The new +1 button has started to appear on peoples blog, right next to the twitter and facebook buttons – and now it allows site owners to allow people to +1 their website, from their website. If you are wondering what the +1 button is then to sum it up it is basically a vote for your website, in google search results. Or in their own words

+1 is a simple idea. Let’s use Brian as an example. When Brian signs in to his Google Account and sees one of your pages in the organic search results on Google, he can +1 it and recommend your page to the world.

Simples – visit google for more information.

Right, you don’t need a plugin to add the +1 button to your website, its really easy to do it yourself. All you need is a google account, the +1 code, and access to your wordpress template files.

Get the +1 code

Ok first pop over to google and get your +1 code. You get a choice of button size, small, medium, standard and tall. Just select the size you want and look at the preview it generates.

The Javascript file

Place the javascript file below in your header.php file just before the tag or put it in your footer.php file just before the tag.

Placing the +1 button

Now all you need to do is place the +1 button code. You can put it anywhere, but I’d suggest you put it in single.php before the the_content(); or after it. You will need to experiment to see what looks best for your site. You can place it in as many files as you want, you’re not just limited to adding it to single.php.

That’s it, just upload the modified template files back up to your server and give it a test. No plugins required.