Consumer Google+ closes on April 2, and the buttons and sign-in options it supplies to other websites stop working before then. Remove every trace from your site now. Google My Business is a separate product and is not affected.

What Google announced

Google said last autumn that it would close the consumer version of Google+, its social network. On Wednesday it set the date: April 2.

From Monday, nobody can create a new Google+ profile, page or community. On April 2 the accounts and pages go, and Google starts deleting what was posted, a process it expects to take a few months.

The pieces Google+ supplies to other websites, such as sign-in buttons, +1 buttons and embedded posts, stop working in the coming weeks, ahead of the closure itself.

Plenty of small business websites still carry some of them, mostly added around 2013, when Google was encouraging businesses to set up pages.

Where Google+ turns up on a business site

The fourth is the one with a real cost. An icon that leads nowhere is untidy; a sign-in button that stops working locks people out of whatever sits behind it.

Why a dead icon matters

After April 2, a visitor who taps the Google+ icon in your footer lands on a Google page with nothing of yours on it.

Few people will tap it. The ones who do were looking for more of you, and a dead end reads much like a footer that still says 2015.

The buttons and badges cost something quieter. Each loads a script from Google's servers on every page it appears on, and once the service stops, that script loads for nothing or fails, leaving a gap or a broken layout.

Sign-in buttons come first

Some sites let visitors log in with their Google+ account, to comment, to book, or to reach a members' area.

Anyone who signed up that way needs another route in before the button stops working, or they will find themselves locked out.

The usual replacement is Google's ordinary sign-in, a separate service that is not closing, or an email address and password of the visitor's own.

Whoever maintains your site should make the change, then email the affected users to explain how to log in from now on. That email is the step most often forgotten.

Google My Business is a separate product

The closure has caused some confusion, because for a few years Google's business listings and Google+ pages were tied together.

They were separated some time ago. Your listing in search and on Maps, with its reviews, photos, posts and questions, is part of Google My Business, which is not affected.

The one place the two still meet is a link: a review or find-us link on your site that points to an address starting plus.google.com. Those stop working too, and need pointing at your listing.

Google+ inside G Suite, which some companies use as an internal network, is also staying.

Hidden references in the code

Some traces of Google+ never appear on the page at all.

Sites built a few years ago often carry a publisher link in their code, pointing search engines at the business's Google+ page, as was recommended at the time.

Many also list the Google+ address in their structured data, the code telling search engines which social profiles belong to the business. SEO plugins and theme settings often write it in from a box nobody remembers filling in.

A worked example

A family dental practice in a suburban medical building had its website built in 2013 by an agency that set up a Google+ page as part of the package.

The page had not been posted on since 2015. The website still carried its icon in the header, a follow badge in the sidebar, and a +1 button on every blog post.

The contact page asked patients to review the practice on Google+, and the online booking page let returning patients sign in with Google+.

The booking sign-in was replaced first, and the eleven patients who had used it were emailed a link to set a password.

Then the icon, badge and buttons came out, and the review link was pointed at the practice's Google My Business listing. The listing itself was never touched, because it had never depended on Google+.

Outside the website

The same icon tends to turn up in places nobody thinks of as the website.

Email signatures are the commonest, copied from person to person until the whole office sends one, so change those this week. The newsletter template's footer is next.

Printed material can wait for its next print run: business cards, brochures, vehicle signs. Note it, so the next order goes out without the icon.

What to do with the page itself

The Google+ page goes on April 2 whatever you do, along with everything posted on it.

Most business pages hold little worth keeping. Some hold years of photographs, or answers to customer questions that took real effort to write.

Google Takeout, Google's tool for downloading your data, can save a copy before the deadline. It is a separate job from the website cleanup, and worth an afternoon wherever the page was used properly.

The counter-case

Some sites have nothing to remove.

A site built in the last two or three years probably never carried Google+ at all, and the check takes a couple of minutes.

A dead icon in a footer is also a small blemish rather than an emergency. If a redesign is already booked for March, it can wait for that, provided the new site launches before April 2.

Sign-in is the exception, since it locks real people out of real accounts, possibly well before April.

For everyone else the job is short: find every trace of Google+ on and around the site, starting with sign-in, and remove it in February.

Before April

  1. Search the site for Google+ and plus.google.com.
  2. Replace any Google+ sign-in and email affected users.
  3. Remove the icons from header and footer.
  4. Take Google+ out of every share bar.
  5. Point review links at your Google listing.
  6. Clear the code of publisher links and profile lists.
  7. Update email signatures and the newsletter template.

Step two is the only one with people waiting behind it. Everything else on the list tidies the site; a sign-in button that stops working leaves customers unable to reach their own accounts.

Making sure the business, rather than one person, controls the social accounts you keep is covered in who owns the business Facebook page.

Frequently asked questions

When does Google+ close?

Consumer Google+ closes on April 2, when Google starts deleting what was posted. No new profiles, pages or communities can be created from February 4.

Does this affect Google My Business?

No. Your listing, reviews, photos, posts and questions belong to Google My Business, a separate product. Only links on your site pointing to an old Google+ page need changing.

What should come off the website?

Google+ icons in the header and footer, +1 and share buttons, follow badges, embedded posts, sign-in buttons, and any publisher links or profile lists in the code.

Why do sign-in buttons matter most?

Because people who signed up with Google+ will be locked out when the button stops working. They need another way in, and an email explaining it, before then.

Is a dead footer icon harmful?

It is a small blemish rather than an emergency, but it sends visitors to a page with nothing of yours on it, which reads as neglect.

What about the Google+ page itself?

It goes on April 2 regardless. Download anything worth keeping, such as photographs or useful answers, with Google Takeout before then. There is no need to post anything further.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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