January Newsletter: You Can’t Afford To Ignore Google+… Here’s Why
I know the last thing you need is yet another social media account to keep up with – believe me, I get it! But ignore Google+ at your own peril. It is becoming more and more important in search engine optimization (SEO) for Google:
- Chri
stine’s blog post earlier this month outlined how big brand Google+ pages have started taking up a lot of room in the organic results.
- Catherine’s blog post two weeks ago talked about how Google’s new “Search Plus Your World” is serving up even more personalized results than before, including yet more Google+ posts, photos and pages.
- Back in June, our newsletter described the impact of the +1 button on the search engine results visually.
- Since then, Google has stated that they often recrawl sites after a +1 button has been clicked.
We’ve covered this — why are we talking about this topic yet again? Because we recently heard inside scoop that Google is increasing the importance of the +1 button in its organic ranking algorithm, and it eventually may count for even more than inbound links!
If this is true, it’ll reflect a historic change in Google’s approach. But it makes sense. Think about why, in the late 1990s, Google invented the concept of focusing on the quantity and quality of inbound links when ranking sites. It’s because those links act as academic citations, or votes – when Site A links to Site B, we can presume a human being at Site A is telling us that Site B contains good quality content.
The +1 button – and, of course, other social signals such as Likes and tweets – is an even more direct vote. There’s no webmaster or technical barrier involved – any human being can directly tell the world (and Google) which sites contain good quality content.
Yes, this system can be gamed even more easily than linking can. Rumor has it Google is focusing not just on the quantity of +1s, but also on the quality of them (just like with links). Presumably, people with active Google+ accounts who are being followed by other influential people may find that their +1s count for more than +1s from newcomers who are in few other people’s circles.
Here’s what marketers need to do now:
- Set up a business page on Google+ (here’s how).
- Connect your Google+ page with your website (Catherine gave instructions in this blog post on Direct Connect last month).
- Put the +1 button on all web pages and blog posts.
- If you haven’t already, set up a
personal account on Google+ (here’s how).
- Be active on Google+ with both your business and personal accounts. Create quality posts; share worthy links, videos and photos. Businesses can’t add people to their circles unless the person adds the business to their circles first, so gaining followers is tougher for businesses than people. But you can certainly use your personal account to drive folks to your business account, where some will follow the business.
- Keep an eye on your +1 metrics in Google Webmaster Tools (more).
Hubspot recently reported that websites with the +1 button get 3.5 times more visits from Google+ than those without. (They also published an excellent eBook on “How to Use Google+ for Business” that’s worth reading.)
There’s no doubt about it – it’s time to jump on the Google+ bandwagon before you’re left behind.
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Search Advisory Posts
Google SERPs and Your Title Tags (Kristin)
Search Plus Your World: What it Means for Your Search Results (Catherine)
Google Analytics Visitors Flow Gives Visual Representation of Site Navigation (David)
Google+: So Not Last Year (Christine)
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Dec: Google Hides Your Data… Unless You Pay
Nov: How To: Mobile Search Advertising
Oct: How To: Mobile SEO
I had questions about Google+ which this article clarified. You have a knack for sending emails with timely topics.
Thanks so much, Sandra!
I just read this blog post which confirms my assertions above: http://www.gshiftlabs.com/what-is-your-seo-social-signals-strategy/.
In it, Krista LaRiviere says that “social signals” (like +1, Likes, retweets) make up 8-10% of Google & Bing’s algorithm (and climbing). Not sure where that statistic came from, but it doesn’t seem unrealistic to me at all. And there’s no doubt the importance of social signals will be increasing over time!