Anyone building a brand or business page on Google+ quickly comes to a rather unsettling realization: at no point in the process does Google do anything to check that you have any real connection to the brand name on your page. So it would seem that you are left relying on searchers’ detective abilities to sniff out which page is the real McCoy, right?
Thankfully, the answer is “not entirely.” Google has provided a way for you to verify your page to Google. As a verified page, you get or are eligible for the following benefits:
- Preference in Google and Google+ search results,
- Eligibility for Direct Connect when it rolls out more broadly. (Direct Connect allows searchers on Google to go straight to your Google+ brand page by entering a “+” in front of your brand name. Eligibility is determined by algorithms and a verified Page connection–see below.)
- Flow through of +1s between your brand site and your Google+ Page (and related AdWords ads, if you’ve made that connection.)
How to Verify Your Google+ Page
1. Make sure you have a link from your Google+ Page to your official web site. Easiest place to do this is in the “Recommended Links” section of your Page’s “About” tab.
Click the “Edit Profile” button at upper right, then click on the “Recommended Links” section to put it in edit mode.
Fill in the “Label” box with whatever text you want the user to see for the link (e.g., Our Home Page), and the URL of your site’s home page in the “URL” box. Click “Save” and then “Done Editing.”
2. Put a Google+ Badge on your web page.
Go to https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config
Enter the ID number of your Page in the first box:
You’ll find the ID number as part of the URL for your Page. For example, the URL for Virante’s Page is https://plus.google.com/u/0/109417353800451599337/ so our ID number is 109417353800451599337.
Now choose a badge style. Some of the badges can be customized with your own text (whatever you type in the customize box will appear before the icon in the badge).
Copy each of the code snippets to paste into the HTML of your site. The first goes in the header section of the main page (between the <head>and </head> tags). The second goes wherever on your web page you want the badge to appear. (Tip: If you don’t want to display the badge, pasting the first code snippet in your header will be enough to establish the verification link with Google.)
If you have a WordPress site, go to Editor in the Appearance section of your Dashboard, and edit header.php. If you’r on Blogger, go to the Design tab and click the Edit HTML sub-tab. Place the header code anywhere in the top part of the template, before the </header> tag.
If you use the fullest version of the Page badge, it even displays friends of the visitor who have +1ed you, a +1 button, and an “Add to Circles” button. The +1 button will display your aggregated number of +1s from your home page, your Google+ Page, and any AdWords ads you’ve linked to +1.
That’s it!
Google will now see the unique connection between your Google+ Page and your web site, and will give your page preference in search results for people searching for your brand.
Note: You may notice that some Google+ Pages have a checkmark next to their name that expands to “Verified Page” when you click on it. Don’t despair if you do all the steps above and don’t see it on your Page. The procedure outlined above is still worth doing, as it signals Google that yours is the official page for your brand. Certainly that will factor in to Google’s search results.
However, if your Page has at least 1000 followers, it is now possible to request a “check mark” verification for your Page. Use this form to make the request. You will be asked to provide some form of proof of your association with the company owning the page. We’ve started seeing less “famous” pages get their verified page check mark this way.
More great tips for using Google+ for Business
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Related articles
- Google+ Page Verification Now Open to More Pages (virante.com)
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Thanks for sharing this info…so many things to learn.
This is good advice, but how do I know if it has been verified?
Ivan: The only way you’ll know is if you begin to see your brand page show up high in regular Google and Google+ searches for your brand name, especially if there are people who have created “fake” pages with your name. In our testing, pages that established the badge link with their linked G+ page always showed higher in Google results than other pages with the same name. So if for nothing else, this is a great move for reputation management in search results, not only because it puts you above fakes where you belong, but also if there is any negative content about your brand that is showing up on Google, anything you can do to push that content further down the results helps your brand.
I’ve followed the steps of your previous article and now when I search google, I see my g+ Page on the first page of the SERPS’s, about halfway down the page. I should note, this only happens when I’m logged into my google account. Otherwise, it doesn’t show.
Chris:
I took a look at your Page and your web site home page. Great job, looking good! How recently did you set up the badge link? I’m suspecting it was just today, since I don’t see any +1 numbers showing up on the badge, even after I +1ed your page and added it to one of my circles. Google stated that it would take some time for your aggregated +1 count across the web to begin showing on your badge.
More importantly to your question, give the SERP results some time. As you add followers and get people sharing your posts, commenting on them, and +1ing them, you’ll begin to see the effect. Our page shows up as the third result when I’m logged in to Google; logged out we’re fourth on the second page (up two positions from two days ago).
You might want to even try politely asking your followers on G+ to take a moment to +1 your page (provide a link to the profile to make it easy). That +1 button on the page may look like it does nothing, but I suspect it is read by Google as a signal factored into SERP’s.
Good luck!
Mark, the badge was the last thing I added…some time yesterday afternoon.
I just added you to my circles and +1′d as well.
Thanks for your great g+ tutorials!
Thanks, Chris. We circled your page back. Glad you’re finding our stuff helpful! I’ll be putting all of these G+ page tutorials in expanded form into an ebook that will be available for download. Watch our page and/or this blog for availability!
“+1′d you” meaning virante Page.
I wanted to post up a follow-up on our Google+ Page discussion.
When I search for my site as one word “behindthemixer,” in the SERP’s I see my site first, then my twitter page, then two of my twitter list pages, then my G+ page.
When I search for it as three words “behind the mixer” then my site is first and my Google+ page is second.
Thanks again for your articles.
Thanks for updating, Chris! That’s great to hear. Claiming front page real estate on Google is a major goal of SEO, so you’re helping prove the SEO value of your Google+ page. Now start posting content with keyword focus and work toward getting your Google+ content to rank on Google.
Hi Again
How do I upload a YouTube Video in my page.
Jasmine, if you just want to display a Youtube video in a post, copy its URL in YouTube (you can click the Share button under the video and copy that URL) and put it into your post or the link box of the post. To upload a video you have on your computer, use the Video tab of your Page. Hope that helps!
thanks useful information
Thanx for sharing……….
Thanks for sharing this tips !
I have to do it for my G+ profile
Julien
Fantastic information! Thanks so much for sharing with us!!
That is great stuff, very helpful and useable, thanks for the unique article
Thank you Mark Traphagen for your article about ‘How to Verify Your Google+ Brand Page with Google’. It’s very helpful.
thanks the information , so only get 1000 plus user will verify the brand name
but how much time..it will take to verify…..
An concept precisely what i am talking about.
The exact info I am looking for! thanks a lot Sir
I’m loving this because it says so much about why Google+ is a “verification system.” Sure, many don’t think of that for individuals, but don’t kid yourself. For brands, it seems natural. The verification system will help Google build “author rank” in the future. heck, if they’re giving preference in Search for brands on this basis, it’s logical that it will do the same for individuals.
It’s amazing, isn’t it Erik, how relatively few in the SEO and social media communities realize what a revolutionary change this is. So big benefits for us early adopters!
Mark, all signs point to this being an important signal, but honestly I AM holding my breath because I’ve seen so little to see it start to creep into actual search results other than for authors circled by over 10,000 people. Can you share any of the tools you’re using to track weather a signal from an author impacts ranking for something off of Google Plus? This tool looks like it could help, but I don’t have the time right now to set it up: http://www.tomanthony.co.uk/tools/author-crawler/