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
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