Google PLUS ONE Button

cormie

Hi,
Would anyone know the best way to go about adding a +1 button to www.VanTasks.ie? I have facebook/twitter/blog/rss feed icons in the footer but then on each blog post I make, I get an individual facbeook "like" option for each post. When I search for a certain phrase which brings up my site, it says 2 of my contacts in Google have "+1'd" the site, but if I use a different phrase, it doesn't show this. I think they both must have just +1'd it on the actual search result page.

Should I be looking to add a button to the footer like the rest, and then if people click this to +1 VanTasks, then any search on Google which shows vantasks in the result, will also show that people in the searchers network, also +1'd it? Is that possible?

If not, I guess putting a +1 button on the index page would be the most important (as in - www.VanTasks.ie) and then I guess I'd have to put one on each sub page too? Bit more messy...

If somebody could please explain how it works and what the best way to implement it would be that would be much appreciated

cormie

After having read this: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html and this: http://jonathanbjorkskog.com/add-plus-one-button-to-website

I'm still not sure on the questions I had above. Would this take a developer long to implement the way I want it?

blue4ever

Its only a bit of code that you slot onto your pages, its not a 'developer' type job!

I have a +1 running on a site that gets decent traffic and the +1 is as useful as the proverbial tits on a bull.

Do you have a CMS backed site?

tricky D

Should be a pretty simple matter of adding it to your footer file just the ones you already have there.

Something like:
Get +1 graphic, resize and upload.
Open footer.php
Copy Twitter code, paste, change graphic to the one above and change link.

Should be about that simple.

Edit: for some reason, I have it in my head that you're using WordPress.

blue4ever

In parts most definitely, but I don't this the main pages are WP.

But like you said, find the file that contains the other social logos and there is enough room for a plus one.

cormie

Thanks for the replies WP is only used on my blog, the rest of the site uses a custom CMS and then the footer and header are somewhere else then again which I'd need to access through blacknight login I think.

Although it may not be used very much, maybe people will start some day, who knows, good to have it there anyway I guess.

But what way should I go about using it? Should I put it on each individual page, or just have it in the footer and have people +1 the whole site, as opposed to for example, a page on piano transport?

blue4ever

I'd go for the footer at the moment - it will be done in one go.
The plus one I have is on a templated page, but when the plus one is hit its for a specific page - not the whole site (unless its the index page).
Give it a try and see what happens

Whats the other cms system btw?

cormie

Probably best to put it in the footer so it's not obstructing the view of the site elsewhere. I'm not sure what you mean about having yours on a template page and only being for a specific page and not the whole site? If I put it in the footer and somebody clicks it, will it +1 the whole site? How would this relate to searches then done by people networked with that person who +1'd it? Would people see they +1'd it only if the specific page that was +1'd turns up in google, or would it show for every page on the whole site that shows up on Google?

The Apprentice

I tend to dissagree with the +1 scenario saying its useless.. if its natural its a boost. If u pay for it, you,ll get **** all

http://searchengineland.com/how-being-friends-on-google-leads-to-better-rankings-87376

cormie

Got around to trying this myself and I think I got it going ok

Seems www.VanTasks.ie, www.vantasks.ie/index.php, www.vantasks.ie/home are all treated different and while www.vantasks.ie has 4 +'s now, the others have 0 at the moment, I guess then each individual page is treated differently. Just glad I was able to get it working myself feel free to test it out

cormie

Just wondering, is there any way to see a list of all the people who have plus one'd each individual button at all?

cormie

Another quick question, does anyone know how to get a "proper" link to a place page?

