You’ll notice a Google +1 button at the very top of this page, and at the top of each of my blog posts here at ClickNewz now.

It’s very easy to add the +1 button to any web page or blog. Simply copy and paste the code here: +1 your website

Just a few days ago, I confessed on Facebook that I haven’t even so much as looked at the new Google Plus.

That update got 20 likes and almost 50 comments, so I’m obviously not alone. I thought we would take a look at both of these new Google products (or projects?) real quick, and then I’d love to hear your thoughts on them…

First, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you give this article a quick read:

Top 6 Things Marketers Need to Know About Google Plus

It will give you a quick overview of how to use Google Plus as a social network, and talks a bit about using Google Plus as a business. Including stats like:

Google Plus has become one of the top 10 referrers of traffic to TechCrunch, a top technology blog, in a matter of days.

Impressive!

The big talk is that Google Plus is a means of “taking on Facebook”. See this article & video from ABC News, for example: Google Takes On Facebook With Google Plus. Of course, it’s been the buzz on Facebook this last week as well as people began checking out Google+.

“Despite Google’s previous failures with products Buzz and Wave, this newest push is being hailed as the first serious competition to Facebook that draws more than 500 million users.

Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, a social-media advisory firm, says Google+’s goal is not to replace Facebook.” source

Thinking about it over the weekend, it put me in mind of MySpace – and how hot they were in their time. It made me ponder what might change at Facebook in the future, or what might come along to woo people off in another direction. The web is constantly evolving, and change is one of our only constants. It will certainly be as interesting to watch things progress over this next decade, as it was over the last.

Gmail is also getting a makeover with the roll out of Google Plus, and you can read more about that here: Gmail Gets a Google+ Makeover. I haven’t checked it out yet myself, but would love to hear your thoughts if you have already.

Google +1 and SEO

Google has made it very clear that the +1 option will improve your search engine rankings in the Google search results, and that it may also improve your click through rate from the search results pages.

For more on that, read the FAQ section at the bottom of this page.

So even though I haven’t checked out the Google Plus network yet, I did add a +1 button to my blog posts here at ClickNewz. And I’ll be adding it to other websites and web pages as well. It only makes sense to do that (and do it now!) given the potential ROI of that few minutes spent to copy & paste a bit of code.

As for Google Plus, I simply haven’t had time to dig into it. I do have an invitation, and I’ll at least get signed up sometime this week. But I’ve been so focused on other projects, and priority tasks, that I haven’t wanted to spend the time setting it up and getting familiar with the interface.

What about you? Are you using Google Plus?
If so, I’d love to hear your early verdict & personal experience with it!

Best,

A great way to encourage user-generated content is to start your own Q&A site, or add a public Q&A section to your current site.

AnswerBase offers Q&A Sofware which they’ve been serving to enterprise clients for the last few years. But they have recently launched a version that is available to websites and businesses of any size.

The major benefit of having user generated content, especially Q&A type content, is the potential for a dramatic increase in organic search traffic…

The AnswerBase software is already highly optimized, giving you an advantage out of the box. Each question that your readers post creates a new page, which is optimized for the questions other people with similar issues are searching for online at the major search engines.

A couple of examples that use AnswerBase, that you may recognize, are:

Edmunds Answers http://answers.edmunds.com

DexKnows Answers http://answers.dexknows.com/weddings

Highly Customizable & Easy To Set Up

You can set up a Q&A site in a matter of minutes, using simple tools they provide for set-up and customization. You’ll have a choice of three different layouts where you can adjust the color scheme, upload images, and even tweak the CSS if you like.

On the professional level plans (and higher) you’ll have access to widgets you can embed on your current website or blog to help engage your current visitors, and drive traffic to the new Q&A section.

It also include a mobile site version, making it compatible for smart phones and other mobile devices.

The administration panel gives you (and/or your moderators) easy access to manage the Q&A community, moderate the content, and monitor activity through detailed reports.

Several Low Cost Plans Available

There are several low-cost plans ranging from $15 per month for the basic plan, to $200 per month for the most advanced. They also offer a 15-day free trial, with no credit card required, if you want to give it a test drive and see if it’s a good fit for your website or blog.

To learn more about AnswerBase, visit the website and also read their recent Press Release here: Answerbase.com Brings Enterprise-Grade Community Q&A to Businesses of All Sizes.

There are a lot of ways you could put this to good use. From a moderated FAQ section, to an open discussion and community for your niche. User Generated Content is highly engaging, and also very valuable for organic search growth. Not only does it add more optimized pages to your domain, it also increases your site size and improves your overall site theming.

I would love to hear your thoughts, and ideas you have for creative uses of this software! A Social Q&A site is a great alternative to the traditional “discussion forum” option – with a lot more advantages.

The layout alone gives you more options than a traditional forum. It also has an RSS feed, giving you an additional marketing medium – from submitting to RSS directories, to building a list by offering email updates/digests through a “blog broadcast” type feature in your mailing list manager.

Users also enjoy leader boards and ranks, which is an incentive to participate – and makes your site more “sticky” (keeping them on your domain longer).

They can also create an “Expert Widget” and add it to their site or blog, improving their own credentials – and also providing a valuable link back to the Q&A section of your site.

Like I said, I’m anxious to hear your thoughts & creative ideas!

Best,

This post was sponsored by AnswerBase. If you are interested in sponsoring a post on ClickNewz about your website or product, contact me for details.