Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve almost certainly heard the latest news that has the social media universe in a frenzy:
This week, Google released its Google +1 (“plus one”) button to compete with Twitter’s Tweet button and Facebook’s Like button.
In order to capitalize on the potential traffic and exposure that this new button can generate, you’ll need to incorporate it into your site as soon as possible.
There’s one little problem, though.
Unless you’re a ninja, you’re probably going to get frustrated while trying to add the buttons to your site.
For most people, there are just too many options and too many different ways to integrate and configure the buttons, and this leaves them feeling uncomfortable with the result.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I implement something on my site, I like to know that I’ve done it the most efficient and effective way possible.
In keeping with this line of thinking (and also with my company’s focus on making the web faster and easier), we’ve gone ahead and published a detailed tutorial that will help you add the Google +1 button to your site with confidence.
Oh, and here’s a pro tip before you go: Under the “Step One (the API Call)” section, be sure to use Option 2—it’s the one that will yield the best performance!
38 comments… read them below or add one
So are you adding the button to your site, I find all those facebook likes, and google stuff just slows down the site.
What do you think?
Shawn, although I despise how the buttons slow down sites, I’ll probably add them all here.
The benefits of social sharing definitely outweigh the design and speed rape, but ultimately, I’ll never be at peace with buttons that make calls to 3rd party APIs at runtime.
Hey Shawn, Just wondering if it really worth all the hasstle – do you not think google is just wanting to break into a market they have ignored for the last 5 years (plus fb likes & tweets do nothing for seo anyway)?
Heard mixed feedback on th +1 button but not convinced it is anything else that showing you are in touch with the trends of today?
It makes sense for google to come up with something to compete with facebook & twitter’s buttons. Given google’s dominance of the web, there is a good chance that theirs will become widely used and may even surpass facebook & twitter’s buttons.
I only put things on my blog that look good, I’m very visual, and that button is way too big and distracting. So I’m not going to add it to my site.
I added it to my blog a few days ago but I wish I had read your tutorial first, it took me forever to figure it out. Thanks for sharing.
Is it really beneficial for a website? I mean more clicks on +1 button could improve website’s traffic or SERPs?
Google wants data, and the +1 button is one of the many ways they’ll be gathering expansive new data about people’s social behaviors on the web.
Though I don’t think simply adding a +1 button is going to improve your rankings, it will certainly improve the shareability of your articles.
In all likelihood, articles with a high +1 count will probably show at least some correlation with higher rankings. If you think about it, this has been going on for some time—articles with lots of Twitter or Facebook shares also tend to rank well.
Ultimately, Google views the +1 button (and other social indicators) as a potentially-reliable additions to their search algo.
Historically, links have been the driving force behind rankings, but the addition of social factors will help reduce the importance of linking, thereby making it ever harder to game search algos for direct monetary benefit.
Hi Chris,
I agree that google is collecting all data around the web and did they use +1 signal for search result? Or has anything to do with ranking?
google collect all amazing :)
I added it yesterday and will track it over the next month to see if it’s worth my while. Time will tell…
For sure its worth adding to see the effect, think they are very late to market though, but when you have money and reach behind you, its possible to catchup, I will use the add button tutorial to speed things up too!, thanks
A great little tutorial. Hopefully this really takes off, seeing as it’s google!
G+ came as like an storm to fight against Facebook. +1 button fights with facebook like button and twitter tweet button to built online reputation in a new form.
Thanks
Hello Chris, is there a forum I can get support on customizing Thesis? I’m sure you don’t want to answer questions here :)
Casey, there sure is—paying customers have access to our world-renown support forums. There, you can interact with our professional support staff as well as the rest of the pros in the Thesis community.
I haven’t add yet the G+ since it launch… bit I guess it’s now the time. After reading your post, I find it now useful.
I haven’t added any +1 or Like buttons to my blog yet. Reason being, I just recently left Facebook for a number of reasons and I am weary of anything that reminds me of it.
I feel like wherever there is intense social networking, there is low quality communication between people. I value quality dialogue and communication. It just seems like people stop talking when they start “liking” things.
I’m no longer on Facebook but I am on Google+. I think I will hold off on this one with my blog as well as all of my other websites. Like the high-5, I’m going to bring quality communication back to life!!!
