The +1 option is getting a lot of buzz these days. Everyone wants to know how to best exploit the feature to get more traffic.

First of all, let me debunk a common myth. The +1 button does not affect your Google rank. Many people seem to think that getting a lot of +1s will boost their rank, but this won’t happen. That’s not what the button is for. The +1 button allows you to share a link to your stream on Google+. What this does is get the link more exposure through the Google+ network, but not on the Google search engine itself.

To make the most of the +1 feature, be sure to add a +1 button to every page of your website and every blog post. You can get the code for your button and customize its appearance at: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html

If your a blogger and using the wordpress platform you can also add a +1 button to your blog without messing with code at all by using one of the available WordPress plugins:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-plus-one
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-plus-one-google1

This code can be added to any web page or blog post, allowing anyone who comes across your content to use the +1 feature on the link. You should always +1 your blog posts so your contacts see it, and don’t forget to encourage people to +1 the link themselves. Remind them that it would be very helpful if they did, because the more people who do it, the more exposure you get.

Don’t forget to +1 the posts of other people in your circle. Many of them will notice and do the same thing for you. This could be especially important when those people are very influential in your niche or have a lot of people in their circles.

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