There’s been a lot of talk recently about Google +1, the new ‘button’ from Google that allows people to ‘vote’ for your site and could affect your Google positions in some instances.

So, firstly:

What is Google +1?

Google tell us that:

Adding +1 buttons to your pages is a great way to help your ads stand out on Google. By giving your visitors more chances to +1 your pages, your search ads and organic results might appear with +1 annotations more often. This could lead to more–and better qualified–traffic to your site.

This has been a little confusing for some people so we’ll try and put it in plain English for you

Basically, if you have the Google +1 button on your website pages or blog posts, then people can click on it in the same way they would click a Facebook ‘Like’ button. When they click on it (and to do this they must have a Google account), Google registeres that they like your page or post. So far so good.

When another person searches on Google, and your page or post is shown in the results, it will show the number of  ‘+1s’ it has had from their friends or contacts. Google is working on the assumption that people will be influenced by the choices their friends and contacts have made.

How will it affect my Google positions? If people don’t +1 me, am I at a disadvantage?

In most cases, the answer to this is no. Google tells us that +1 won’t affect the usual SERPS (which is a relief as we’re sure it will soon become easy to game). However, if someone searches Google while they’re logged in to their Google account, the results that have more +1s from their friends and contacts will be highlighted.

Should I use the Google +1 button on my pages and posts?

We think so. Although it’s not making a huge impact right now, think back to how little impact Facebook Likes made at one point – now they’re an integral part of promoting any blog or website.

How do I install the Google +1 button on my site or blog?

If you have a WordPress blog or site, there’s a plugin for that http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-plus-one/

If you have a Blogger blog, you’ll need to install one of their addons – more about this here: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/06/add-1-button-to-your-blog.html

If you want to install it to your site manually, it’s just a case of adding some code into the head of your code, and then some more code where you want the button to appear – more on this here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

As you can see at the bottom of this post, we’ve installed the Google +1 button – we’d love it if you could help us to test it, first by clicking on it, and secondly by installing it on your own site or blog and letting us know in the comments below!

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I often recommend that clients use AdWords to test which keywords will work for them, before they start on an SEO campaign, going to the trouble of altering metatags and page copy, only to realise they have chosen the incorrect keywords.

A test AdWords campaign could be as simple as a few keywords, each added in its ad group to a campaign.  Add each keyword in its broad, exact, and phrase match like this

Canon digital camera

[Canon digital camera]

“canon digital camera”

You do need a broad match, as with above, to allow Google to identify new related keywords which may convert to a sale for you.

Set a bid price appropriate to get the advert at least showing on the front page, and as high as you can comfortable handle.  Ensure you have implemented conversion tracking within AdWords to track sales or leads.  I would recommend running the test campaign for at least 50 sales where possible.  If you can afford to, I would suggest running it for at least 500 sales to ensure you have found a higher proportion of converting keywords.

Now run a search query report in AdWords to show the exact keywords that resulted in the sales above.  These keywords are the best to use in your SEO campaigns.

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It’s important to install a form of tracking software such as Get Clicky or Google Analytics onto your website.  This will allow you to monitor visitors, the length they remain, find any sites who have recently added a link to you (as people will click from the link to visit your site) as well as find reasons why people leave your site.  This information can prove invaluable as it will prompt you to edit pages, refine keywords and add to any FAQ on your site.

In Google Analytics, navigate to Content – Top Exit Pages and examine these pages closely.  Note that it’s common for the most common page here to be the Contact Us page as this means people have either called you, emailed you, or found your address for an invoice.

Look for any potential problems.  Are a lot of people leaving at a certain page?  Visit that page and ask yourself why.  Test all elements on that page.  What keywords had people used – were they frustrated and unable to find what they were seeking?  It may well be that this page needs refining for these keywords, or perhaps you need to encourage people seeking this keyword to visit a different page through your SEO targeting or through AdWords landing pages.  Get Clicky is great for spotting problems – especially urgent problems as it’s actually possible to spy on visitors through your site.  In particular it’s great for spotting 404 errors FAST!

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If your budget is limited – consider running a test campaign in Google AdWords.

I suggest starting off with just a few of your high margin products if your website is an ecommerce site  – otherwise if your website is selling services, select just a couple of these to advertise.

The next step is to focus carefully within AdWords on these products.  For example, let’s take a look at our wonderful client Nubie who sell Brio Sing Prams.  Create an Ad Group called Brio Sing, and carefully add just a couple of relevant keywords to the group as below:

• brio sing prams
• [brio sing prams]
• “brio sing prams”
• brio sing travel systems
• [brio sing travel systems]
• “brio sing travel systems”

It’s important to add in the three different match types as denoted above with the square brackets, speech marks, and just the plain keyword. The reasons behind this belong in another post – but just ensure you add the same keyword with the 3 different ways to AdWords.

Try adding in a few of these products to start with, before gradually expanding, carefully adding in new products and checking how well they perform.

Before you go live with the campaign, make sure you have conversion tracking set up.  More on this in this post.  This way you will be able to prove that the sales came from AdWords, as well be able to see which keywords resulted in the actual conversions.

Good luck!  Let us know how you get on.

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