How Your Business Can Use Google+ Embeddable Posts

 

The list of successful companies who haven’t harnessed the power of Google to reach their users is a small one indeed. But while getting to the top of search results is an important aspect of internet marketing, it’s not the only way Google can be beneficial to your business. Google’s ad network, their image search functionality, and their local business results are all powerful tools at your disposal. However, as many an online marketing expert has pointed out, the future of Web success is centered squarely in the realm of social media. With Google+ including embedded posts in their array of features, it could prove to be yet another flashlight in the dark for businesses who want to expand their reach.

Social Platforms Using Embedded Posts

With Google+ adding embedded posts the search giant is playing catch up this time rather than getting in front of the curve, as they have been for a better part of the social media revolution. Both Twitter and Facebook have forged the path towards embeddable posts, accomplishing dual goals in the process. From the standpoint of these internet behemoths, embeds provide more exposure, greater ad revenue, and a closer relationship with the changing way people are now using the internet. From the standpoint of a small business owner, it’s a golden opportunity to enrich the content right there on the page, rather than linking out to a third party. Why is this so important? Let’s explore.

As a small business owner, you probably already know that getting traffic to the site is only half the battle. Among the many internet marketing tips, the best tip is to keep people at your site by engaging them with strong content. Not only does a low bounce rate mean you have more time with your customers, but it may also improve your Google ranking. Search experts believe quality content is very much in line with Google’s desire to raise page rankings with information that’s useful to readers. You want your users there on the page, engaged, active, and ready to buy. Functionality like embedded posts puts more content on the site and gives users one less reason to leave.

A Closer Look At Google’s Embedded Posts

So how does Google+ and their foray into embedded posts match up to the blueprint left by Facebook and Twitter? Well, it has its strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side, your visitors won’t need to be signed into Google+ to see the posts. This is a very good thing, since the social media network has lagged behind the two aforementioned sites when it comes to user adoption. Now you don’t have to feel like you are marketing only to other marketers when you make a post on Google+.Also, URLs shared on Google+ are crawled and indexed faster than ones on Facebook, where privacy and data sharing restrictions are more prominent.

In addition to broadening your own on-page content, embedded posts give you the chance to reach a far wider audience. As they point out over on The Social Media Hat, this functionality could be the biggest point of attraction for websites looking for increased exposure. At rollout, Google+ won’t be providing businesses with any reliable way of tracking embeds, which is unfortunate. Facebook introduced their embedded posts feature with the addition of an Insights dashboard. This allows site owners to see how often their posts have been embedded around the Web, giving them a better look at what’s working and what isn’t. As a participant, you’ll have to rely on “+1’s” to track the success of any given post, a metric that may fall short of a true barometer.

Finally, Google+ is a great way to share images on your site. With more users than ever before tapping into the internet on their mobile devices, pictures and images are more powerful than they have been in the past. Of course, the success of Twitter shows that a simple text post (when kept short and sweet) can sometimes be the best way to engage your users.

Give It a Whirl

Financial Times and The Verge are just two of the major sites that have started using Facebook embedded posts to enhance their own content. While neither of these websites were exactly unknown before this, their use of embedded posts serves as an example to smaller companies. Since participation in the Google+ network is completely free, it’s worth trying, at least to some extent. If you’ve been looking for a way to bring some social media interaction to your website and broaden your brand’s appeal, this could be a great way to get started.

Also read the previous post: How Your Business Can Use Facebook Embeddable Posts

License: Creative Commons image source