One thing I’ve been particularly obsessed with recently is the SEO elements of social profiles. It began with checking out the SEO for Facebook fan pages and then onto social content. Now, it’s time to take a look at the differences between the optimization of your Google+ personal profile and the new Google+ Pages.
SEO Elements of the Google+ Personal Profile
We’ll start by looking at the parts of the Google+ personal profile that you can customize based on the data you enter in specific fields.
SEO Title: Your Name – Google+
Google+ is all about the personal branding, and they insist that you use your real name for your profile. If you want to use a business name, blog name, or keywords, save it for your Google+ Page.
Meta Description: Your Name – Your Headline + Your Occupation
The meta description for your Google+ profile is a combination of different pieces of your profile information including:
- Your name followed by your headline.
- Your occupation.
- Your current employer.
Those items are followed by your introduction text, but by this point you’re usually well beyond the 160 character mark. Make sure that the first 160 characters count by writing a great headline and occupation title. Also make sure those areas are set to be seen by anyone on the web.
Dofollow Links: Everywhere
From what I can tell, the links within the introduction content as well as the ones under other profiles, contributor to, and recommended links are all dofollow. So don’t shy away from anchor text as this is a premier Google property. Just make sure the profile still sounds good and doesn’t look like a big link farm.
SEO Elements of the Google+ Page
When it comes to the customizable SEO elements of the Google+ pages, they are about the same as the personal profiles. One exception is that there isn’t an occupation or current employer field in the pages (or at least not for products or brands). Hence your meta description will be your page’s name, headline, and then the introduction text.
How do Google+ Profiles Rank vs. Pages
As of right now, I see that my personal Google+ profile ranks No. 9 for my name when I use Google Chrome (signed out of my Google account), but it’s on the second page of results when I use Firefox (also signed out of my Google account). My Google+ page for my blog isn’t ranking in the first 100 results for my blog’s name Kikolani.
Pete Cashmore’s personal Google+ profile, for example, ranks at No. 8 for his name in Google Chrome, but it’s on the second page of results in Firefox. Mashable’s Google+ Page, on the other hand, ranks on the second page of search results in both Google Chrome and Firefox.
As another example, Arianna Huffington’s personal Google+ profile ranks at No. 8 in Google Chrome, but it’s on the second page of results in Firefox. Huffington Post’s Google+ Page ranks on the third page of results in both Google Chrome and Firefox.
How do your Google+ profiles and pages rank? Do you believe that links from these Google+ pages are helping your personal or business brand in search results?
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