Using Google Plus to Drastically Improve your Blog Traffic

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Google Plus is a powerful tool, it can drastically enhance your website and blog traffic, and it also only requires a couple of minutes each day. The secret is understanding how you can employ this simple strategy. In the following paragraphs I am going to cover all that you need to understand about marketing and promoting your blog using Google Plus.

Organic and Targeted Traffic:
Presently there is speculation that shortly Google Plus may possibly even meet or exceed Facebook in recognition as well as use. If you actually use Facebook, which I’m certain that you do, you are aware how popular it is now. Google Plus is nearly on this same level, and therefore offers you a superb medium for blog and website promotion. Google Plus features a “community” tab, where you can find like-minded communities and individuals, which greatly enhances the amount of targeted or organic page hits you are able to provide for your blog. It's well known that organic and targeted traffic hits are much more effective than regular traffic. These kinds of traffic refer to page views by readers who're actually interested and invested in your website or website’s content. Targeted readers who arrived at your page often stay two times as long, and visit more pages than ordinary traffic.

While Facebook also allows you reach similar audiences and users, you'll have a tendency to blend in with everyone else when advertising on their community pages. I believe, Facebook is much more intended for acquaintances and friends, while Google Plus appears to be designed for businesses and business contacts. Although this is not entirely true, you'll find after executing this tactic, that you get a lot more interest and page views using Google Plus than when using Facebook.
Starting out (if you don't curently have a Google Plus account):
* In case your account is not fully configured I suggest reading this step *
The first place you will need to start is simply by making a Google Plus account, if you don't curently have one. I would recommend going to G-mail.com and registering for a no cost email address. You don't only get a free email which you can use for you blog and business contacts, but it simultaneously generates a linked Google Plus account. I would recommend naming your email something similar or relevant to your blog site, this not only looks more professional, but will also makes it easier for users to make contact with you.

After you have your Google Plus account you will have to configure each one of it’s settings. Please take a second and glance at the settings page by simply clicking your avatar, then clicking account inside the drop down menu. After you have configured your settings it is time to provide an account picture. It is vital for you to include a picture in your account. This creates credibility and enables you stand above the competition. Users without pictures have a tendency to get ignored, or written off as spammers or bots, I highly suggest you upload an image of yourself. You can do this by again simply clicking on your avatar in the top right, then clicking on the empty picture, where it says change photo. Upload the picture then visit your profile page. This is a vital component of Google Plus, since this is the page others will discover whenever they view your profile.

I like to recommend adding a banner on your profile, it will help makes you look more credible and can make users more prone to follow your account. (If you want help developing a custom banner, contact me personally at nick@info-junkie.com, and I can make you one in Photoshop).

Don’t forget to complete all of the remaining information on your profile, including: location, bio, credentials, etc. A complete profile will trump and incomplete one any time, I understand it seems simple, however these small steps are what is going to ultimately enable you to get traffic.
Choosing the best communities and making introductions:
Choosing the right communities to promote to is a crucial part of this technique, if you don't carefully select your communities, your marketing efforts will fall on deaf ears. Selecting your communities is simpler than it may seem. Starting off you will need to perform a search for particular communities, for instance blogging, blogs, online marketing, etc. When you start to sign up for communities Google Plus will automatically display related communities to suit your needs, making your selection much simpler. Just be certain that the communities you decide on will likely be interested in what your blog site has to say. Determine, “who is my audience, and just who am I writing for?”

After you have found several communities, I suggest a minimum of 5 - 10 different ones, start by introducing yourself. Introductions are a fundamental part of this tactic, they separate you from the spammers, and provide members with a understanding of who you really are, and just what you are about. An excellent introduction needs to include: Your name, age, company / blog, along with a short bio describing your interested and qualifications. Consider your introduction to be a employment interview of sorts, you would like members to be generally interested in everything you are saying, and also be curious about your links. Google Plus frowns upon spamming and only posting self-promotion links, so just be sure you make an introduction and sometimes post something that isn't promoting or marketing your website.

Selecting your very first article, and start promoting:
Now that you've made a formal introduction within your selected communities, it's about time to begin promoting your posts as well as your blog. This is actually the meat and bones of the strategy, the driving force behind acquiring traffic and taking advantage of Google Plus. Begin by selecting your very best article, or even the one you suspect appeals to the chosen community the best.

If you're posting inside of a web development community, articles on starting your first website will be a perfect fit. Be sure and post a simple description of the article using a catchy tag line for example, “Do you have a small business, but don't want to pay someone to make a website for you? This post will show you the best way to get it done, without having to spend any money!” The description must be made unique for each and every community, never copy your exact description and subject to each community.

Copy and pasting your descriptions can look to the community as spam, because so many people in one community can also be members of another your frequent. Your ultimate goal is always to appear as genuine as you possibly can, while still effectively marketing your website.

Don’t forget to insert a direct hyperlink to your content, give Google a second to load it, and it'll appear beneath your post with a short description of it’s own. After you have completed your very first article, rinse and repeat this technique with all of your communities. I like to recommend joining several new communities each day and posting your content. Whenever you create new articles, come back to your older communities and post them there also. Like I said above, and I cannot stress this enough, develop into a credible member of these communities. Post your insight and opinions regularly, avoid only posting self-promoting content.

Expand your Google Plus circles:
Google Plus includes a feature called circles, well it really is much more of a group I guess. Google Plus circles are groups and members which will view the majority of the articles you write. Whenever you post something on your profile, you're sharing it with all your circles, these are the ones that will view your content and posts the most. Like i said previously, becoming an active member of your communities won't just enable you to appear genuine, but it surely will also enable you to expand your circles and gain followers. Ultimately you would like as many followers as you could possibly get your hands on.

The more members you've got following you, the more your brand-new posts and blog can get seen. There are numerous strategies available to achieve this, however i generally just use one. This tactic is simply sharing others content and posts. Frequently review your Google Plus feed, if you notice something cool or worth sharing, share it! Whenever people see you sharing others posts which contain good, original content they are going to have a tendency to begin following you. In the event you only share your own content you will discover you're going to be very lonely on Google Plus. Also, using other social websites to populate posts may be beneficial. StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Twitter might be good resources to discover quality posts to share. The general guideline is you need to share 3 unique quality posts from somebody else for each and every 1 post you have. Google also enables you to find members by syncing your mail contacts, Yahoo, as well as searching an organization. If you discover a tool that can be used to develop your circles, Utilize it!

Think outside the box. Don’t be considered a follower, sit back and brainstorm an excellent online marketing strategy. Consider what's going to help make your posts and marketing stand above all the others. Make use of community submitted content, offering free downloads, and even starting a small contest. You will notice that people who succeed are pioneers, they're doing something nobody else is. Make an effort to combine proven strategies with your own personal ideas, look for a sweet spot between the two. There are many ways to promote your blog, become the first to discover a new strategy.

Authore Bio: Guest post by Nicholas Rusnak, owner and operator of info-junkie.com