How do you believe Google's +1 service is going to affect SEO? What can we do?
-
So Google just announced the +1 button, which is there answer to Facebook 'likes' button:
http://searchengineland.com/meet-1-googles-answer-to-the-facebook-like-button-70569
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/30/google-plus-one/
They should begin showing up now on Google US. If you aren't seeing them, you can turn them on here:
http://www.google.com/experimental/
I want to know? What affect do you predict these are going to have? Is there anything we can do from an SEO point to begin leveraging +1 right from the outset?
-
I'm not sure I see the motivation for people to +1 something. For Facebook, social connection is a big motivator: people want their friends to see what they 'like'. How many people actually view other Google profiles like we do Facebook? Why would anyone use the +1 in Google? I think understanding the motivation might be a key to understanding how to leverage it better.
-
Excellent question. The answer to this (at least for me) is that big statement you hear so often about the most important tactic and principle of SEO. Developing great , interesting and unique content. Our entire SEO process is evolving to start with a creative approach, using content and then moving to what I would call traditional SEO tactics.
The gaming concern is one we all share, but can not control. We are hoping that by helping our clients develop better and more interesting information, 1+ will take care of it self.
-
It has been rolled out to English Google.com but is due to be rolled out in time. Also only shows if logged into Google account so for many people they won't see it anyway.
-
Has Google +1 been rolled out on just google.com? It doesn't seem to appear on .co.uk
-
There are 2 aspects to consider when you discuss gaming it. The first is the effect it has on the SERPs for everybody, the second is for how it affects it for social users and what the effect on CTR is.
For the 1st, the answer is - the same way they do with links. Check for cliques, for lots of unused accounts +1'ining the same sites, etc. etc. We'll see how effective that is.
For the 2nd, one important fact is going to be you can't game people's networks. You can create a bunch of bogus accounts, and create +1 groups for circular +1'ing. However, none of that matters if you aren't in people's networks. Currently it seems that +1's only show up if at least one friend/contact has +1'd the site. Then you see the total count (see attached image), otherwise at it stands you aren't going to affect people's CTR (which itself will be a signal).
-
From the Google Adwords blog adwords.blogspot.com (emphasis mine):
"You don’t have to make adjustments to your advertising strategy based on +1 buttons, and the way we calculate Quality Score isn’t changing (though +1s will be one of many signals we use to calculate organic search ranking)."
So it definitely IS going to be used as a signal.
And they're going to keep people from gaming this ... how?
-
I agree about Google's previous efforts, however I think +1 is finally going to be their breakthrough. They are going to push it hard, and unlike the other efforts, there is no real effort from the user to learn about it. I mean - most people never bothered to try to understand Google Buzz, whereas the concept of a 'like' button is really simple and widely known.
Currently, you cannot embed them into your website (it is coming, but not for 'months'), so that aspect isn't yet in play.
If you consider this - Google know that social is becoming increasingly important and is going to keeping growing. Furthermore, they seemed to have reached a limit with using links to determine what results to show, and are in need of new signals.
Everyone knows social signals are becoming more important, and Google really doesn't want to be relying only on signals under the control of others. I think +1 is here to stay, in one form or another.
However, currently you can only +1 a site from the SERPs, so it makes it hard for companies going to leverage this. Yet, I'm sure people will find a way.
-
Aside from adding the +1 button to your sites I doubt it will be that big. Most of Google's attempts at adding social features don't ever take off like they do for Facebook or other sites. I imagine the effect will be similar to that of how Facebook likes affect search engine results. It will help but not too important of a factor.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Client Doesn't Know Google+ Brand Page Manager Login - How to Recover
Hello - I'm working with a client who has a complete Google+ Brand profile setup for their business, but cannot locate the google+ login associated with the management duties of that page. Is there a way to track down or at least to see who the page owner is and their associated email address?
Social Media | | WebTalent0 -
Do you still need 1,000 followers for rel=publisher
If I want to add rel=publisher from my Google + page to company website do I still need 1,000 followers or has Google lifted that requirement since launching the feature?
Social Media | | theLotter0 -
Google+ What is up with results?
If anybody has followed me, they know I am not a big advocate of Social Media, but I understand when you must adapt. So we broke down and made our Google+ Page https://plus.google.com/113910385846996409142 The problem is, when you go to Google and search "Google+ Columbia Engineered Rubber" You get what appears to be 2 place pages (our company is in 2 locations) and one page that looks like something somebody tried to make, could have somebody here, or some auto generating thing..don't know. But our real page that we made (linked above) doesn't appear at all. Does anybody know how to go about consolidating these pages to the one I made, its quite confusing for one company to have 3 pages showing in results none of which are correct. Thank you for you time, Don
Social Media | | donford0 -
Same posts on facebook and google+. Is this a problem?
I plan to publish same posts on facebook and google+. As they are in 10 different languages, I would rather not make modifications for facebook and google+ respectively. Do you see any problems with this? Do you think it matters whether I first publish on google+ or first on facebook? Any problem if I publish posts on one social media account which I already published in another social media account for another company of mine some months ago? thanks
Social Media | | lcourse0 -
Twitter and SEO
Hello Mozzers, I am trying to determine the effectiveness of using twitter as an SEO tactic. A site in my niche (healthcare job boards) is ranking very well for a handful of head terms. Their backlink profile is okay, but not amazing. But one thing that stands out to me is their approach to twitter, http://www.physemp.com/socialTwitter.html. It looks like they send an automated feed of their jobs to these specific twitter handles. Each of the handles has over 2,000 followers (some are legit some are bots). The site ranks for some highly competitive head terms (see attached). Can any of their ranking success be attributed to these various twitter handles? Is Google seeing these twitter feeds and associating high follower count and high tweet frequency with the URL attached to each account? Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Thanks in advanced! lMbkS
Social Media | | CJSmiles0 -
Do links in Paper.li twitter round-ups help my SEO?
My twitter feed is picked up in the daily roundups like Paper.li. Do these links count towards my SEO effort or are they just empty. Clearly they spread my content so that great, just wondered if the links pass juice to the site.
Social Media | | GlobalLingo0 -
Does shared content affect rankings?
I've noticed that when logged into Google, content shared by people within my social graph is being identified by a "(name of person) shared this". And, content shared by people not within my social graph (but people who have a Google+ account) is being identified with their picture. My questions are: Is this "(name of person) shared this" content showing on first page of results because they're in my social graph. Or would this content have been on 1st page regardless of whether it had been shared? Why is google identifying who is sharing content when they're not in my social graph? Thank you!
Social Media | | LaraMcCulloch0 -
How does Google 'see' Facebook shares?
With Rand's new post about the correlation between FB Shares and rankings, I wanted to ask... How is Google able to see what links are being shared? Does the profile have to be public? Or do they get anonymous info direct from FB as part of some deal?
Social Media | | brianspatterson0