As the internet becomes a bigger and bigger hemisphere for commerce, social media and information, millions of webmasters suddenly find the need to compete in smaller and smaller niches in order to reach more relevant audiences. In the past, it was rather easy to reach out to millions of internet users through approaches that focused more on quantity than quality, but most search engines have developed new algorithms that penalize these strategies and give deference to those who seek to make an impression upon a smaller audience. One area in which webmasters have found recent SEO success is through Google Plus, particularly in the area of local SEO. In the following article, we will discuss some simple methods you can use to improve your local SEO performance in conjunction with Google’s social network.

Basic Profile Considerations

When you setup a new Google Plus account to be pinging Google and other search engines – or even if you already have an existing Google Plus account – there are simple actions you can take to improve your Google Plus profile’s correlation with local search results. When it comes to your profile’s title, you will want to incorporate your business’ name along with the term “Google+” in order to gain maximum benefit. Google Plus also now allows users to customize their URLs, so you will want to do so in a format that again maximizes your business or brand’s association with local results.

Verify Information

Google Plus has unveiled its verified profiles feature, which allows businesses and brands to confirm that the profile in question is actually owned by the website it claims to represent. This process is rather simple and involves accessing the contact section of your Google Plus profile. You will be provided with a verification email and that in turn will be used and correlated with public data to confirm that the profile in question is representative of your brand. You can also verify your website address through the use of select code that must be placed temporarily on your website; Google will pick up on this and use it to confirm ownership.

Build Circles

A Google Plus profile in and of itself will not lead to rapid local SEO development – you must create content and interact within the community to generate the prerequisite social signals. The best and quickest way to do this is to connect with others in your community via Google Plus. As you are pinging Google with updates and information via your profile, you will also be socializing and gaining attention from users in your circles. This can be used by Google to further correlate a relationship between your brand and a specific geographic location.

Conclusion

Google Plus can be an excellent way to gain additional traction for any local SEO effort. Your brand deserves attention: you can gain this attention by updating or creating a Google Plus profile with basic optimization methods in mind, verifying your contact information and website address and building circles of friends and acquaintances in the targeted area.