Google Plus Adds More Detail to Link Posts

If you are an avid Google Plus like I am—and you should be—then you have probably been wondering when Google Plus would follow Facebook’s lead and make link posts more appealing and compelling.  No worries mate, Google Plus has just made link posts similar to Facebook’s with larger images, bold titles and a link to the source’s Google Plus page. These more detailed links should allow Google Plus users to obtain a better understanding of what a link page is like before switching over.

Google Plus experts predict that this should boost the number of click through and follows, while limiting the need to upload an image, since the new link posts will showcase an image already. This enhanced activity is expected because it should beautify the pages on Google Plus, inviting more users to explore, similar to pages on another major social media site Pinterest.

While these new link posts are in the roll out stage, they may not function for everyone at all times.  In fact, Google Plus recently announced the new feature, then pulled it before re-releasing it.  In my experience so far, it is not in widespread use.  However, as users begin to engage with the new functionality, I predict that Google Plus will make richer link posts a standard feature on its pages.

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With more than 550 million users, Google Plus is the second largest social network in the world.  In the United Kingdom, there are almost 2.8 million registered Google Plus users.  However, these numbers can be misleading because many of the users rarely log on to Google Plus despite using a variety of other Google applications like the search engine, Gmail or photo apps.

This new feature to enhance the Google Plus experience is likely intended to attract more active, daily traffic on the social media platform.  With link posts and link related traffic, Google Plus is likely to become more akin to a bustling town market.  This should also boost commercial traffic for businesses seeking to generate more visits to their landing page from Google Plus.

In the context of Google Plus generated traffic, you should be designing a landing page with an impressive image which appeals to your key market segments.  Because these new link posts will now unfurl a large visual of the link site, you want to grab the attention of potential customers with an intriguing, aesthetically pleasing image.  You may also wish to integrate your company title into the landing page so that Google Plus acts as a secondary store front.

Some people have found that these link posts operate best in conjunction with WordPress and other Content Management Systems. While I don’t recommend that you revamp your website for CMS yet—after all, Google Plus may improve this functionality—it may be worth considering down the road.  WordPress offers a number of additional features that can not only improve you business’ functionality with Google Plus, but also improves a number of other website operations.

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