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=9529551243965522023&hl=en-IE

is a link if I go to google.com/places and then find my page

but if I click "place page" link on regular google search is:

http://maps.google.ie/maps/place?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=man+with+a+van&fb=1&gl=ie&hq=man+with+a+van&hnear=0x48670e80ea27ac2f:0xa00c7a9973171a0,Dublin,+Co.+Dublin+City&cid=9529551243965522023&ei=KWRyTri9GIeKhQe2zuS-CQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=3&ved=0CF0Q4gkwAg

Then if I click the "link" button while on the place page, the link is:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en-IE&cid=9529551243965522023

The 9529551243965522023 number is in each link so I guess that's my ID and everything else is just a different term associated with it, but I just want to be sure of a link that will always work..

Any feedback appreciated

BrianD

cormie wrote: »

Another quick question, does anyone know how to get a "proper" link to a place page?

I don't think there is a "short URL" for this. The idea is that the Place will show in searches and you can embed your place map if you wish. Would male a lot of sense if they had.

cormie wrote:

ust wondering, is there any way to see a list of all the people who have plus one'd each individual button at all?

There isn't but you can the usage in analytics.

I wouldn't recommend putting the Plus one button in the footer. You need it above the fold and entice people to press it.

cormie

Thanks for the reply Might see about putting the plus one button in a more prominent position, but it fits in nicely at the bottom with the rest

Not sure what you mean about embedding the place map somewhere?

I'm pretty sure http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=9529551243965522023

is the shortest url for my place page, without using an url shortener of course, the rest of the url coding in the other links are just for specific results as far as I can see

BrianD

They do but almost invisible!

You seem to have a mix of buttons. You should look at the 'tweet' button from Twitter and the Like/send button from Facebook. This means that you are sharing the content into Facebook and Twitter.

cormie

Thanks again for the input! I'm not sure there'd be too much on my website worth tweeting or facebooking about, I have them on my blog alright, but as far as the site itself goes, I think it'd be more valuable to have people like/follow me rather than the very odd chance someone would tweet or post about something on the site itself?

What did you mean in saying about embedding the place page? where would I do that?

IRE60

I took this code from your own places map:

On a page you wnat the map to appear (say the contacts) paste the following somewhere where you'd like it to appear


<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en-IE&ie=UTF8&view=map&cid=9529551243965522023&q=VanTasks&hq=VanTasks&hnear=&t=m&vpsrc=0&iwloc=A&ll=53.290815,-6.132409&spn=0.006295,0.006295&output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en-IE&ie=UTF8&view=map&cid=9529551243965522023&q=VanTasks&hq=VanTasks&hnear=&t=m&vpsrc=0&iwloc=A&ll=53.290815,-6.132409&spn=0.006295,0.006295&source=embed&quot; style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>



That should do it.

cormie

Thanks a lot! now added to the contact us page

cormie

Google works in mysterious ways. About 3 weeks ago I sent all previous customers a request to like/follow/review me and this included writing reviews on my google place page. Before this, my place page link would show up in a general google for a certain keyword search, then as I got reviews, these would be highlighted in the search too and then when I got enough reviews, the stars showed up too, this made me stand out pretty well from the rest, but now the place listing in the search results has disappeared. My place page and all the reviews are still there. I'm just wondering, if the method in which I got the reviews (asking a few hundred customers at once to review, meaning I got over 20 reviews in the space of a week, with having no reviews before that in the year or two my place page existed) flag something with google's algorithm? Hopefully it'll pop back soon...

worc

cormie wrote: »

Google works in mysterious ways. About 3 weeks ago I sent all previous customers a request to like/follow/review me and this included writing reviews on my google place page. Before this, my place page link would show up in a general google for a certain keyword search, then as I got reviews, these would be highlighted in the search too and then when I got enough reviews, the stars showed up too, this made me stand out pretty well from the rest, but now the place listing in the search results has disappeared. My place page and all the reviews are still there. I'm just wondering, if the method in which I got the reviews (asking a few hundred customers at once to review, meaning I got over 20 reviews in the space of a week, with having no reviews before that in the year or two my place page existed) flag something with google's algorithm? Hopefully it'll pop back soon...

