of the day, content is still king.

The Anatomy of A Perfect Google+ Post. Image source: Dustn.tv.

When posting content to your Google+ profile or page, follow these guidelines:

• Share a summary of the content you’re linking to. Don’t go overboard; short and simple are fine.
• Don’t include the link in the Summary box. Instead, put the link in the Link Attachment area so you’ll get the SEO benefit of a DoFollow link.
• Share the content with any of your existing circles.
• Check the box that allows you to email your Google+ update to your circles, if you think this is something a specific Circle in your audience would like.

Google+ post setup.

#3: Connecting the Dots

Now it’s time to pull all of your efforts together and start tracking your results. You cantrack every piece of Google+ content you distribute or just a chosen few.

Tracking the content you share on Google+ allows you to correlate SEO gains and ranking increases against Google +1s and other social signals. An easy way to keep an eye on what’s working and what’s not is to assign each Google+ link a custom URL, then review its stats weekly in Google Analytics.

To set up a custom URL, open Google URL Builder in a new tab and complete the information. Here’s an overview of each section and what you should type in:

• Website URL: Enter the URL of the content you want to share and measure.
• Campaign Source: This is the platform you’re using to distribute the content—in this case, Google+.
• Campaign Medium: The medium is how you’re sharing your content. This could be a tweet, Facebook status or LinkedIn update. In this instance, the campaign medium is Google+ Post.
• Campaign Term: You can skip this one for now. It’s not used for this campaign.
• Campaign Content: Type in the title of what you’re sharing; for example, “How to measure social media traffic.”
• Campaign Name: Use something simple you can easily recognize later when you’re sifting through Google Analytics; for example, “January’s Google+ campaign.”

When you’ve completed the URL Builder form, click Submit and you’ll get your appended URL. If you like, you can use a URL shortener like bit.ly to make it look cleaner.

Use Google+  to increase your SEO ranking.

With so many changes in the Google search algorithm, it’s important to keep up with what matters—and right now, Google+ matters. Taking the time to optimize your page and profile, share interesting content and track your efforts puts you on the path to higher SEO rankings.

What do you think? Have you seen value from your company’s Google+ page? Share your experience in the comments!

Source: Socialmediaexaminer

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Valentine's Day: 8 Days ~ Cute Valentine's Breakfast Recipes

Show your loved ones how much you care by starting their day with these tasty recipes. From heart shaped cranberry muffins to sweetheart cinammon rolls , these recipes are a great option for breakfast in bed, or something to surprise the kids with in the morning.

1. Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

Whether you have a special someone, children who love cute food, or just want to treat yourself this Valentine’s Day, these muffins are the perfect breakfast treat. Read more

2. Ham and Egg Crepe Squares

Breakfast never looked so elegant. These crepes are lined with Black Forest ham, with a sunny-side-up egg peeking out of each. Read more

3. Heart Shaped Eggs

This breakfast takes just about 20 minutes to prepare, so it is fast enough to fix for the kids before heading out the door to work or school! Basically this breakfast is all about cooking eggs in a heart shaped muffin tin. Read more

4. Heart Bread with Cheese & Nutella

This is a super sweet and kindhearted breakfast-in-bed grilled cheese that will make your lovie super excited! Read more

5. Cranberry Sweetheart Scones

Their light texture and fruity flavor make these heart-shaped scones a treat for your sweetie. Read more

6. Sweetheart Cinnamon Rolls

A sweetheart of a treat for Valentine’s Day! Make these heart-shaped cinnamon rolls for your sweeties in just 25 minutes. Read more

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Valentine's Day: 9 Days ~ Last-Minute Decoration Ideas for Your Home

For the coming Valentine’s Day, have you prepare your home and get ready for the romantic holiday? In this post, we will present you with some Cool and Beautiful Decorating Ideas For Valentine’s Day, which not only cover your living room, but all your home.

1. Crayon Hearts

If the sun seems to peer right into your window, give it something pretty to look at -- and through. These translucent hanging hearts are easy to make from waxed paper and crayons. Read more

2. Love Letters

Spell out L-O-V-E or any word using inexpensive chipboard or wood letters covered in decorative paper. Use finished letters to create a banner or mantel display. source

3. Heart Spools Valentine Plaque

Cozy charm spills from this Valentine's Day accent. The easy plaque comes together quickly with only a few supplies. Read more

4. Crepe Paper Rose Topiary

What is more perfect than this crepe paper rose topiary for Valentine's Day? Read more

5. Jar of Heart Picks

This is a simple jar of heart picks. You could make several of these. This is more of a natural, rustic type decor for Valentine's Day. Read more

Happy Valentine's Day!

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How to Analyze your Social Media Activities with Excel ~ Part 2

Are you looking for a way to analyze the impact of your content?

Do you need a simple system that works?

If you don’t have the budget for expensive software, spreadsheets and a little of your time can produce some useful data.

