G+ and +1 for SEO

Social Media SEO - Google’s G+, +1 and SEO  

It has been over a year now since Google Plus was released and lots of juicy information has come out so I thought I would hit on the high-points for those that do not follow SEO or Social Media the way we SEO Freaks do.
Assuming this article will be read by a mix of people with different depths of knowledge about G+ and +1 and what it is all about I’ll briefly explain all you need to know.
I’m not going to go into the non-SEO elements like Google Stream or Google Sparks that are meant to follow topics of interest. I want to keep this article strictly SEO and tell you how these can be used to help increase your traffic and your rankings.
The concept behind G+ and +1 is simple; copy what Facebook did.
Google saw an opportunity as well as the growth of all social networks and decided to try and get in on it.
There are actually three distinct parts to G+ & +1;

Circles and other Social Media Elements

The first part is a more personal page like you see on Facebook, the difference being you create “circles” of friends and classify them into each group accordingly. When you come across an interesting piece of content you simply share it with individual circles (e.g. Friends, Family, or a custom group that you create)

+1 Button (this is actually a separate tool but I have added it here)

The second part of G+ is a "+1 button" to allow people to recommend sites and parts of sites, similar in use to Facebook's Like button. If you have the feature turned on you will see a little button at the end of each result when you are using Google to search, provided your pointer is hovering over the URL. If you perform a search and a site that someone in your circle has clicked the G+ button on you will see their name below the listing;


You will also want to add the +1 badge to your website. Google+ will gain more users and websites will integrate them more in the future, 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 done up until now.  

The G+ Page

And last but not least, the best element from an SEO’s standpoint; The G+ Page.

In the beginning it was only made available to non-business related applications and Google even went as far as to shut down pages that were obviously there for business related reasons. Even Sesame Street fell victim to Google’s wrath.

Google finally released its features to everyone a few months after its original release and the dashboard lit up. 

Okay so you are saying, “So how can I use this in terms of SEO?”

After excruciatingly testing various aspects of G+ and +1 I determined that in terms of actually boosting your search engine rankings G+ and +1 have not yet been integrated into the algorithm. An example of this is taking one of my ranking sites, adding the G+ badge, then going to Fiverr.com and buying a bunch (100’s) of G+ votes over the period of a few months and from different networks. Nothing.

Then I tried setting up a network of unique IP’s and over the period of about 60 days each of these hundreds of individual searches ticked the +1 button that showed up in the search. Nothing.

In terms of the SEO benefit from either the +1 or the G+ buttons it’s a matter of the size of your network. Those sites with the G+ badge or those that have received a ‘vote’ or +1 click from someone in your network were featured more prominently as seen in image 2. 

Additionally, Google pulls in data from other social networks. So let’s say you or someone in your circle did a Twitter post. Google may even show that in their results if you are signed in to your Google account.

I’m curious to see over the next 12 months what Google’s long term plan will be with G+ and +1 as they both parallel Google’s other tools nicely. Although I wasn’t able to identify any real effect on rankings while testing the thresholds of G+ and +1 for SEO, I think Google will definitely be using this as a metric in the future. After all, they are already allowing it to alter the way their results appear and losing real estate at the same time. Oh, plus there’s this that they let slip a couple months ago;

Google is encouraging web publishers to start adding +1 buttons to their pages, and the message in this meeting was clear, “Put a Plus One button on your pages or your search traffic will suffer.” Interview with Google Guys  Posted on August 18th, 2011 on Forbes site (just before they removed it)

My thoughts at this point is better safe than caught behind the eight ball. Prepare for everything.

I would (at the very least) add a multiple choice Social Bookmark bar onto your sites. At the end of the day Social Media as a whole benefits your rankings and your traffic to an extent. I have tested Twitter and Facebook to see if they enhanced search rankings and both definitely did. This leads me to believe that Google just hasn’t turned on the tap yet and better things are yet to come.

On a side note there are some great programs that can automate your Facebook and Twitter account. TweetAdder and Facebook Adder are two, but shop around. They are cheap and very functional.

You can contact me at garythescubadiver gmail

Gary R. Beal is the Head of Search at Blueclaw Media in Leeds, UK. He has been in the Search Engine Optimization field for 12 years. He attended Ohio State University in the US and holds a Masters Degree in Biometrics and Mathematical Statistics. He specialises in SEO for very competitive markets; primarily in Gaming, Dating, Travel, Insurance and Financial Industries. He has spoken at many SES, SMX ,CAP, AAC, EIG, G2E, AIG, GPWA, CAC and A4UExpo conferences around Europe and has also been on dozens of expert SEO panels. Gary has written specialised articles for multiple online marketing publications and Moderates on 3 separate Affiliate forums and as an Affiliate has great insight. He is known best for his free 1-on-1 sessions during conferences and his non-commercial, plain talk delivery. The online world knows him as GaryTheScubaGuy and his Top 12 SEO Tips.
Gary can be contacted at Blueclaw offices at 0113 234 3300