G+ - Gone for Good?

[aputtock]

Hello all,

My discussion is twofold today -

First point:

My agency noticed around September that we were no longer able to enable Google+ pages for clients in our G Suite bulk accounts.

After escalating this issue with Google, we got the message from GMB support that new GMB are no longer associated with Google+ pages.

However, our clients who have added us as managers on their listings do appear to have the ability to enable Google+.

This leads me to believe that it may be that we use a bulk account with many different listings, however there's no way to be sure as GMB support doesn't normally like to comment on G+ issues (other than the basics).

Which leads me to my second point -

Is Google + dead?

What is the optimization value, to a business, of a Google + page (beside social signals)?

Since the removal of NAP information and the classic view of G+ last year, how relevant is Google+ as a local ranking factor?

Open to discussion!

All feedback is welcome.

Thanks, A

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi A,

Yes GMB and G+ are totally separate now so there is no benefit to using G+ for local.

However if you need some of the other G+ features like Communities, or Social, the platform is still there to use. I think it's lost a lot of popularity though. So if you want to use it for social you'd really need to push page to users via your site and/or email or they likely won't find it since disconnected and does not rank in search.

Other thoughts?

 

[CraigJMount]

Didn't Mike B. do a presentation at Moz Local (Are Words the New Links?) talking about the importance of G+?

Link here- https://moz.com/mozcon-local-videos (Video is at the bottom of the page). From what I understand, Google+ can be really important if you use it correctly.

 

[Blake Denman]

Didn't Mike B. do a presentation at Moz Local (Are Words the New Links?) talking about the importance of G+?

Link here- https://moz.com/mozcon-local-videos (Video is at the bottom of the page). From what I understand, Google+ can be really important if you use it correctly.

That presentation had to do with review sentiment and keywords used in reviews from third-party sites and GMB listings can influence ranking.

Dan Leibson and Andrew Shotland just published research backing this up too.

Mike did do a talk (or maybe a blog post) about posting on G+ to increase ranking, which it did (sample size of 1) while consistently posting.

 

[CraigJMount]

You must not have watched the video I referenced in the link; that presentation also talks about "posting on G+ to increase ranking" in the latter half.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I didn't watch the whole video but I know Ben Fisher was behind it and did much of the research. Ben talked to me about it a bit.

MozCon Local was back in Feb, so I'm pretty sure when they were talking G+ and local ranking that was back when G+ was still connected to GMB & local. So I wonder, if we asked them today, if they would still think the same now that there has been a complete disconnect?

 

[Blake Denman]

You must not have watched the video I referenced in the link; that presentation also talks about "posting on G+ to increase ranking" in the latter half.

Didn't watch the video bc I was at MozCon Local for the presentation.

 

[CraigJMount]

@Linda- What an interesting thought, I wonder if we could find that out.

@Blake- You don't see the natural response there: "You must not have been paying attention, that presentation also talks about "posting on G+ to increase ranking" in the latter half."? I'm really confused by this interaction per the thread. I think we are trying to figure out if G+ can drive rank.