If the people who reviewed you/your site had not done much reviewing via Gplaces in the past then Google would look at that as pretty suspicious. On top of that if you had never had a review and within a 2-3 day period you got a bunch then it can look strange; possibly looks like they were paid for - Google don't like this!

You gotta be very careful about this sort of thing, I think it's pretty well known that google keeps track of the general trend your site has with in-bound links/reviews and new links/reviews can be tested against this trend to see if the difference is significant - if it is then it looks suspicious. You're better off building gradually so it looks more natural than one explosion of reviews.

You're better off sending those requests to new customers so there is a steady trickle of reviews and not one big bunch. Or even only sending requests to previous customers one / two per week.

cormie

Damn, that's what I was worried about. I know how clever the Google system is and of course it's great to weed out the scammers but these were indeed genuine reviews. I had a list of customers I had done jobs for since 2007, never any newsletters or anything and then decided to contact them all asking for reviews and support so that's where the influx came from and infact, there was only one review which I think may not be genuine and that's a 1 star rating which I suspect may be from a competitor when they saw I was getting a few good reviews

I wonder would it be any use to contact Google about it, do they have a flagging system or is it something that's just automatically done and can't be undone?

worc

Yeah it's a bit of a pain really - what you've done is natural, it's just unfortunate that the trend you've probably created fits in with what spammers have done in the past. If you have any way to add some new content to your site that may alleviate things but I'm not sure if this works for Gplaces reviews.

I'll describe what I mean in terms of when you get new inbound links because I'm not sure it's as relevant for Gplaces reviews: Adding new content when you get new links can reduce the chance of a penalty because if you get new inbound links and at the same time new content is added then it looks more natural i.e. new content gets new links seems a-ok; no new content with lots of new links seems odd and can get red flagged.

I've read that places page changes can lead to them being dropped for a short period of time while they are re-indexed and that they generally go back where they were - this could have happened too. I have a friends site at no.1 places page for a number of primary keywords and I'm dreading the day they ask me to make some changes to it...

This might also be affecting your site - seems some have detected a places pages algo change that if you're business is closer to the centre of a city when the city name + keyword is searched for then you're more likely to show up now - seems it's very recent too so this might be what's going on. Only you'll know by the keywords you've mentioned.

I know google send out webmaster tools warnings if they notice unnatural links to your website - haven't heard of them doing this though for places pages (I googled it and couldn't find anything either). Might be worth checking if you've received any warnings.

From what I know you can only request a review of your site if it's already been picked up for malware/unnatural links etc. via webmaster tools.

cormie

Thanks again for the helpful reply and for even doing a bit of googling to try and help, very much appreciated At the time of the reviews, I also added a new blog page, in which I linked to the place page asking for reviews, I sent a link to this page to some customers via sms, as for the customers who I only had a mobile number of, it was better to send a short text asking them to visit a page, where my review request would be in full with all links to each site to review/follow me on, rather than send a huge essay text to each.

Hopefully this will work in my favour since I did add new content, content which had a link to the place page!

Hopefully it will fix itself, as has happened before (my site dropping in organic results a few pages and then popping back up in a higher position).

It's funny though because for some of my keyword searches, my place page and them nice stars do show up but for my core keyword, my place page seems to have dropped!

Trojan

cormie wrote: »

Seems www.VanTasks.ie, www.vantasks.ie/index.php, www.vantasks.ie/home are all treated different and while www.vantasks.ie has 4 +'s now, the others have 0 at the moment, I guess then each individual page is treated differently. Just glad I was able to get it working myself feel free to test it out

You could set <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.vantasks.ie/"&gt; in the header of your homepage (and homepage only!) to force that to be correct. You'll need code with exception handling if you want to have it appear correctly on all pages.

The other option is to use code for the +1 button that explicitly includes the URL (this is what usually I do - more control over proceedings). You can find out more about that here or just click Advanced Options on this page to generate your code.

I still love your favicon.