Finally Google+ brand pages are here. Some companies/brands/website owners were waiting anxiously for the arrival so that they could create their own Google+ page. When Google+ was launched, some businesses started to create a profile as personal account. But now there is no need to do this as we can officially create a Google+ page. Before starting out, check out and join Technostarry on Google+ brand page. This page should give you an idea as to what exactly we will achieve by doing this.
Create Google+ page for your WordPress site
Creating a Google+ page is easy and in this article, you will also learn how to integrate Google+ to your WordPress site.
1. Sign in or sign up to Google+
Head over to this link: plus.google.com/pages/create and then sign in using your Google account. If you don’t have Google account, then you can create one.
2. Pick a category for your brand page
In this second step, you will need to select a category that defines your business.
Here is a short explanation for these categories:
Local Businesses or Place: For hotels, restaurants, places, stores, any other local business.
Product or Brand: Apparel, cars, electronics, financial services, etc.
Company, Institution or Organisation: Companies, organizations, institutions, non profits, etc.
Arts, Entertainment or Sports: Movies, TVs, music, books, sports, shows.
Other: Use this category if your page doesn’t fit in any of the above categories.
3. Add information about your page
After deciding on category, click on it. Now fill out information about your page like:
Page name: The name which you give to this page
Website: Enter Website URL here
Content is appropriate for: Select your content is appropriate for all or of certain age. Most likely you will select “Any Google+ user” from the drop down menu.
Finally accept the terms and conditions and click on “Create“.
4. Add Tagline and Photo for your Google+ brand page
This is the last step. Add tagline which best describes your brand/business/site and upload a photo.
That’s done. Your Google+ account is now created. You will be given a URL so that you can spread the word to your friends and increase its reach. The URL will be like this:
https://plus.google.com/111761244664092121058/ (Note down this page ID in red, as we will require it in later steps)
Post this complete URL to your facebook, twitter and other social networking sites.
How to Integrate Google+ Brand Page to WordPress site
Now that the brand page is created, we can integrate it to WordPress site. You can put the Google+ brand page badge on your WordPress site.
In the text box provided, enter the page ID which we noted in previous step. And from below of this page, you can get the code and paste it on your theme files. There are two parts of the code and both needs to be placed at different places. Let’s take a deeper look at the code:
<!– Place this tag in the of your document–>
Insert this code in your head section. Most probably, you will need to insert this code in your header.php file. In this file, you will find </head>. Insert the code just above this.
<!–Place this tag where you want the badge to render–>
You need to place this tag where you want the bade to appear. You can insert by editing theme files or by using a “Text widget”. You will need to decide where you want to display the badge. If you want to display it on the sidebar, then just drag and drop the “Text” widget to the sidebar widget area (or any other preferred area) and paste the code here.
There’s one more manual method for doing this. Grab the Google+ brand page icons and then link them to your Google+ page. But here’s a small twist in linking. Use the below code for linking:
<a target=”_blank” rel=”publisher” href=”https://plus.google.com/111761244664092121058/”>Google+</a>
Notice the rel=”publisher”. This tells Google that the subject of the linked page is the publisher of the site.
This is how you can place a badge or icon of your newly created Google+ page. Let me know in the comments, if you have any questions.
You may also like to know the difference between Google+ Pages and Google+ Profiles.
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