Google introduced the +1 button not long ago. While performing a search at Google, this +1 button allows you to vote up/down the search results. We covered this piece news before and in it, we also mentioned that Google will introduce the +1 button to all website in the future. Well, that future is today. From today onward, you can place the +1 button on your website and allow your readers to vote up the story.
What’s the implication of the +1 button? Is it just another button?
On the surface, the +1 button is just another button for you to embed on your site. However, it is one important button that you want to have on your site, since it can potentially affect your search engine result. If you have a relatively unknown blog and you have plenty of people +1’d a particular post, that post could potentially score well in Google search and bring you tons and tons of traffic. Unless you don’t depend on Google for traffic (anyone who said No will be lying), you got to pay attention to this +1 button.
Implement +1 button to your website
The implementation button is simple. You just need to insert two line of codes to your HTML or theme file.
1. Insert the following javascript code to your <head> tag
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>
2. Insert the following tag to the place where you want the button to appear.
<g:plusone></g:plusone>
That ‘s it.
For WordPress
As of this post, there are no plugins for adding the +1 button yet (but I am sure it will be available very soon). To add the +1 button, in your themes folder, open the header.php file. Insert the javascript code to the <head> tag
Open your single.php or index.php, and place the <g:plusone></g:plusone> to the place where you want it to appear.
Parameter
There are several parameters that you can use.
Size of the button: The default is “standard“, which is 24px tall. You can choose “small” (15px), “medium” (20px) or “tall” (60px).
Include count: The default is set to “true”. You can turn it off if you don’t want the +1’d count to appear.
URL (href): By default, the button will grab the URL of the existing page, but you can specify your own URL with the parameter href="your-url-here".
Points to note when adding the +1 button
1. +1 is a public action, so you should add the button only to public, crawlable pages on your site. If you have a password protected page, or a members only forum, do not use this button. Once you add the button, Google may crawl or recrawl the page, and store the page title and other content, in response to a +1 button impression or click.
2. You can include multiple +1 button on a page, but it is best to add the URL parameter to the code so it can identify the correct link for each button.
3. The +1 button is available in 40 languages. The default is English. If your site is not in English, do go to the Google +1 site to grab the code in your specified language.
For more info, check out the Google +1 button site and the FAQ site
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
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still confusion about +1 button
I think you should check my share bar at
http://www.tecorange.com/index.php/download-free-open-source-software/78-my-share-bar-facebook-twitter-google-1-mail-print-buttons-for-web-sites
if you want to easily add facebook, twitter, del.icio, google, mail, add to favorits and more to your site.
Free, no advertisments, you set the options and then just copy paste the code, includes the new google +1 button.
Also at their forums you will be able to found how to integrate it in CMS’s like joomla, drupal etc.
Good Luck! :)
nice explaining, but I cannot do it in the right way, I put the code in the head of my page, and I put the other tags where I want the button to show, but instead its appearing as a hidden elements, so what is the problem??? Do I have to publish my site on the net before or it is working on my computer for testing it?? please help me I need this button.
Are you testing on a local server or a live site? AFAIK, as long as you place the javascript code in your tag, it should work anywhere.
it does not work for me
Once the +1 button is placed on your site how long does it take for data to start coming in which you can then review through your Webmaster Tools?
24 hours
If you have a website that has 50 web pages – do you have to place the 2 part code on each of those 50 pages or if you use an inc (include) file can you place the code on the 1 inc file which then will show up on all 50 web pages? When people like your various web pages will the data show all those different pages or that it only came from the inc file?
You can use a inc file to insert the code into 50 pages. The code grab the
URL directly, so it won’t affect its operation.
I just wanted to say Thank You for responding Damien. I had posted basically the same question on Googles Support Forum (as they are always asking people to do) and I have yet to receive any response from others or Google. Your answer help to clarify the test I had in progress.
This morning I did see in my webmaster tools in the social stats the test pages I had set up and they both showed up. So (for others who may be reading this wanting to know if it works) Yes you can use an inc file, put code in your inc file and it will show up on all web pages that use that inc file. And Yes when people click the +1 on each web page (that utilizes the inc file) you will see the various pages in your webmaster tool stats (at least I saw ours).
I wonder if it also has a dislike feature which is frequently abused for example on YouTube. I understand that any rating counts for more than no rating but rating with the intention to do harm rather than good to someone is pathetic.
We will try to get as much as +1 we can because we know the benefit of it with seo prespective (and soon we will see many people started to sell +1 as well) but a normal user do not know about it and where facebook like button is one step ahead from it.
Nope. Google does not has a “dislike” button at the moment, and I don’t think it will come out with one.
Google+ is on it’s way down because of their real names policy, google it and you’ll find out.
I just removed the Google+ button from our sites pages.
Don’t bother putting it on your site
Thanks for the quick simplified version of adding the +1 button which work well rather than having to pay a web developer a couple of hundred bucks to install it for you.