Should you use Google Plus as a blogging platform?

google plusI don’t know of anyone doing this… Then again, maybe I have unknowingly seen thousands of people doing it… That is, using Google Plus as a blogging platform.

Should you use Google Plus as a blogging platform?

Of course, I love Google Plus. It is the perfect blend of social media and has a lot of benefits. I even have a post up here called My 10 favorite Google Plus features. Posts can be huge (is there even a limit?), there are great formatting options, you can include a pic, the posts can be indexed in search, each post even gets its own static URL. In addition you can “ping” people in your circles, mention companies, share the posts with specific circles, etc., the list goes on. So, can it be used as a blogging platform? Sure! But should it be used as one? Hmm..

While there are many pros, including my short list above, I personally would never use Google Plus as a blogging platform because:

  • You do not own it! Blogspot would be a better choice but the best would be a WordPress blog on a URL that you own so that you have full control over it. What if people never really start using Google Plus? What if it gets shut down? What if they lose your data? What if your account gets closed? Google Plus has closed lots of people’s accounts.
  •  If you own a business it is very important that you put your blog right on your website. This drastically helps with SEO.
  • If you are blogging to make money, well, you can’t monetize it. At least, you can’t add ads to it.

I don’t know about you but those cons are enough for me!

You CAN use Google Plus to promote your blog posts. If you share your link on Google Plus to your blog post, +1s and shares contribute to the +1 count on your blog post (if you’re keeping track). They also get the post crawled in just a few minutes (if you have an active blog that pings Google this is already happening). And of course, you can use Google Plus as your blogging platform if you wish!

If you blog on Google Plus be sure to let us know in the comments below!

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