Creating a website for any purposes—whether it’s to promote yourself, your brand or your business—is an excellent way to make information easily available to your target market or audience. WordPress is a commonly used platform to build websites because it is easy to use, logically sound to navigate and cost efficient. But what if you want to add the benefits of Google and utilize its info and network power on your WordPress site? If you’re interested in expanding your network beyond the WordPress community, you can easily add your Google page onto your WordPress site for easy access. Below is a step-by-step guide to set up a Google brand page for WordPress.
Step 1: Create a Google Account
The first thing to do is create a Google account. In order to do this, go to the link www.google.com/+/business . If you have a Gmail account that you use for business, you can easily link it together. You’ll see a blue button that says “Create your Google+ Page” at the bottom under the title “Introducing Pages for Google+.” Click away!
Step 2: Selecting a Category
As mentioned in the above, you can create a Google+ Page for various purposes but it’s especially useful in order to promote your brand or business. So begin by deciding on a category for your Google page. Is it a place or business, like a store, café, restaurant, hotel, motel or bed and breakfast? Is it a local service center that is convenient to reach for locals? Is your page to promote a product or a brand? If it’s a product, you’ll be happy to know that a Google page helps product businesses that are difficult to find locally. For instance, if you have headphones that are only available in stores in Seattle, a Google page will help consumers from other parts of the US and around the world to find your product for purchase. Is your Google page to promote a company, organization, institution or NGO? If so, you can add info for visitors’ easy access and viewing. What field or industry does it fall under? Whether it’s a movie, sport, book, band, TV show, webisode or other, you can specify and customize this section as you need to in order to inform your visitors. Last but not least, Google+ allows you to add additional information that you can’t fit in elsewhere in the “Other” section. It might be links to other websites you own, or relevant contacts such as distributors of the product or content, or info on release of content in case they are films or shows, or other helpful information that would help visitors.
Step 3: Restrictions
For example’s sake, let’s say you choose the “Product or Brand” category for your Google page. On the “Create a page” section of the Google page setup, there’s a convenient spot for you to add your website beneath the Page name section. Additionally, you can select a default restrictions and access locks on the page in case there are sensitive images or information on the site by selecting the restriction age to be either 18 and over or 21 and over.
Step 4: Taglines
You can easily add content such as taglines and photos for your Google page. A tagline is a concise phrase or statement that describes your site in just a few words. Adding a profile photo of either your brand’s logo, your product’s packaging, or your own profile in case people recognize your name and face to be associated with the brand is highly recommended. Google pages are helpful in that they’re for easy viewing. You should select an image that can be recognized immediately to associate your brand, product, service or content with.
Step 5: Simplifying your Google Page URL
You’re almost done setting up your Google page. It’ll create a URL link to let you and others access it anytime. Unfortunately there is no customized URLs available for Google pages yet. This is truly unfortunate since URLs nowadays are all ready to be customized. Hopefully this option will be made available by Google soon. The URL will start with plus.google.com/ followed by a string of random numbers. Since the URL address is too long to conveniently attach to platforms you’d like to share it on, a suggestion would be to customize and shorten it using Bit.ly. It’s a convenient tool that can help you beyond just your Google plus pages.
You have another great option: a Simple URL plugin created by StudioPress. You can install this plugin to your WordPress and that’ll give you the option of creating a customized URL link that’s easy to remember. You can customize it by reordering where the words appear, and by replacing the random numbers from the original Google plus page link, which is nearly impossible to memorize. In order to install a plugin for your WordPress platform, go to the dashboard, find the WordPress plugin directory, and follow the step-by-step instructions:
Under the Dashboard section, find “Plugins.” You can search the various plugins available for your use in the search bar. Type in “Simple URL plugin.” Options will appear for your choosing along with star ratings and reviews for your convenience! And beneath these options, there’s a lovely link that says: “Install Now.” After determining what kind of plugin would work best for you, click “Install Now” and begin the process by clicking the link. When a pop-up appears asking if you’d like to install the plugin, click “OK” and begin the download. Afterwards, you’ll find another convenient option to click that says, “Activate Plugin.”
After downloading, go back to the Plugins section of your dashboard and upload the .zip folder you have by clicking the “Choose File” button.
Step 6: Connecting to WordPress
On your WordPress page, create a page that links directly to your Google+ page. You can do this by creating a new “blog” post or a new page entirely devoted to your Google+ page. You can easily find a code to make the Google page appear from your WordPress page directly online.
Step 7: Linking back to your WordPress website
If you’d like, you can also direct visitors of your Google page to your WordPress page; in the section where “Create” your page, type in the URL that goes to your WordPress directly. You can also customize your WordPress URL by purchasing the custom URL via WordPress on an annual fee basis. This is highly recommended as it’ll add a touch of professionalism rather than seeming more like a blog on WordPress.
Step 8: Show it off!
Now that you know how to setup a Google Brand Page for WordPress, go ahead and get started! You’re on your way to promoting your brand and website in a highly linked network hosted by Google!