In this article I’ll show you how to analyze the engagement and impact of your social media posts using Excel.

#4: Collect Your Data

Time to fill in your spreadsheet! There are a number of ways to do this, depending on the networks you use.

Below is an example of a spreadsheet for a retail company using the above-defined categories, subcategories, targets and meta-tags.

Populate your spreadsheet with post details.

There’s a lot of information to gather, but it’s all easy to find.

Twitter Analytics has an Export feature for your last 500 tweets, and Facebook Insights can be exported in 180-day chunks. Export regularly to make sure your data is current.

Use a tool like bit.ly to keep track of your link clicks. If you tend to post the same link multiple times, make sure you’re attributing your click to the right content by using tools like HootSuite‘s Click Report or BufferApp to track which specific posts generate the clicks. Each of these tools has free versions that allow you tomeasure posts on multiple networks.

#5: Sort Your Data

To identify your best-performing content across all of your networks, sort the Total Engagement column in descending order.

Sort by Total Engagement.

The best-performing posts in terms of engagement show at the top of the column.

After sorting by Total Engagement, your most successful posts show at the top of the spreadsheet.

To find the best-performing posts for specific social networks like Twitter or Instagram, filter first by Network, then by Total Engagement.

Filter your spreadsheet to find the posts with the highest engagement on each network.

#6: Analyze Categories

The next step is to manually filter for the categories and subcategories you’re interested in reviewing.

This spreadsheet is filtered to show only Product category posts.

Excel is very literal, so if you include more than one category or subcategory assigned to content, you’ll need to use the “contains” input in the Excel Filter feature, rather than selecting the check boxes. Use this setting to see the rows in the column that have multiple subcategories assigned, and those with just one.

Use the “contains” filter to show Product category posts that cross into multiple subcategories.

Once you identify the top posts in your categories, it’s time to analyze them for post copy, sentence structure and images (if applicable). What trends can help youoptimize content for each network?

Here are examples of three posts that promoted the same link.

A comparison of three posts promoting the same link shows that engagement was highest with men.

In this case, analysis shows that the shorter post lengths received more engagement. Among these similar posts about sweaters, the post using two different images generated a higher click-through rate with males than with females.

Conclusion

You don’t have to rely on intuition to find out which posts perform best for you. Use Excel to reveal important insights about post engagement in nearly real time andmake more informed decisions about your content strategy.

What do you think? How are you currently measuring the impact of your content? Do you have other strategies or tools that you use? Please leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Source: Socialmediaexaminer

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Valentine's Day: 10 Days ~ Drinks & Cocktails to Celebrate Love

Planning a romantic dinner this Valentine's Day? Great drinks can compliment your meal and give you a chance to impress with your cocktail skills. Champagne makes an appearance in many of these drinks, as do many of the "love" foods like chocolate and strawberry.

1. Raspberry Chocolate Kiss Cocktail

This romantic raspberry-chocolate cocktail, from chef Michael Schulson, is the perfect apertif for a Valentine's Day celebration. Read more

2. Blushing Geisha

Here is a sensuous drink with a beautiful mix of flowers that is perfect for Valentine's Day or any romantic occasion. The Blushing Geisha is light on the alcohol but the bouquet is anything but light.  Read more

3. Chocolatini

The cocktail for chocoholics everywhere! Read more

4. Romance Cocktail

The Romance cocktail is all about coffee, chocolate and cream flavors. It’s sinfully rich and sweet. Read more

5. Sangria Margarita

Matt's El Rancho in Austin combines two festive drinks in its sangria margarita. Read more

6. Honolulu Lulu

The Honolulu Lulu got its name from the fact that it’s all liquor – every last drop. This drink is short, but it packs a pretty strong punch. Read more

Happy Valentine's Day!

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How to Analyze Your Social Media Activities With Excel ~ Part 1

Are you looking for a way to analyze the impact of your content?

Do you need a simple system that works?

If you don’t have the budget for expensive software, spreadsheets and a little of your time can produce some useful data.

In this article I’ll show you how to analyze the engagement and impact of your social media posts using Excel.

Why Analyze?

No matter the size of your business, when it comes to social media you want to build two things: engagement and community.

To ensure that you deliver great content that resonates with your fans and followers, you need to track, test and measure the posts you put on your social networks.

It’s really that simple.

Here’s how:

#1: Build Your Spreadsheet

To begin, open Excel and create 14 columns that will contain the following categories to incorporate all of the information you need on your social media updates and posts:

• Date
• Network
• Categories
• Subcategories
• Target
• Calls to action
• Meta-tags
• Posts
• Impressions
• Comments (replies)
• Likes (favorites)
• Shares (retweets)
• Clicks
• Total engagement

An example spreadsheet (target, meta-tags, posts and impressions hidden).

The last four columns are where you store the engagement numbers for your content. Every network has three basic engagement actions: like, comment and share. Even on Instagram, which does not have a repost function built into it, there’s user behavior of reposting and tagging the original author.

