Google+ SEO & Authorship with AJ Kohn: Mozcon Day 2 Recap

This Google+ SEO & Authorship presentation was given by AJ Kohn at Mozcon 2012.

Google’s secret weapon is in mobile with Android holding 52% of the smart phone market. This is a critical thing to understand for any marketing campaign. There is huge opportunity in mobile and Google.

Google+ Isn’t Just for Geeks

Hugo Boss has over 1 million people circled their brand on Google+. There are many other brand examples who have obtained a huge following of non-geek followers on Google+.

Why is this critical?

Gucci ranks #1 for stirrup bags on non-personalized SERPs. BUT, Gucci ranks #1, #3, #4, and #6 on personalized SERPs with universal results. Google+ is helping to influence this because the photo is coming from Facebook as a result of being connected through Google+.

Here are some examples of gains from implementing Google+ into their SEO campaign.

42.6% increase in organic traffic for clients actively using Google+, Kevin Gibbons, SEOptimise/Quaturo
Engagement on Facebook was only 4% in relation the engagement on Google+, Time Moore Cruish IQ

Google+ Profile Tips

Connect your social profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, etc.)
Images pull in directly from Facebook
Rel=publisher
- Home page only for brands
Words matter - use keywords and theming for your users

Google+ Migration Tips

Move Facebook (Twitter, Quora, etc.) friends to Google+
Exclusive content on Google+ and talk about it on Facebook and Twitter
- Perform a Hangout On-Air
- Get a YouTube video out of it
Demand it: “You should circle me on Google+ now”

Google+ Sharing Tips

Tame your ego
Share value
Sometimes share content outside your industry
Reshare
Be a good citizen
Go native
Microblog on Google+

Google+ Formatting Tips

Create a title tag
- Bold it
Use the Google+ Formatting Cheat Sheet
Use keywords
- Example: textured suede bags (Burberry owns the top 2 spots)

Google+ Engagement Tips

Saved searches
Search on your industry terms
- View all and circle those people
  - Follow their followers
Create an evangelists circle
- Anybody who comments or shares your stuff should go into this list
View ripples
- Find sneezers and circle them
Drop in any URL to see ripples
Flag people down
- Mention them
- Red number notifier
Comment
- Just do it

+1 Button Tips

The value of the +1 button is that you get other people to do the work for you
- It makes it viral easier
Optimize your social snippets
- Title
- Nice image

Google+ Social Signals

How many +1 should I get for a post?
- Who cares?
+1 disappeared from SERPs in favor of the Share button
- Put your time into interactions & engagement on Google+

Authorship

Google’s goal: highlight authors and rank them better
Rel=author turns the SERPs distribution upside down

Verifying Authorship

Google+ is an identify platform
Rel=author setup – http://bit.ly/setuprelauthor

Authorship Tips

Validate with rich snippets testing tool – http://bit.ly/authorbookmarklet
Make sure your author profile has a face in your picture
Check your author stats in labs under Webmaster Tools

Author Rank

Google’s Agent Rank Patent
- What is discussed
- Who commented
Author rank is about fusing the web of people with the web of documents and creating a more savvy view of Internet influence
AJ doesn’t believe that author rank is here yet

Q&A

If you have authority on many areas, should you have one or more accounts?
- One
If you have a brand page, do you use your brand instead of a face?
- Use your logo
- Rel=publisher because brands don’t get authorship
How should we handle many authors producing content?
- Use authorship for each author
Google+ widget is slowing my page speed, what should I do?
- Use the upgraded async code
- Join the Google+ Developers Group and complain to them