Google Plus – Ghost Town or Boom Town for Your Practice

Are you on board with Google Plus Business Pages yet? If not, grab your stake … Perhaps you are thinking “Not another social platform to manage! My team barely has time to keep up with Facebook.” Or you may be thinking, “Why set up shop there? I heard it’s a ghost town.” Remember that Google is still the king of search …

If search and being found on Google matters to you, then Google Plus Business Pages should matter to you.

So where do you begin with Google Plus Business Pages?

1. Set up your Google Plus Page.
2. Populate your practice information and upload photos.
3. Plan to check in occasionally, add people and businesses to your circles and continue to update your status.

Most importantly, keep yourself informed about changes and updates that Google implements. In the coming months we should know more about how Plus Pages will play a part in Google’s grand search plan. If you have ever invested money for search engine optimization, joining Google Plus Pages is a no brainer, and could potentially return similar benefits—getting found on Google.

You may have noticed that Google recently changed your Google Place to Google+ Local. This is the first step in what Google says will, “improve the way people discover new businesses, rediscover places they love and share them with their friends across the web.” The next phase of Google’s plans will include merging your Google+ Local and your Google Plus Business Page to create what Google calls your “Google+ business identity” that will help you be found in search, maps and mobile. You can find links to several businesses whose identities have already been merged here.

So is Google Plus a ghost town or boom town? From a social standpoint for practices at this point, it is a bit of a ghost town (at least at the time of this writing). However, from a search standpoint—being found on the number one search engine in the US—it could be a hugely powerful potential boom town. A benefit you could begin to reap with the initial investment of thirty minutes of your time to get set up and familiarize yourself.

Remember, the key to online marketing today is multiple pieces of online real estate. Will your practice stake a claim on Google Plus Pages? If search and being found matters to you, I hope to see you there!