Will Google Plus Have An Impact On SEO?

Google+, also known as G+, Google Plus, or just simply Plus, is receiving a lot of buzz online lately.  The question is this:  How is this new social networking service going to effect the SEO efforts of bloggers, marketers, and businesses going forward?  At this point, no one knows for sure, but I have my suspicions.

You will now notice Google’s new +1 button next to every search engine result.  Google rolled out this new button in March of 2011, and is all apart of the new Google Plus service.  Simply put, you click this button, and that content will be shared in your Google+ profile.  Sound familiar?  Very similar to how Facebook’s ‘Like’ button works.

What is this Google Plus +1 button and how will it affect your SEO efforts?

For those of you who have been paying attention to the changes that have been effecting Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you will notice that Google is placing more and more emphasis on content that is being shared among social media accounts.  More particularly, the content that is being ‘Liked’ on Facebook, or ‘Tweeted’ on Twitter.

This is just speculation for now, but I have no doubt that Google’s new +1 button will have the same effect and benefits for SEO purposes, and will be looked at as a way for measuring a content’s relevancy.  This reason alone, I believe that Google Plus will have a huge impact on our SEO efforts in the near future!

Each time a user clicks the Google +1 button, they are telling Google that that particular search result is relevant to whatever keyword they are searching.

My suspicion is this:  The more +1 clicks that a certain blog post, article, picture, or video receives, the more Google will validate it as a good source of information and place it in their search engine rankings.

Will Google+ have any other impact on SEO in the future?

It is rumored that Google Plus and Google’s +1 button is going to change the way that search engine results are displayed for each user.  Meaning, as you +1 something, you will be contributing to your personal version of Google’s algorithm, and the results that are displayed for each user will be based upon their +1 behaviors.

In other words, if you and I both were to go to Google and type in “How to build a dog house,” the results that will be displayed for me will be very different than what is displayed for you.  Google will attempt to match the results based upon each individual’s likes and interests, which will be determined by your +1 behaviors.

For now, this is a rumor, but if true, this is going to present a problem for those of us who rely on SEO to generate traffic.  I think that we have some interesting times ahead.

Better add the Google+ Button to our sites!

As you know, SEO is an ever changing world.  What works today, probably will not work tomorrow.  For now, I think that it would behoove all of us to begin including a +1 button on our blogs and websites.  If these Google Plus +1 button rumors turn out to be true, we definitely want to make sure that our content is being shared among Google Plus users.

Category: Online Marketing Topics