Life is busy, hectic, and chaotic. Most of us are constantly multi-tasking and the division between our work and personal lives is blurry at best. As a modern professional, you are probably well aware of how powerful social media networks such as Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn can be to your success.

These sites have the power to both make and break you, personally and professionally. Trying to establish an effective online presence that projects the appropriate image for your business while staying in touch with your family and friends is a difficult prospect, so many of us seek to pare down the number of social media networks that we use.

One of the most well-known social media networks that seems to be victim of this trend to cut down is Google+. According to recent industry-wide research, only 14% of marketers plan to make Google+ a part of their marketing campaigns, and 1 in 4 will avoid the platform altogether. However, leaving Google+ out of your marketing campaigns is a big mistake, even if no one “owns up” to using it.

The primary reason why you should include Google+ in your marketing plans is that is a great for establishing your online authority and boosting your rank in search results. Even if you continue to refuse to jump on the Google+ bandwagon, you had better believe that your competition is using it to gain an edge over you and rank higher than you in the search engine results, despite what some business insiders may claim.

The prestigious New York Times recently “outed” Starbucks and The Economist for using Google+ to boost the search engine rank. The odds are great that there are many other businesses and personalities that have learned that Google+ can be an effective part of the SEO strategy in your comprehensive marketing plan.

How can you effective use Google+ for SEO purposes? First, you need to continue to build your website and blog regularly as you begin to craft and hone your Google+ presence. Use colourful, attention grabbing photos on your Google+ author profile.

Use SEO optimized keywords and phrases when you post new content as well as links to your blog posts on Google+.  Its fine to +1 or “like” your own content, and it visually suggests that others follow the trend and click +1 as well.

The first sentence is part of the title tag and has a huge impact on the ranking of your article in search. If you messed up and you’re not getting the hits that you expected, Google+ makes it easy to go back and edit your posts. Try a new first sentence and title, and you should see a noticeable spike in your search results.