Did you realise how important Google +1’s are? Don’t worry. Neither did I. I have spoken to many bloggers and marketers over the last year and the general consensus has been that Google +1’s can help your article. I did not, however, know just how much weight Google placed on them.
Yesterday, Michael Scott from WP Hub pointed me towards an article by Cyrus Shepard entitled “Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings“. For the article, the Moz team looked into whether Google +1’s (i.e. shares on Google’s social media platform) helped boost rankings on Google. The results showed that Google +1’s had, on average, a larger influence on rankings than the number of domains an article had linking to it. The test also showed that Facebook likes, shares and comments; were also influential.
Matt Cutts from Google responded to the article and claimed that Google +1’s are not used directly in Google’s algorithm (however, we all know that what Google says and what Google does, are not always the same).
I believe that Google +1’s can influence rankings on Google. How influential is something that we cannot know for certain. Matt Cutts stated that correlation != causation. That is, adding a +1 to an article does not mean it will have a higher ranking. Obviously, articles that are being shared more are generally of a high standard, so will have more +1’s; however I do not believe that a bad article can go up in the rankings by simply getting more shares. What does seem certain is that +1’s are a factor in how an article is ranked within Google.
The article also touched upon some other benefits of Google Plus such as posts getting indexed quickly and links within Google Plus passing link equity. I must admit that I have not paid as much attention to Google Plus as I should have. At the very least, I should be sharing my own articles with followers on Google Plus from time to time. The problem is that Google Plus currently only permits pages to be automatically updated. I cannot set it up so that my post updates are always published to my Google Plus account automatically.
So what does all of this mean for you and me? It means that we need to be giving more attention to Google Plus. That means interacting with others, sharing content and getting more followers. There is a fine line between networking and simply wasting your time; something I am always conscious of. I do, however, need to try.
I am not going to lie to you (or myself) and say that I am going to spend a lot of time on Google plus. As much as I am aware of the benefits of Google +1’s, and social media as a whole, I do find maintaining my social media accounts tiring. Many bloggers and affiliate marketers spend hours on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus every day. I do want to connect with my readers, but I would rather connect in different ways and spend the majority of my time writing and working on projects.
If you cannot devote a lot of time to networking on Google Plus, you should still be aware of its benefits and make it possible for others to easily share your content there. Make sure your about page links to your websites and author profiles too.
To get a full picture of this issue, I recommend reading Cyrus’s article in full via the link below
Related Link: Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings
You can create fan pages through Google+. That is something I recommend trying. For example, my Martial Arts Videos website has a Google+ page.
It becomes a bit tiresome trying to maintain all the social media accounts. I still feel that posting through a blog is the most effective ways of connecting with people. After all, that is the main location where all your social media accounts will link to anyways.
Google + has always been a mystery to me. Being the latecomer to the dance they don’t yet seem to have figured out the concept of usability, i.e. – I have several online “voices” or persona that I want to keep separate. Nowhere that I can find on Google’s site does it explicitly state whether or not I can have separate accounts (I’m getting the idea that’s a no-no) or whether I have to create some kind of “sub-pages” for my different websites.
At least on Facebook I’ve finally figured out how to let my different personalities have their own space; on Google I haven’t. I just don’t see the logic of posting everything that I do in different niches, with different target audiences, to one central account. Martial artists won’t be interested in my marijuana legalization articles, and neither will probably be chomping at the bit to read my hard-boiled detective fiction. I’m pretty sure that unless all of those audiences are also writers they won’t express much desire to visit my writer’s blog.
Until I can figure that out Google + is low on my list of priorities.
Hi Kevin
I would have been surprised if the +1’s wouldn’t have a major impact (in comparison to other sharing platforms) on the search results. As you say: we can’t prove that but it seem too logical to deny it.
You write: “but I would rather connect in different ways”. What are these different way in your opinion?
I think that it will also be crucial to get people to click the +1 button as soon as you have something on your plus account. Logically it shows Google that people like it (a lot). Of course, as with twitter, facebook etc there are also way to fake it, e.g. by buying +1’s or by creating fake Plus accounts etc.
Best regards from Greece,
David
I use onlywire for bookmarking, about $13 per month, and they update 50 or so sites with my posts including google plus 1, its all automated via wordpress plugin