community-rankGoogle+ Community Rank isn’t quite an official term (yet), but we’re going to need a term for community authority on Google+ so I refer to it as Google+ Community Rank. This article will also raise more questions than it answers.

Various ranking factors apply to Google+ Communities, just like the do to any other webpage. Internally on the G+ network, the number of mentions, shares, who they’re from, etc. affect Google+ Community Rank. Externally, natural, quality inbound links may also affect where communities rank in search engine results pages.

While logged out of Google, certain communities appear in search. Some rank better than others. Their  Google+ Community Rank could play a role. Keywords play a role, as most communities have varying names. For example, if you search for Google+ photography community, you’ll see that a couple of communities show up. One ranks higher than the other possibly due to several factors:

  • Keyword match – If the title and description of 1 community is a better match than the next for your keywords, it may show up higher than the next one. Of course, this is not the only factor.
  • Page Rank, inbound links, and other – Other factors contribute to where the page may display in Google search results.
  • Google+ Communities SEO – Again the title, and also the “About this community” section plays a role in this as well, as it acts as a meta description in search engine results pages. Using descriptive keywords and key phrases in meta descriptions is important for onsite SEO, and it is for the community about section as well. So far, this seems to be a very important factor.
  • +1s, number of members, community age – Could any of these factors contribute to the community rank?

While logged in to Google+ and searching communities, some communities perform better than others, or are displayed first in your search. Their Google+ Community Rank is not necessarily the reason for this though. Results here are personalized. If people in your circles are participating in the communities, these communities may be displayed before other communities. Of course, this only affects searches for communities where there are several communities with similar names.

Without sitting here and digging too deep into this, at the end of the day almost all things Google boil down to the same things that have mattered for ages now. Consistently creating and curating quality (and shareable) content.

If anyone would like to discuss Google+ Community Rank further or dig deeper beyond the scope of what this article offers, let’s do that on the Google+ Community Rank Community.

Len
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On November 24, 2013   /   Social Media   /   Leave a comment

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