How to Install Google's +1 Button on Wordpress

In another addition of my social media tips, today I will be walking you through adding Google’s +1 button to your WordPress blog. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what exactly the +1 button is or does, Google defines the +1 button as:

“The +1 button is shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool’ or ‘you should check this out.’ Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.”

Why should I add the +1 button to my site?

The reason I installed the plus 1 button on my site is because Google has already announced +1 will eventually be influencing search engine results.

How do I install the +1 button?

Google has made it extremely user-friendly to install the button on your site. Just visit the code generator page and select the style of button you would like to use. For my WordPress blog, I decided to install the button in the right-side navigation. I went with the standard 24px button.

You can choose from four different sizes and layouts.

Google gave me this code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

So I went to my WordPress > Appearance > Editor page and placed that code in my footer.php file right before the closing </body> tag. After that, I went to my WordPress > Widgets page and added this code:

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

Next, save the code in your sidebar widget, refresh your site, and you should have your very own +1 button. Now the trick is to get a ton of people to push the button to let Google know what a great site you have.