Over the last several years, most businesses have accepted that Google Plus is a waste of time, money and effort. In fact, any posting to Google Plus seems to just bring spam and ridiculous comments. So, should any local business, such as a dental office, spend one second on Google Plus? The answer might surprise you.
There is value in Google Plus if understanding how Google works is important to you. If you want to better understand why Google does what it does or why a website is not showing up in search, Google Plus is a decent place to start research. It is definitely not the be all, end all and most of the “experts” on Google Plus are worth what you are paying for them, which is zero dollars, but there are some nuggets of information that will help you.
If you are a dental office in a city like Raleigh, Durham or Wake Forest you know there is a ton of competition. With large dental offices such as Lane & Associates, Riccobene and Sunrise Dental, it can be nearly impossible to get close to the front page for short tail keywords. Could it be the case that having an active Google Plus or Google My Business profile helps a dental office show up in the three pack local Maps search? Is there any way to defeat Village Dental that has almost 700 reviews these days? If you think you are going to get to the top for competitive dental or cavity keywords, you are going to have to put in some work.
There is no conclusive evidence that this is the case. In fact, in 2014 and 2015 many businesses paid social media experts and copywriters to help them expand their Google Plus presence only to find out that Google started to push back their efforts on Google Plus.
So, should you spend any time and money on Google Plus if you are a dentist or work in a dental office? The answer is likely no. Rather than spending time publishing any content for Google Plus, you would be much better off publishing content for your own website or a sister website for your business. It is amazing to see just how many man hours are spent from “experts” on Google Plus that could be used to create content for a website that actually ranks in search. Spend time becoming the Raleigh orthodontist expert rather than trying to learn SEO on Google Plus.
Years ago, it was the case that some Google Plus profiles could actually rank in search. This has not been tested for years, but it could be the case there are some powerful Google Plus users that do have a profile that has posts that show up in search. This is invaluable if they can use their profile to generate traffic to a business website. These types of Google Plus users are few and far between so don’t expect to find them all over the web.