In case you haven’t noticed, Google has been integrating its social network, Google+, into search results more and more prevalently.

Before, when searching for something general like AT&T, the website, Facebook and Twitter pages for the company would be most prevalent, along with the nearest locations.

Now, however, when searching for AT&T, the first thing that pops up after the main website is AT&T’s Google+ page, as shown below from a screenshot taken earlier today.

Because of this change, it’s more important than ever to include a Google+ page for your business into your digital marketing strategy. Not only are Google+ results becoming more dominant, but many believe that Google will eventually combine Google Places with the business’ corresponding Google+ page.

Unsure of how to create a Google+ page? Just follow the easy steps below to get started.

1. Navigate to Plus.Google.com and choose an account to create your page with.

IMPORTANT: Choose the same account you used to set up your Google places page, to ensure continuity between both platforms. If you haven’t created a Google Places listing yet, check out our previous blog post.

2. Add information to your page such as category, tagline, introduction and links.

Each one of these will help give a more complete picture of your business, so it’s important to fill out the information in its entirety.

3. Add photos and other media to your page.

This is more for visual appeal than anything else, but users who see photos are more likely to click on your page than if it didn’t have any.

4. Link your Google+ Page to your main website.

Linking to your main website and promoting it on your other social networks will bring more awareness to the Google+ page, giving it increased relevancy and a higher rank in Google search results. Use the Google+ page plugin to add a preview of your page on your website.

5. Start posting!

Post about your business, and offer exclusive deals to your Google+ members. Google+ doesn’t have much traffic now, but in the next few months we’ll see a lot more people and businesses on Google+, so it’s important to get started early.

There you have it, five easy steps to get started with your Google+ page. Let us know if you have any more questions in the comments, or contact us today for a free digital marketing consultation.