How Google's +1 Adds Up

Earlier this month Google began unveiling its new ‘Google +1’ feature to certain pockets of webmasters.  It should be reaching the Google community in full not long from now.  ‘Google +1’ is going to enable users with Google Accounts to impact the searches of those found in their ‘networks’, very akin to Facebook’s ‘Like’ button. Early reports suggest that these networks are going to consist of any contacts which you may have in your Gmail or Google Chat contact books as well as users who follow a profile on Google Reader or Google Buzz.  The main question out there for SEO Firms is what impact this new Google feature will have on the organic SERPs.  

As it stands right now the +1 button is only available for organic results, but Google Manager Christian Oestlien has made mention that Google +1 will soon be a part of ads.  The inclusion of AdWords aside, the early theories on ‘Google +1’s’ impacts on the SERPs is vague and untested.  Many webmasters have speculated that an abundance of +1’s will lead to higher rankings per se, but not in any drastic sense.  It is difficult to gauge how this will begin affecting search trends and techniques as the +1’s are relative to the networks of the user who ‘+1’ed’ the site.  Thus what may impact the rankings for one user will have no effect on the results of another user.  However, others have predicted Google will aggregate the majority of these +1’s and have them impact SERPs at large.  Although both schools of thought remain relatively untested, Google’s main goal is to deliver personalized content to viewers based on their previously demonstrated preferences (Google Personals) and also based on popular websites.  It is then safe to assume Google will allow these updates to influence the rankings but to what degree remains to be seen.  The +1 Social feature is going to give Google a humongous data set to study and adjust their algorithm to as well so the immediate impacts of the button will certainly evolve one way or another as Google begins to analyze the data returned to them.

Also, remaining to be seen is if Google will allow users to link up their Google Accounts to other Social Media sites in order to align all of the items they are sharing across the board. 

For SEOs and webmasters the biggest take away from this should be twofold; for one, the ‘Google +1’ widget button will be a must for any and all sites, and now is the time to begin bulking up a company’s social networks to ensure that they have the ‘infrastructure’ in place to garner plenty of +1’s.  This should only reinforce my previous post that Social Networking sites are going to become the linkscape of the future.  Webmasters will now be sure to load widgets from every social site at the bottom of your screen.  With each link seemingly passing back a little juice to the original website, any site that doesn’t seek to do these things is not remaining proactive and in fact excluding themselves from what will be a great form of passive link building.  One of the great things about the ‘+1’ update is that you will be able to track the usage of your site’s button through Google’s Webmaster Tools.

To be seen is if Google is possibly interested in entering the social network industry themselves.  The company has already shown it has a propensity for branching out into different avenues of the technological economy.  The +1 system could be the beginning of a shift where Google allows users to share experiences and data much the same way Facebook does, but perhaps on more sophisticated and user-friendly platforms that offer more utility than any of the current social sharing sites.  Google hasn’t made any announcements about this, and already has a partnership with Twitter, but where money is to be made Google will certainly explore.

It’s too early to see how Google will allow the +1 button to impact searches, but it is safe to assume that they will affect them.  I recommend using a few burner sites just to test their impacts and then apply those conclusions to the websites that matter most.

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Social Media and the SEO Revolution

SEO as we know it has always been an evolving landscape.  With each tweak of its algorithm Google sent countless webmasters back to their labs to try and find the right mix that would bring clients the most coveted SERPs.  With that background, no SEO should be altogether surprised that Google and Bing are changing the game on us again with their different versions of social search.  With Bing unveiling ‘Social Search’ and Google coming to the party with ‘Realtime Search’ and 'Google +1', the nature of web search will never be the same again. 

                The concern for SEOs is what this shake up will mean for their efforts in the SERPs.  Drawing from an interview Danny Sullivan conducted with both Bing and Google, there isn’t an immediate need for drastic changes; at least not compared to the mayhem unleashed by the Google Panda Update.  There is however a need for SEOs to begin recognizing that this trend is only going to grow once Google and Bing figure out how they want to apply the trends and links found in the social networking sphere.  Ever since Bing and Google announced they would be teaming up with Twitter it has been opined by many in the Blogosphere that Social Media’s use of links would come to affect the SERPs. 

                Now, due to Mr. Sullivan’s interview, a little light has been shed on what Bing and Google are both thinking of doing as they begin to harness the power of the social networking world.  What Google and Bing confess to in the interview essentially boils down to a few points:

·        1.    Twitter updates, re-tweets, links etc carry more weight in web search results than Facebook posts or likes.   Perhaps because it is easier to boil down the data Twitter offers.

·        2.      Links and other shared content are going to be judged by the authority of the user who shares them.

·        3.  Content shared within your own Social Network will be shown more prominently in your SERPs.

It appeared that both Google and Bing have several ideas as to how they want to weigh the input of Shared Content on Social sites.  One of which is something that is bouncing between names right now (you may have heard of “AuthorRank”, “TwitterRank” and so on), whatever it does come to be called it can be viewed as a sort of “Pagerank” for Social Media users.  This is likely to be derived from the amount of followers/friends an individual has, how many times a link is re-tweeted/shared or liked, and genuine interaction within a user’s network.  None of these items are set in stone and are only projections made from what little data Google and Bing choose to share.  However, these projects are not far-fetched when one considers the mindset typically employed at Google to ensure they remain the top Search Engine in the world.

One thing that is certain for SEOs is that Social Media sharing is on the horizon and approaching fast, and must be considered an absolute necessity for any SEM campaigns you’re launching.  Also, it brings the focus back on generating user friendly content.  By creating engaging pages and posts, SEOs can hope to capitalize on individuals sharing this content within their own ranks, be it private or professional.  In anticipation of this coming event, SEOs need to begin building up contacts on the various social networking sites in order to reach as wide an audience as possible to gain the maximum advantages these new algorithms promise.

In the end, it appears that content will be the name of the game going forward, which likely means we can expect Matthew Inman like inbeds, Top Ten Lists, and of course cute cat pictures will be dominating the SEO discussion boards as ways to garner major impacts on site SERPs.

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Next Up:  Google +1