While Facebook has been the dominant social network for the past couple of years, a challenger has entered the ring by way of Google+. While most sites have dared to go toe-to-toe with the behemoth that is Facebook, Google+ hasn’t shied away. In fact, in Google’s recent earnings call, they cited 90 million subscribers – a substantial number, considering they haven’t been around but for just a few months, Google has also been really good at listening to their subscribers for new features.
Today we’re going to show you how you can capitalize on Google+’s growth by adding a Google Plus badge to your website in 4 easy steps.
Step 1: Create a Google+ Page
Now I know what you’re thinking – you’re already on a number of other social networks, why do you need this one? For starters, Google+ pages are factored into Google search results. Even if you don’t plan to ever use Google+, merely having a presence can reap tremendous SEO benefits because Google places an emphasis on Google+ in returning search results.
Step 2: Create your Google+ Badge
For step 2, you don’t need to be a coding wiz. In fact, Google has provided everything for you all you need to do is to select which options you would like. First, you need to write down your Google+ page number. If you aren’t sure how to access your page to get this, I have provided a brief video on doing this. Second, head over to the Google+ Page Badge customization page and enter your page number and then select which type of badge you want for your site.
Step 3: Getting the code
Once you have your Google+ Page Badge, it’s time to add it to your website. To do this, be sure you’ve made any changes to your Google+ Page Badge and then go down to the Get the Code section. It should look something like this:
Step 4: Adding the code to your website or blog
After you’ve done all of your tweaking, the last thing you need to do is add the code to your website. To do this, you will need to add two things. The first part is to copy the code that begins with <!– Place this tag in the <head> of your document –> and ends with </script>. This needs to go just before the closing </head> tag in your HTML code. The second part – which starts with <!– Place this tag where you want the badge to render –> and ends with </g:plus> should go wherever you want your Google+ Page Badge.
Here’s what your finished product should look like. Should you have any trouble installing this on your website or blog, don’t hesitate to contact me for help with this.
