Google+ SEO: Link Post vs. Photo Post

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Google+ SEO Debate

Zombie McCain – Source: Unknown

There is an interesting, friendly, SEO debate going on over on Google+ about which type of post is better for your blog’s search engine ranking in Google – a link post or a photo post.

Since I’ve thrown my hat in the ring on this debate in a few instances along with many other smart folks (and also feel that many readers don’t understand what we’re debating) I thought I’d try and lay it all out so we’re all on the same page.

The debate centers around which post type passes SEO value to your blog, and which type gets better engagement on Google+. Below I explain what the main differences are between the post types in terms of SEO and provide my thoughts on which is best – I’d love it if you’d chime in too!

Google+ Link Post

Google+ Embedded Link Post

Google+ Embedded Link Post

The supposed upside of an embedded link post is that the link passes value from Google+ to your blog post which will help your post rank better in Google search. However, this has not yet been proven to be true, all we know at this point is that the link is dofollow, which is great, but doesn’t necessarily mean it will help your blog post rank (h/t +Mark Traphagen).

However…

Since the style of this type of Google+ post is not as enticing as a photo post, and Google doesn’t allow it as much screen real estate, engagement is usually noticeably lower – that means you’ll receive less +1’s, comments & shares (significantly so in my experience). In my opinion, that reduced visibility/engagement also means I’ve reduced my chances of getting links from Google+ members outside of Google+, which is also an important factor to consider for SEO.

Google+ Photo Post

Google+ Photo Post

Google+ Photo Post

The upside of a photo post is the large attention grabbing image.

Since an image is generally more eye catching, can be customized to really drive your point home, and is allowed to take up lot more screen real estate than a link post (up to 3x more), the engagement on Google+ is often much more significant (3-10x more significant in my experience).

However…

The link to your blog post is nofollowed which means it will not help your blog post rank better in Google search. That being said, since the engagement rate of a photo post is usually significantly higher than that of a link post, your chances of getting shares and links from platforms other than Google+ also significantly increases – that can have a major impact on the ranking of your blog post.

It is also important to note that in order for the +1s on the photo post to pass through to your blog post and potentially assist with ranking you can only include one link within the body of the Google+ photo post. See Dustin Stout’s post for more on that.

Which Post Type is Best for SEO?

In my opinion, the answer is that it depends on your goals and your existing community of followers on Google+.

Meaning that if you don’t already have a strong community of followers on Google+, you should probably be focusing more on engagement than SEO.

So, I’d start with photo posts since they are usually more engaging. Focusing on photo posts in the beginning should help you more quickly increase your overall authority, engagement rate, and community on Google+ than link posts will, which should help you more long term than the bit of link value you’d get from starting with link posts.

You’ll also want a strong community behind you later when you focus more on SEO – it’s the folks you are already connected with that are the most likely to share and +1 your posts which is what you’ll need to really make your future SEO efforts work for you.

If you are already established on Google+, and have solid engagement on your posts, you should probably focus on the potential SEO benefits of an embedded link post. The combination of your community engaging with your posts plus the SEO value provided from the link posts should provide some solid SEO returns for your blog.

However…

I still wouldn’t recommend neglecting photo posts – a strategy I follow and I know quite a few other pros do as well is to post both styles of posts at different times of the day (or week, month, etc). This works well to get the best engagement you can while still providing the majority of the SEO benefits.

 What Do You Do?

I’d love to hear which post type you use and how it’s working for you, especially if you think it has improved your SEO – let me know in the comments!

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Comments

  1. I straddle the fence on this one.. I can see both sides of the debate and both have value, so why not use these in tandem? Share the link with a photo to get more social proof, and marketing oomph, and use the embedded link for a more long term ranking strategy.

    To say only one or the other, you ignore the notion that every blog article can be shared multiple times. Of course not at the same time cluttering your stream for the day, but go back and revisit your blog.

    Of course we have all heard share 1/10 or more. One of your articles for every 10 of others. Well when that rotation comes back around, don’t be afraid to share the same article again, only this time the other way.

    • Craig Fifield says:

      Thanks a lot for the comment Jason! You are echoing pretty much what I do myself and recommend at the end of the post – use both to get the best of both worlds. There’s no reason it has to be one or the other!

      I also regularly recommend repackaging content, when you do that, that’s yet another opportunity to switch post types.

  2. Great article. I’ve been wondering about the best way to share content on G+ . I’ve noticed that photos get a lot more love from the G+ community. They’re easier to take in more quickly and engage with. Articles or links to articles require time – I feel that I need to go read the article, perhaps comment on it and then +1 it. So others must struggle with that as well. But your argument for both is interesting and I like that you and Jason make a good point about trying to link both ways.

    I do wonder about search results linking to G+ posts directly though. It seems that the follow link posts rank well when doing a regular Google search — within your own circle communities those results often appear close to the top. Do the picture posts with nofollow links do as well in this situation?

    • Craig Fifield says:

      Hi Elizabeth,

      The ranking of the different types of Google+ posts is a whole other nut to crack, but also a reason to do both types of posts 🙂 In general I’d expect an embedded link post to perform better in search, but there are a lot of other factors at play. Over on Google+ +Mark Traphagen commented that he’s working up a detailed article on the search ranking of Google+ posts, I’d keep an eye out of that if you are interested.

  3. So, what is the best way of creating a photo post that links back to your blog posting?

    • Craig Fifield says:

      Hi Edward, The best way is something like this – upload a large related eye catching image to your G+ post, write a decent length summary of your post and include a single link within the text to your blog post (no other links). I’d also recommend you place the link within the first few lines of the text for best visibility and add related hashtags at the end. You can see this post for an example https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CraigFifield/posts/FJ3pH52Wqj8

  4. Great article Craig! You’ve confirmed my thoughts and suspicions on this topic and what I’ve been telling others… *whew! I’m not crazy haha*

    I had a blog that I started in 2009. It was in a very narrow niche, but with some of the topics I had written there and the name I had achieved some pretty shnazzy SEO there. BUT! I last year I decided to stop writing there, get myself out of that niche , and start fresh. I love Google Strategy and the challenge of rebuilding SEO on a new site, so I’ve been tinkering and tweeking individual old posts I’d like to reuse, things on the backend of my site, and of course utilizing G+ (I also help other bloggers on G+ so it’s fun to test things out and use them as examples). So anyhoo, to answer your question, I like to send out the photo post, and the link post, just at different times. I send the link post out during a time where I find I get more immediate engagement, and the photo post when engagement is a little slower, and know I can count on the good visual to stimulate engagement and clicks. It’s a balance that I won’t say I’ve perfected yet, but enjoying the ride. 😉

    Thank you for this post!

  5. HI Craig,

    I read today that google post links are now nofollow. Is that true? If so then we should all probably focus on photo posts right?

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