How to Optimise your Google Plus Profile

Those who are concerned about keeping up with another social network, should really open up their minds a bit more, because they are missing out on great opportunities, especially with SEO and diverting traffic to your websites.
One great way to divert traffic to your Facebook fan page, Twitter profile, LinkedIn company page, blog, or personal website, is to complete your Google+ profile. It's really straight forward compared to other social networks like LinkedIn, and definitely takes up a lot less time.
Here is how I've optimized my profile to direct traffic to several accounts.

You want people to know what you do at first glance, without reading through your whole profile. This and your profile picture is the first thing people see when they want to find out more about you. Use this as an opportunity to include keywords of your service and skills. As you can see in the following example, I've included; Web Design London | Web Marketing London | Web Development London | SEO | CMS Websites so that the area I specialize in is clear.

When people Google your name, your Google+ account is likely to appear at the top of the search rankings. This result includes your name, description, and the first few words of your introduction. Go ahead, try it!

Google+ at the moment is leaning towards the informal end of the spectrum, so there is space to be friendly and show some emotion, but it would be terrible not to take advantage of the hyperlink function. The platform allows you to highlight certain words and add a hyperlink to them, much like you would using any Microsoft office package or WordPress. Strategically choose the keywords that are the most relevant to your business, and add a hyperlink to the relevant page on your website. Google+ highlights these words in blue so that they stand out from the rest of the text.

Also remember to include your services here, and add hyperlinks to them as well. Another important thing to keep in mind is that for all the information you put into your profile, you can change the privacy so that only you information is only visible to certain people. As a business person however, I would leave it as "anyone on the web".

The next section to highlight is the "Other Profiles" section, which allows you to add links to any website of your choice. Use this space to direct traffic to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Blog, Homepage etc. You can add and remove these as you please, and even change the order in which they appear. As well as this section, there is the "Contributor to", and "Recommended Link" sections, which are pretty similar in terms of function. Google+ allows you to give whatever name you want to the links. It's up to you what you put in these sections, but don't just put "Homepage" or "Facebook" when you are adding the links. Use names that will attract users to your services.

Have you used Google+ to increase traffic? Share your thoughts!