After the release of personal Google+ accounts in the summer of 2011, Google launched its Business pages version in November 2011. If you’re a business owner who has been interested in creating a page for your brand, this post will walk you through all the steps of getting that page built and ready to share.

There are 2 ways you can go about building your Google+ Business page. If you want to keep your Google+ business page completely separate from your personal presence, create a Gmail account for your brand’s use first. If you don’t mind toggling between your personal account and your business page, you’ll need to look on the left side, next to your profile photo, to make the switch back and forth:

Creating a Google+ Page for your Business

1. Navigate to your personal Google+ home page (where your Stream is visible).

2. Scroll down a bit, and in your right sidebar, beneath the Hangouts button sits the “Create a Google+ Page” link.3. Next, determine which category best suits your business – Local Business or Place, Product or Brand or Company, Organization or Institution. Your business’ reach and “brick & mortar” status may affect which option makes the most sense for you.

Note: Choosing the Local Business or Place option prompts you to enter your telephone number and attempts to “locate” your business’ physical location in order to proceed. Both the Product or Brand and Company, Organization or Institution options require you to select a name, business category type and have an optional website URL listing in order to continue.

4. Enter your business name and URL, and select your industry from the drop-down menu.

Note: Consider whether or not your home page is the best URL to link to. Would people connecting to your site from Google+ be better served by an About, Services, Products or Contact page?

5. On the next screen, you’ll add your business’ tagline and upload your business logo.

Note: We have highlighted the “how to” and benefit of interacting on Facebook as your page. The same holds true for Google+. You can alternate between identities and should if you’d like to build your brand’s Google+ presence.

6. If you choose to do so, you can now publicize your new business page.

You can also generate a Google+ badge to add to your website.

Note: Companies may want to claim their Google+ business page as a way to protect their brand. Prior to Google’s release of official business pages, it had already seen “squatters” trying to claim Google+ pages in the name of well-established brands. Basically, you may want to claim your little spot on Google+ now even if you don’t intend to immediately put it to use.

7. Once you’ve created your Google+ business page, you’ll notice that your URL is quite lengthy, not branded and difficult to remember and share. A tool like PlusG.name is a free and easy way to generate a much shorter, branded URL.

Have you been anxiously awaiting the debut of Google+ pages for Business?