Say goodbye to Google+ from April 2nd, 2019

If you’re wanting to read about why Google+ was a bad idea poorly executed, well, just Google “Google+” and you will be treated to more than enough diatribes about why this platform was an eight-year non-starter.

But as for our blog, we’ll stick with the impact Google+ had on WordPress, Drupal and websites in general.

First things first

Firstly, make sure you act now to remove any Google+ “+1” buttons and social media links to your soon to be gone Google+ page and replace them with either a link to your Google Places page or just remove them altogether. Get in touch if you need a hand with this.

WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Google+

We all know, curated social media helps keep reader eyeballs on a publisher’s content. Google+ tried to be that curated social media account for content producers. And, in theory, it worked rather well. Google+ and content management systems like WordPress and Drupal played well together.

Google+ Pages were like Facebook Pages, but without all of the Facebook noise. They were billed as destinations for published content on the web, where readers could find quality content from the publishers they choose.

We at O’Brien Media supported Google’s goal by creating free plugins that let WordPress users capitalize on every part of their open API. With a few clicks and a Google tracking code in your WordPress header you were up and running – +1 buttons (basically the Facebook like button), easy sharing, automated feed of Google+ activity on your site, share from your page or profile, activity feed import, and Google+ account sync for all your users.

The bonus was that, thanks to that Google tracking code, Google would track +1 clicks and, in theory, improve your site’s ranking in search.