Google Plus & Google’s Rich Snippet

Do you know what a Google “rich snippet” is?  Should you?  If you want more visitors to your blog or website you need to know what a rich snippet is and how to create them.  There are three types of bloggers and webmasters:

1. those that are clueless about Google +,
2. those that have heard about Google + and who are vaguely aware it might be a good thing to understand and use, and 
3. those who understand and use Google + and related Google features to get more traffic to their blogs/websites.  

Until yesterday I was in category 2.  Now, after reading the two excellent articles listed below I have the knowledge I need to create a Google business page for my law firm, KEYTLaw and implement the suggestions contained in the two articles.  I’m now at stage 2.5.  I just need to implement my new knowledge.

To date Google + does not have the reach of Facebook and Twitter, but we all know Google’s power and innovation track record so it is safe to bet that Google + could be as important blog/website referral source as Facebook.  By the way I have heard many people, including a keynote speaker at the 2012 Infusionsoft convention, say that Facebook doesn’t send much (or any) traffic to their blog/website.  The primary reasons for the lack of Facebook referrals are:

1. the business does not have a Facebook page (hint:  a page is different from a Facebook account)
2. the business has a Facebook page, but little happens on it, i.e., not much content.
3. the person or people in the business responsible for its Facebook page don’t understand how to use the Facebook page to generate referrals to the firm’s website.

My websites get a lot of referrals from my firm’s Facebook page.  Earlier this month I did a blog post on a new law passed by the Arizona legislature entitled “Arizona Legislature Passes Broad Internet Censorship Bill.”  I also put the entire text of the bill on the KEYTLaw blog.  The day that blog post went live it got over 800 visitors, including over 400 who were referred from Facebook!

Here are the two articles on Google’s rich snippets and Google + I recommend:

• “The Marketer’s Guide to Google Plus“
• “Google Authorship Markup: How to get your picture in search results“

The second article listed states “according to one study on the impact of rich snippets on traffic, the number of clicks increased by 150% once the rich snippet was added. This is one of those opportunities to give yourself an almost unfair advantage in Google.”

Read also “Google+: Should Lawyers Care?” which states:

“Last week, Google announced that Google+ (aka, “Google Plus” or “G+”) has reached 170 million users.  By any measure, that is a truckload of users; but it is staggering when you consider that G+ is less than a year old.  That makes the infant G+ roughly the size of Twitter (200mm registered users) and larger than LinkedIn (150mm registered users).  And, while G+ is still only 20% of the size of Facebook, it has clearly arrived, requiring lawyers to strongly consider it as part of their online branding and business development strategies.”