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I have a Google plus page created a few years ago. I also have a Google My Business account.

Recently I got mail from Google which stated that they are going to close the Google plus page.

Will the closure affect the SEO of our business website? What changes would I have to make to keep company Google plus page?

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    I'm guessing your Google+ page is getting closed for inactivity. You should try logging in and posting something. A G+ page could help your SEO ranking
    – Michael d
    Mar 19, 2018 at 19:46
  • I think can help but don't think help a lot. It doesn't send you to the first page because of g+. If you will be active help on G+ it helps you more. Mar 20, 2018 at 9:12

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A Google+ Page can help you with SEO, but the impact is going to be minimal, if any at all. The Google My Business page is a must for local search. However, they are two different things, as much as Google still tries to pretend they're not.

Gone are the days of Google+ being a must have. Back when it was supposed to be Google's little "Facebook killer," everyone had to have a page. Now that Google has unbundled all of its apps from G+, and bled out the creative team behind the product, this platform just continues to die a very slow death. Common are corporate pages that haven't seen any new content posted in two years. Some use G+ as a content repository, but between YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and website, what's the point?

There are cases where G+ is useful. If you have an active community on your page, you would want to keep that page, at least until you can drive them to a different platform. It also helps by getting another instance of brand mention into your SERPs, though not many people click on those results anymore, and of those who do, few convert to anything.

Your Google My Business page, on the other hand, is an active business listing. People look at what appears in that listing, mostly in the Knowledge Graph, and will actively seek it out for your business hours, logo, photos, website link, and phone number.

If Google does shut down your G+ page, it won't impact your GMB page, which is a connected but separate entity. However, if you really want to keep your G+ page, you can post a few things, as Michael mentioned above. Since it looks like you haven't posted in a long time - long enough for Google to have taken note - I'd let it go. There's nothing sadder than an abandoned social media account.

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Google+

Google+ pages only offer rel="nofollow" links to external web pages, which means that, generally, these links will have no impact on page ranking.

You can read about how popular search engines handle this attribute here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow#Interpretation_by_the_individual_search_engines

It appears that the main SEO benefit one could gain from a Google+ page is the increased traffic due to the promotional page appearing in the search results, rather than your business website.

This is reason enough to keep the Google+ page.

Google My Business

On the other hand, Google My Business will affect your local ranking on Google.

https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091

Conclusion

Supposedly, since July 28, 2015, it has been Google's policy to shut down Google+ pages with unresponsive activity or that have not been associated with a user account.

https://searchengineland.com/google-to-shutter-orphaned-google-pages-next-week-july-28-226001

Therefore, remaining active on your accounts by logging in, or occasionally posting content, would be a beneficial decision for your business.

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