Use this spreadsheet to store data and analyze your content.

#2: Identify Categories and Subcategories

You’ll need to decide on the information below and make a note of it before moving on to step #4 below where you fill in the spreadsheet.

Categories

Base your categories on the major topics of your posts and use them to identify major trends in content performance across each network. Examples of categories are:

• Product: Posts about major product categories.
• Holiday/seasonal: Posts with seasonal themes, which are especially helpful for e-commerce businesses.
• Third-party content: Posts with content from other websites such as news, articles and blog posts.

Create as many categories as you like, but keep them manageable and general. Save the specifics for subcategories.

Subcategories

Break down categories into smaller subcategories. This enables you to identify microtrends, as well as which pieces of content work the best and the worst. Based on the categories above, examples could include:

• Specific product names or features.
• Specific names of holidays or campaigns you’re running for a particular season.
• Specific website names from which you pull content or categories of topics for articles such as “humor,” “lifestyle” or “beauty.”

Subcategories can be as specific as you like, but keep them thematic. Each subcategory should have at least three posts; otherwise it may be too specific and better suited as a meta-tag (more on that later).

Keep your categories broad and use subcategories to drill down. Image Source: iStockPhoto.

#3: Outline Your Targets and Calls to Action

These two columns require the most forethought and a good understanding of your target market and business goals. You’ll need this information to fill out these columns on your spreadsheet.

Target

The target is whom you’re speaking to with your content. Your business may have multiple targets based on the people and decision-makers who engage with your content and purchase your products. For the sake of simplicity, we will use “male” and “female” as target examples.

However, I encourage you to spend time considering the different types of people in your audience and build context around those individuals to inform your content strategy.

Calls to Action

CTAs take many forms, depending on the individual goals of the post in each category. Just keep in mind that not all posts need CTAs and not all CTAs must be related to products.

Examples of CTAs include:

• Subscribe
• Visit website
• Buy now
• Share

Enter your calls to action to help you monitor your success.

Meta-tags

For a much deeper analysis on your types of content, you should use additional meta-tags to describe the individual elements of the content itself.

Keywords, image descriptions (such as person, object, colors, size or orientation) and even tone descriptors for the copy (such as humorous or excited) can be used as meta-tags.

These tags help isolate trends in creative content so you can select more engaging images and write more dynamic copy for your posts.

Source: Socialmediaexaminer

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Valentine's Day: 11 Days ~ 5 Cute & Romantic Treats

Bake up some sweets for your sweet this Valentine's Day with these tasty love-themed cake and cupcake decorating ideas. Whether you're serving to a whole classroom or just that special someone, you'll find the perfect treat for the occasion.

1. Fruit Roll-Ups Fortune Cookie

How about a Valentine's Day snack that's easy to make and even more fun to share? With special messages written and folded inside each one, everyone will feel fortunate to have you for a friend. Read more

2. Four-Cheese Ravioli

Homemade pasta is certainly an impressive entree that is not nearly as difficult as many people think.  Even filled and shaped pastas like this heart-shaped ravioli are easy and fun to make. Read more

3. Sweet Heart Cupcakes

Perfect little Valentine snack!. Use a cookie cutter to cut out a heart and fill with frosting (try for any theme!) Read more

4. Easy Valentine’s Day Cookies

Dip the top half of a wafer cookie on the melted chocolate and quickly sprinkle on your chosen sprinkles. Let it dry and Enjoy it :) Read more

5. Pecan Linzer Cookies with Cherry Filling

Crumbly, nutty cookies layered with sweet cherry jam and dusted with sugar make delectable valentines. Read more


And If you don't feel like cooking, visit our Handmade Food Category!

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Valentine's Day: 14 Days ~ 5 Cute Wreath Ideas

If you miss Christmas decor you can start to decorate your home for Valentine’s day. The front door is a good place to start. Make a wreath to hang on it. There are plenty of cool ways to do that but we gathered only the most cool ones. By the way, some of these wreaths are also perfect to hang somewhere inside of your house. Enjoy!

1. Cockscomb Valentine Wreath

Nothing expresses the essence of Valentine's Day better than a big, full heart. Declare your love for a sweetheart -- or simply a love of romance -- with this handmade cockscomb wreath. Read more

2. Valentines Wreath and Frame

We love this original Valentine's Day wreath! And if you're a Beatles fan, it's extra special. Hard to believe it is very inexpensive! Read more

3. Valentine’s Pom Pom Wreath

This project is so easy that your kids can help me with the pom-poms. All you need is a form, some pom-poms and glue. Read more

4. Felt Heart Garland

This is an easy and inexpensive Valentines Day decoration sure to add a little love to you room. Read more

5. Valentine’s Day Flowers Wreath

If you love the sight and smell of fresh flowers around you and you’re looking for some unique ways to brighten up your home then this cute wreath is the best for you. Read more

Happy Valentine's Day!

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