A few months ago, Google introduced the +1 button to the world. It’s essentially a simple way for you to approve of a page, and your friends will see that you “+1’d” it in the search results, meaning it’s likely a good site for them to visit as well. Here’s Google’s official video explaining it:
Now Google has finally gone a step further and created a button that you can add to your own website. If you’re reading this on my site (and not via Google Reader, etc), look at the bottom of the post and you’ll see the new button. This is quite important, because Google has said that +1 can affect how well your site ranks in the search results, meaning it’s quite important for site owners to add this button to their sites!
Here’s the quick version; just add this code to your page and the button will appear:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script><g:plusone></g:plusone>
However, it can be tweaked quite a bit by using this webmaster +1 page. You can choose various sizes, make it vertical, and even give it a specific URL to +1 (by default, it uses the page you’re on).
Update: If you’re using WordPress, there are a lot of great plug-ins to choose from. I’m currently using this one, which seems to work quite well.
URL to +1?
For example, look at the front page of Google Earth Blog. Each post on the page has a +1 button at the bottom, but they’re each set to show +1’s from their respective posts; you wouldn’t want all of those buttons to simply add a +1 for “gearthblog.com” — you want them to +1 the post that they’re under.
In most cases, you don’t need to worry about that. Just add the simple code snippet from above and you’re good to go!
Is it worth my time?
The big question is whether or not +1 will take off. The fact that it will affect search results, even a little bit, means that most sites will be adding the button. If most sites add the button, it’ll probably be seen as a successful move for Google. Time will tell, but things seem to be in their favor.
How about you? Have you added it to your site yet?
