It’s been awhile since I last logged into my Google Adsense account. I did so for the first time in a couple months and noticed a new Google feature called Google +1. It is a button that allows users to recommend your content to friends and content on Google search.
Adding the button to your pages could result in increased traffic and increased quality of traffic. If users are recommending your pages to their friends, word of mouth referrals tend to hold more weight.
Adding the code is very simple, of course that’s a matter of opinion. The process is similar to adding the FaceBook LIKE button, Twitter button, or –back in the old days– Digg button.
Here is a video from Google that tells more about it. If you need help adding the button to your WordPress theme let me know.
Here’s a copy of the custom php code I wrote for my WordPress theme. Feel free to use for your blog and share with others.
Code for header.php file
Add this line of code directly below the <?php wp_head(); ?> line:
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>
Code for index.php file and single.php
Insert this code directly below the post title, or author line. Usually this is the <h2>TITLE</h2><small>Author Info</small> line:
<p><g:plusone size="medium" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"></g:plusone></p>
That’s it. After you save your changes, people can start adding +1 to your pages and you can kick back and enjoy an increase in search traffic and quality of traffic.
Very cool and glad I checked my RSS and found this. I immediately went searching for a WordPress plug-in for Google +1 mainly because I mess things up when I edit the files on my WP theme. I found a plug-in that works great and I am already using it on my site. The plug-in can be found here – http://pleer.co.uk/wordpress/plugins/google-1-but…
Just thought I would share that with those wordpress bloggers like myself who are not that savvy when it comes to editing PHP. Keep up the great work Garry.
Awesome find on the WP plugin. I manually coded mine in, but I will take a look at the plugin too. The plugin will be very useful for people –unlike myself– who don't want to do things the hard way. lol
Thanks for letting everyone know about it and for the trackback to this post.
Garry, you actually seen much of an increase in traffic yet, or is that speculative at this point in tine? I'm interested to see how +1 works for people.
Hi Dave. Just testing it right now. I installed it a few hours before adding the post. I can't see how it would hurt anything. If I see anything outstanding I will run a follow up post about it letting everyone know.
[...] thanks goes out to Garry Conn for alerting me to this cool new feature on the web. Have fun with this and now go out there and [...]
Hey Garry,
Thanks for the easy instructions to add this button. Just added it to my blog with ease. I downloaded the plug-in but haven't used it. I figure the less plug-ins, the better.
I am glad to hear it Alan. I am the same with with Plugins. I prefer to manually code as much as I can.
[...] Garry Conn offers simple to understand instructions to add the button to your posts and pages: Google +1 Button. [...]