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Are Google+ Communities Better Than Google+ Business Pages?

Google+ Communities and what they mean for you.
Google+ Communities and what they mean for you.

Some interesting things just happened in the last few days, Google got very serious about Google+ and has started requiring Google users to enable Google+ integration. Now add to the mix Google’s new addition of Google+ Communities!I would definitely keep an eye on Communities, from my perspective. For some businesses, creating a Google+ Community for their business may allow more interaction with users than the typical Google+ Business page. For now, Google+ Communities look like a great option for merchants or brands with a strong following and not yet for the typical small to medium sized business owner. To see some examples take a look at this very interesting article on Google+ Communities from Website Magazine.

Google+ Communities are not like Facebook Groups, nor are they like a Google+ Business page. They are a hybrid and much more interactive than a Google+ Business page. First, you can invite people to join your +Community versus hoping someone will discover your Business page. Second, you can do video hangouts and others can post to your wall, share +1’s with other community members, post and hold events, and easily share content. Also typically, a Google+ Community page will have a moderator and a higher degree of interaction than would a typical Google+ Business page.

Think of your Google+ Business page like your business card or brochure and your Google+ Community like a free and wide ranging forum. The real power, from my point of view, comes into play with the ability of Communities to share +1 activity in the Google.com personalized search results. For those owning Communities that is a very, very powerful tool and may be the next big thrust for SEO and web visibility to be leveraged in 2013.

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Can You Ever Wean Yourself Off From Google AdWords?

I had a business client just ask me the other day “when will my SEO kick in from my newly designed website so I can wean myself off Google AdWords?” First, we did not design the site just to clarify. Second, we had not been performing any type of web visibility services for this client. My first question to him was “where did the content come for all of your 2,000 store products?” To that he stated that he had copied and pasted the content into his own store shopping cart from his manufacturers’ information.

To dig deeper, he and I selected one page on his site and ran the product content through Copyscape Premium. This online tool showed us that 46 other websites had this same exact content or very, very close variations of it. Sadly, I told him that until his content was unique he would never be able to move his business off Google AdWords.

In today’s business climate on Google.com, unique content and a unique position in your marketplace is key to being a candidate for work to improve organic search placement. If your content on your store is not unique, there is absolutely no reason to pay a blog writer or an SEO firm to improve position without first correcting the issue that is the biggest obstacle to success – duplicate content.

It sounds so easy just write your own content for each product, but from experience I know that wordsmithing a page to have it pass as unique and using a tool like Copyscape Premium to verify its uniqueness is a time consuming process, but the rewards are huge. This particular client was spending $50,000 per year on AdWords to drive business to his website. An investment in quality unique content may be an investment in the future.

If you are in a similar situation, it’s time to take a hard look at your own website and KNOW where your content came from before you purchase any website visibility improvement services.

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Google AdWords Express Explained

Here’s the low down on Google AdWords Express and the types of businesses that should consider using it instead of the regular version of AdWords.

Here’s a synopsis of what you get with AdWords Express:

  • Show your ads in a 15 mile radius.
  • One ad only
  • No keywords or keyword management
  • No bidding, Google sets the prices
  • Get Blue Balloon next to your listing in Google Places/Maps

Although AdWords Express is not the right place for every one, it can be a great place for locally selling businesses.

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Using the Google Tag Manager

If you are managing a large website make sure to check out this new tool from Google.

I am using the Tag Manager on my own website and some of the sites of my clients. I have found it easy to use and allows for the ability to grow as Google changes. I really like the ability to add new code without having to wait for a third party webmaster to get around to scheduling time for the code addition.

The only area of difficulty that I have seen from using Tag Manager, is the confusion some webmasters have on the publishing function. Some will set up the tags properly but forget to publish the Tag Container to the site again.

Make sure to watch the video as it will take you through setting up AdWords conversion tracking as well as Google Analytics code installation. With remarketing becoming popular for many AdWords accounts, having the Tag Manager in place on the website allows you the account manager to set up remarketing by just updating the container from within the Tag Manager control panel.