Google Plus Profile vs Page

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C.R.E.A.M.

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Hey Guys,

Noob here, and haven't found my answer anywhere else in the forums.


A company that sells product on-line has a google+ account profile that pretends the company is a person... first/last name are parts of the company name split up, that sort of thing...

The profile account doesn't have a TON of work put in, a few pictures a few likes and comments, nothing TOO serious.

Would it be better to create a company 'page' using the page feature of google plus? In which case it would need to be run off an ACTUAL persons profile? I know a lot of WF people like to keep their identities on projects on the down low and this strategy seems counter-intuitive to that without creating a 'fake person' account..

Thoughts and opinions on google+ page vs. profile

Appreciate it, thanks! :updown:
 


google+ is just a way for the big uncle to chain you to the google ecosystem, without much benefit. I expect them to eventually close it.

While it help get you some attention from google, the social benefits are debatable as google now hides all the data.

So go ahead, do as you please, as Google+ is just that plus one.
 
It sounds like they created a personal profile with the brand name to build author rank while not revealing an individual. Im not sure on the TOS for that, (although I have a hunch its no dice) but building out a business page allows for rel=publisher, so it might be a toss up.

If you have a location that would show up in maps then the business page is what I would develop.
 
If that profile gets popular Google will put up a big red banner on the profile saying "Make a Google+ Page for your business" (something to that extent). You need to create a Google+ Business page.

I do recommend you build a couple Google+ profiles though that link to your business's website. More and more brands are doing that and it's becoming more of an authority signal. This does not have to be a real person, but I recommend creating a strong association with the owners of the business and the business with your SEO/social media efforts.

You also want to connect this Google+ Business page with a YouTube channel. YouTube now prompts you with this when you sign in with a profile that is not connected to Google+.

You can add any manager/administrator to a Google+ Business page, but it needs to be connected to a Google+ profile. Even to make the page you will need a Google+ profile.

As Zaino mentioned with your Google+ Business page you should use rel="publisher" and for your Google+ profile you're going to be using rel="author" or rel="me".

Is this a local business? If it is you will have to do somewhat different steps.
 
JulianTrueFlynn said:
If that profile gets popular Google will put up a big red banner on the profile saying "Make a Google+ Page for your business" (something to that extent). You need to create a Google+ Business page.

I do recommend you build a couple Google+ profiles though that link to your business's website. More and more brands are doing that and it's becoming more of an authority signal. This does not have to be a real person, but I recommend creating a strong association with the owners of the business and the business with your SEO/social media efforts.

You also want to connect this Google+ Business page with a YouTube channel. YouTube now prompts you with this when you sign in with a profile that is not connected to Google+.

You can add any manager/administrator to a Google+ Business page, but it needs to be connected to a Google+ profile. Even to make the page you will need a Google+ profile.

As Zaino mentioned with your Google+ Business page you should use rel="publisher" and for your Google+ profile you're going to be using rel="author" or rel="me".

Is this a local business? If it is you will have to do somewhat different steps.
Click to expand...


Thorough response, thank you so much! :thumbsup:

We do all of our sales on-line, so no 'brick and mortar' store, though we do have an office... I don't think I'll be listing it in google addresses.

It sounds like your recommendation would be to bite the bullet and just create a new business page off my 'real me' profile account. And ideally get a couple other associates in the company to also connect in for 'authority' purposes.

I tend to be apprehensive about putting my real identity out there in association with business projects. For no PARTICULAR reason, just seems safer. Tough decisions! :batman:
 
JulianTrueFlynn said:
If that profile gets popular Google will put up a big red banner on the profile saying "Make a Google+ Page for your business" (something to that extent). You need to create a Google+ Business page.

I do recommend you build a couple Google+ profiles though that link to your business's website. More and more brands are doing that and it's becoming more of an authority signal. This does not have to be a real person, but I recommend creating a strong association with the owners of the business and the business with your SEO/social media efforts.

You also want to connect this Google+ Business page with a YouTube channel. YouTube now prompts you with this when you sign in with a profile that is not connected to Google+.

You can add any manager/administrator to a Google+ Business page, but it needs to be connected to a Google+ profile. Even to make the page you will need a Google+ profile.

