Add a Google+1 Badge to Your Website

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Google’s new Google+ service is taking the development world by storm, and why shouldn’t it?  It’s minimalistic UI, use of cutting edge web techniques, and overall usability make it Google+ one of the more impressive web applications I’ve seen in quite a while (I was going to say "since Google Wave", but that one didn’t end up well, did it?) Google+ allows you to share photos, links, statuses, and much more;  consider it a mesh between Twitter and Facebook.

Google+ will only gain more traction, meaning that the information we share will be pushed to more and more people.  This presents an excellent opportunity to promote our websites, much in the way that Twitter and Facebook have.  Let me show you a few different ways to add the new Google+1 badge to your website.

The Simple HTML

Adding a Google+1 badge is as easy as adding a few HTML tags:

copy<!-- one button, uses canonical link or current URL -->
<g:plusone></g:plusone>

<!-- customized for a specific address -->
<g:plusone href="http://davidwalsh.name/google-plus-badge"></g:plusone>

<!-- include the JS file -->
<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

Provide the g:plusone tag the URL to share via the HREF attribute (if none is provided, the page’scanonical link will be searched for and used, otherwise the current URL is used) and the desired size of button via the size attribute.  This tag should be added wherever within the page that you’d like the button to appear;  the SCRIPT tag should be found at the bottom of the page.  If you’d prefer not to dabble with the HTML yourself, Google provides a Google+1 button builder to do the dirty work for you.  Four button sizes are currently offered.

You could also use the following HTML5 code to render your button:

copy<div class="g-plusone" data-size="standard" data-count="true"></div>

Your button must have the g-plusone CSS class and data- attributes for options.

Deferring Loading

The HTML code above will render with the rest of the page, but what if you want to render a button on your own schedule?  No worries — Google’s API allows you to render buttons whenever you’d like:

copy<!-- one button, uses canonical link or current URL -->
<g:plusone></g:plusone>

<!-- Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag -->
<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js">
  {parsetags: 'explicit'}
</script>

<!-- Now render! -->
<script>
  gapi.plusone.go();
</script>

Using {parsetags: 'explicit'} and gapi.plusone.go() will turn your g:plusone tags into badges whenever you’d like. You can also render a specific button with the following JavaScript code:

copy<script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js">
  {"parsetags": "explicit"}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  function renderPlusone() {
    gapi.plusone.render("plusone-div");
  }
</script>
<body>
  <a href="#" onClick="renderPlusone();">Render the +1 button</a>
  <div id="plusone-div"></div>
</body>

Full API information as well as an introductory video is available here.  There are a few more small customization options available so check them out if you’re looking to specify language or play with custom rendering.

Don’t miss out on another avenue for sharing your awesome web content with everyone!  Implementing Twitter, Facebook, and Google+1 sharing buttons takes 5 minutes but the amount of traffic you can gain via these referral avenues is tremendous!

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