Google Plus hasn’t been around for long, but it is making significant waves within the world of social networks! 10 Million users joined within the first 2 weeks, with more people joining every day!  But what is Google Plus and how can it help my website?

I have talked before how sites like Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn can help you to attract more traffic to your site, but can Google Plus add anything different, or is it a case of just signing up to yet another social networking site like so many others?

Rank Higher In Search Engines

One of the most important things about blogging is attracting traffic to your site. The single best way to attract traffic is to get ranked highly on search engines like Google. I receive the majority of my web traffic from Google and since a smart businessman would concentrate on what is working, I focus a lot of attention on improving my SEO for Google.

One of my most popular blog posts was ‘Top 50 Earning Blogs‘ which helps to pull in lots of traffic. It wasn’t however until after I installed a Google+ button on my posts that I saw myself get ranked higher in search results. The ‘Top 50 Earning Blogs‘ post had received a few +1’s and had ended up appearing on the first page of results on certain Google (SERPs) searches.

It didn’t take me long to realise that the Google +1 button had played a major role in improving my SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

The Google +1 button is going to grow in popularity as more people use it. It is a great way for people to assess the web, which will make it a very powerful tool for people to see which sites people trust. Tie that together with the biggest search engine on the planet and you can see the huge potential for Google Plus online.

Boost Your Traffic

When you post something on Google Plus, such as a link to one of your articles, you are much more likely to get some sort of interaction from people. Google Plus has made it really easy for people to interact with one another. This may result in an individual being referred to your blog, leaving a blog comment or simply giving a it +1.

Like most people, I haven’t been on Google Plus for long, however I am already seeing results. In the short time that I have been using it, I have seen increased traffic on my blogs. Already I am getting a similar number of unique visitor referrals from Google Plus than I do with Twitter and Facebook! Next month I expect it to overtake them.

Many other bloggers have seen similar results or better, just like Chris Brogan, who has stated that Google+ is now his top traffic source to his blog.

Circles Are Great!

In my opinion, the best thing about Google+ is its “Circles” feature. This allows you to add people within separate sections. So you can keep all of your “friends” in one circle, all of your “family” in another, all your “work colleagues” in another, etc. Keeping all your contacts neat and tidy. If someone happens to fall within a number of categories, perhaps you are close friends with some of the people you work with, then you would simply add them to both circles.

Whenever you share something on Google+, you have the option of sharing it with the people in certain circles or just everyone. This is extremely useful if you want to talk about work issues with only your work colleagues, or a night out with only your friends.

On Facebook this would not be possible because you can’t organise your contacts up like this. Any embarrassing photos of a drunken night out with friends are clearly seen by your professional contacts (We’ve all been there!).

You can create as many “circles” as you want to organise your contacts up to share things with them. This means that you can communicate with everyone with the use of one profile. No more separate “Facebook Pages” to communicate with people that like your site. Just make a circle for everyone that likes your site and communicate and share things with them through that.

Is This The Death of Facebook & Twitter?

Well no! At least not yet! Twitter and Facebook are two of the biggest sites online with millions and millions of users. They will still be around for a while, but you can’t argue with the fact that in the short time that Google Plus has been around, they have seen tens of millions of people sign up. I, and many others, believe that Google+ will over take these sites eventually. More and more people are joining everyday and Google Plus is still in its infancy, with more features planned for release in the future to merge more of its products together.

How quickly it takes to surpass Twitter and Facebook is unknown, but it will happen!!!

I am a big fan of Google+ and strongly believe that it is the future of social networking. It is another great tool that you can use to help promote your website and interact with your targeted audience.

If you haven’t joined yet and need an invite, let me know in the comments section below and I’d be happy to send you an invitation.

If you are already on Google+, make sure you add me to one of your circles.

I look forward to connecting with you.