As Zaino mentioned with your Google+ Business page you should use rel="publisher" and for your Google+ profile you're going to be using rel="author" or rel="me".

Is this a local business? If it is you will have to do somewhat different steps.
Click to expand...

It's not so black and white. For professionals like doctors and lawyers, the individual is often indistinguishable from the business itself. Things get even more complicated as doctors spend a year or two at major hospitals (location pages of a business), local private practices (business pages / personal plus pages), consulting (business / personal), or individual private practice.

What about spokespeople who are the face of a brand? They could care less about Google's business page requirements and Google would be stupid to muscle them into writing for the business.

Imo, if there is ANY sort of PR being done by individuals within a company or organization, they should publish as individual authors.
 
HeadStartSEO said:
It's not so black and white. For professionals like doctors and lawyers, the individual is often indistinguishable from the business itself. Things get even more complicated as doctors spend a year or two at major hospitals (location pages of a business), local private practices (business pages / personal plus pages), consulting (business / personal), or individual private practice.

What about spokespeople who are the face of a brand? They could care less about Google's business page requirements and Google would be stupid to muscle them into writing for the business.

Imo, if there is ANY sort of PR being done by individuals within a company or organization, they should publish as individual authors.
Click to expand...
I literally have 0 idea of what you're trying to say. I read that like 3x.

More often than not the owner of the business needs to be associated with the brand -- they're likely to be there the longest. This is more common than a business having a spokesperson/branded figure.
 
I work with a lot of hospitals and law practices. Their lawyers and doctors want to show up in the SERPs.

Example:

Doctor Joe Smith works for Chicago Hospital as a neurosurgeon. He wants to show up in the SERPs for "neurosurgeon Chicago", "best neurosurgeon Chicago", "neurosurgery Chicago", etc. The hospital does not want this because the hospital wants to show up for those terms.

If the doctor is writing content for the Hospital, where should it get posted first: the Chicago Hospital business page or the doctor's personal plus page?

Most SEOs would say that any content the doctor writes for the hospital should go on the hospital's Google Plus business page. However, because doctors (and other professionals) are such a mobile workforce, and also because of the nature of Google Plus and web identities, and also because doctors have large egos, I think that doctors' posts should be attributed to their personal Google Plus pages.

Does this make sense?
 
HeadStartSEO said:
I work with a lot of hospitals and law practices. Their lawyers and doctors want to show up in the SERPs.

Example:

Doctor Joe Smith works for Chicago Hospital as a neurosurgeon. He wants to show up in the SERPs for "neurosurgeon Chicago", "best neurosurgeon Chicago", "neurosurgery Chicago", etc. The hospital does not want this because the hospital wants to show up for those terms.

If the doctor is writing content for the Hospital, where should it get posted first: the Chicago Hospital business page or the doctor's personal plus page?

Most SEOs would say that any content the doctor writes for the hospital should go on the hospital's Google Plus business page. However, because doctors (and other professionals) are such a mobile workforce, and also because of the nature of Google Plus and web identities, and also because doctors have large egos, I think that doctors' posts should be attributed to their personal Google Plus pages.

Does this make sense?
Click to expand...
I think you don't understand what I was originally talking about, because I was not mentioning this anywhere. I too work with law firms and hospitals BTW.

Why not post the blogger's content on their Google+ profile and the branded Google+ business page? Not that it is a huge factor for where it gets posted 1st anyways.
 
JulianTrueFlynn said:
I think you don't understand what I was originally talking about, because I was not mentioning this anywhere. I too work with law firms and hospitals BTW.

Why not post the blogger's content on their Google+ profile and the branded Google+ business page? Not that it is a huge factor for where it gets posted 1st anyways.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you know then what a pain it can be to work with doctors, especially when they don't know dick about SEO.

As far as not understanding what you were originally talking about, I'm a bit confused -- I was responding to the dilemma of content on pages/profiles as posed by the OP.

>Why not post the blogger's content on their Google+ profile and the branded Google+ business page?

For the reasons mentioned above, you have the possibility of two separate businesses competing for the same keyword with the same content.

>Not that it is a huge factor for where it gets posted 1st anyways.

It's becoming a huge factor.
 
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