Thursday, 6 March 2014

They Owned Up: "the Economist" Uses Google+ For SEO

By Ayub Yusuf


There's been somewhat of a furor over the news that some large companies are using Google+ not as the "social hangout" that the large search engine purports wanting it to be, but as a tool for actually affecting search engine rankings and getting more of an SEO push on their own online presence. Starbucks was one company admitting to using Google+ for SEO purposes while "The Economist" was another.



Ironically this story first broke online on a Google+ account of "The New York Times." In this report it came to light that "The Economist" saw Google+ as a great tool not for socializing and social media, but for giving their overall SEO profile a boost. They noticed every post was indexed, putting more and more out there for people to find.

This has been an excellent decision on the part of The Economist to have an account and business profile with Google Plus. Not only have they gained a new audience, but they boast to having twice the people following their Google+ account as they do on Facebook. It's a great way for them to reach their fans and at the same time boost their SEO campaign. Their strategy must be working though because their Google+ posts are showing up in the SERPs.

Google+ authorship also benefits a company because it allows their listing to be highlighted more in the results. For example, people with Google+ accounts can have a picture appear besides their website in the results. Studies have showed that such a picture makes it much more likely that someone will click on it.

Google+ might not be the success that Facebook is at the moment, but Google is taking advantage of its search engine domination to try to knock Facebook of its perch at that top of social network domination. If the Economist is any indication, tying their services together seems to be working to gain new users.




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