As we’ve come to expect almost every week, Google and Google+ has added another new feature in the ongoing integration of search and social. This time its a share as you search box on the top right hand corner of the page. Google wants to make it as easy as possible for you to use your Google+ page, and share things to all of your followers. And why not? As a St. Louis SEO firm, we try and stay ahead of the game and up to date as possible on all of the search engine updates. And we know, as much as people don’t want it to happen, having a Google+ account for you and your business is only going to continue to help your SEO rankings. The longer you wait to join Google+ the further behind you’ll be compared to your competition.
If you are logged into your google account, and you are searching something in Google, you’ll now notice a small share box on the black menu bar along the top. If you click on the box, it will expand, as I show in the image below. If you enter anything into this box, it will be shared with all of your Google+ followers. Not only is integrated into their search page, but the box also shows up if you’re in your gmail account, Google Maps, Google Videos, Google images – if your using Google in some capacity, the share box is there, which makes it as easy as ever to share things. If only it would be this easy to share things on Facebook!
Prior to the past few months and new features that Google has been introducing, the Google homepage was only for searching, the other services were links on the left hand side, but you had to leave the searching area to go use them. But now, with this new feature, you can continue to search within Google, as well as use any of their other services, including continually updating your Google+ page. They sure do make is as easy as possible. And the more they integrate search and social, the more important it is to have a Google+ account. Before we know it, if you do not have a Google+ account the likely hood of you showing up at all in Google search on the first few pages will be slim to none.
As a St. Louis SEO firm, we are advising our clients to join Google+ as soon as possible, especially our local clients. Even if their not constantly updating the page, at least they will have one. And in the months and years to come, they’ll be ahead of their competitors because of that. Even if they dont think it matters, we are reinforcing the fact, that it does matter, and Google is making it matter. If Google tells us to jump, we say how high, and so should you.
