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

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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

1. If you have authority on many areas, should you have one or more accounts?
   • One
2. 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
3. How should we handle many authors producing content?
   • Use authorship for each author
4. 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

Circle SEO.com on Google+ and countdown our final days in our office. What? Yeah, we’re moving office on Monday.