Either that or I’ll just give in and implement the buttons. :)
I am not a fan of the +1 buttons. If Google wants websites to link to each other to help it work out its search results, surely +1 ing is going to put people off in linking to sites because they will just +1 instead and feel they have “shared” their find.
Are +1′s going to be a major part of Google’s algorithm then? I see they are in webmaster tools.
I’d rather not add something else to my site without truly understanding the benefit of Google +1, and yet it does make me nervous seeing the data in Google webmaster tools. I think I will leave it a few months once there is more information about its impact. I’ll keep watching this site.
I had originally decided to add the +1 button in an attempt to bring up traffic a bit. I did see a bit of a spike, but as the interest in google plus declined things have returned to normal. That being said, the post does provide a easy-to-follow tutorial on how to add the +1 button.
Google plus is will make our blog post PANDA proof. I’ve installed two important buttons in my site – the Facebook LIKE and the Google+. I’ve seen some good changes in terms of traffic. I’ve receive more traffic from Facebook through the FB Lik button and hopefully I will generate more traffic from SE through Google+ buttons.
If your blog is in WordPress installation is very easy with the use of plugins.
Thanks for this post.
Honestly I have been living under the rock, this is something totally new to me.
It is only recently I have woken up to study SEO and PageRank metrics. It is very educative to read an article like this.
Thanks for this post! Google+ is a modern trend and no matter how often people tell about its uneffectivenes in front of other social media monsters, it really helps in promoting web sites and it’s just fun to use it. Thank you for sharing the info on how to add G+ button!
I’m pretty surprised that people think the plus 1 may not have an effect on ranks. Surely Google will use any signals and metrics they can to decide which page goes where, so I would say it does or certainly will have an effect. So I added it regardless, plus who knows, you may just get an extra seo point for using their button!
I found a nice plugin for Wordpress that does the job, has Google+, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, email and others (that I do not use). My problem was not added the button but getting all buttons to line up and look nice together. The plugin that is working for me is called Social Sharing Toolkit. If there is better let me know, been using it for a few weeks now.
Thanks for that hint; I replaced my old plugin with the Social Sharing Toolkit and like it a lot better!
I’ve just put it in on my blog posts (the small one goes along well with my other share buttons). I’m not pushing it as hard as Facebook’s like though (bigger button)
I hope Google one day takes Facebook Like as one of the important things to be considered during searches
Great help…after reading your post, I find it to be useful. Also Social Sharing Toolkit gives the same exposure but is handy to use and all in swimline way.
This is a cool tutorial and all, but it doesn’t explain how to embed the +1 button on the blog home. (When you just paste the code, the link points to the home page, not the single page.)
I know there’s a way to do it, and today I’m finding out, if it takes all day.
Chris, I’ll bet you don’t know how yet either. :P The race is on …
Martyn, the fix is quite simple (and of course I know how to do it):
Simply stick that code in your function that outputs social links, and your Google+ button will reference the post itself rather than the home page.
As I discovered later that day, you can make the syntax even more terse. ;)
http://twohourblogger.com/tutorials/social-sharing-genesis/
Thanks for sharing!
Today I will implement on every site I have :).
Can you post a tutorial where you implement a lot of social buttons?
Thanks!
Great article Chris,
I have found that the new plug-in “Sociable” includes google plus. Is there any advantage to this over the standard google plus plug-in?
Thanks, Becky
Useful article but don’t you think that Google+ button is a bit useless? Not that many people use it at this time.
thanks for sharing such a nice article! google+ button in the website will really increase the position in serp
Chris, thanks for sharing the code and the fix for a single page! I have not been a big fan of ‘social’ and don’t believe in Google+ traffic increasing potential so much, however to keep up let us have them all:)
According to Bruce Clay, the +1 button will affect the search of people in your circles provided that they are still logged on to G+ at the time of the search.
Plus, I personally think that it will somehow affect page positioning on SERP as Google is going all out to ensure that G+ is supported. Though I don’t see G+ will ever catch Facebook in the near future but it will give a good fight in a good couple of years.
Hello I read your article and adding G+ button definetely helps in website traffic increase