Social networking sites have revamped the way people use and browse the Internet. On average, it can be said that today anyone who logs into the Internet makes it a point to first open a social networking site. If the trend started with Orkut and MySpace, Facebook took it forward to such an extent that today every Internet user is virtually connected to friends and family. When we talk about the Internet, the one name that we cannot miss out on is Google. If social networking sites made more people use the Internet, Google gave them a reason to seriously use the World Wide Web. Revolutionary services have been coming out of the Google stable that has caught users in frenzy. One of the latest offerings of Google has been Google Plus, the company’s greatest endeavor in the social networking arena. Today will try to explore the answer to the popular question these days; Does Google Plus affect your SEO?
Google Enters the World of True Social Networking
Google Plus also spelled and pronounced as Google+ was launched on June 28, 2011. Initially, Google started it on an invitation-only testing phase but the overwhelming response made them suspend the invitation phase soon. By September of the same year, Google+ opened to everyone above the age of 18.
Google+ is an integration of two earlier services of the group, Profiles, and Buzz to which several new services have been added. Google+ functions on a targeted sharing group where you have subsets of your social groups called Circles. These Circles are small groups that you can categorize on the basis of friends, family, classmates, co-workers, etc.
The Mystery of +1 and SEO
When Google announced that it is launching a social networking site, the ‘+1’ was a matter of much speculation. When Google launched the social networking site, industry experts tried solving the mystery of the ‘+1’. For long Google has been trying to enter the social networking market and with this latest venture, it seemed quite natural that Google+ had something to do with the popular search engine.
+1 is nothing but a feature of the site where people can share content with their friends. This content can be anything including search results, websites, and advertisements. Once, a user updates something on the Google Plus page, or there is any update on the page, the +1 tab will be seen on all the Google pages that the user is logged on to.
The +1 has been a masterstroke of the company as it adds to the search engine rankings. Websites and businesses that are still dabbling with the stiff competition of search engine optimization now have a new and innovative solution tailor-made by the Internet giant. This helps spread the content virally across the network.
Google Search Plus Your World
Very recently Google launched the ‘Search plus Your World’ that has further impacted SEO services. What basically happens is that when a Google Plus user +1’s any content, he is recommending the content to his circle. It is similar to content getting a stamp of approval from a trusted source, in this case, your family and friends. When one of the members of the user’s circle logs into Google Plus the next time, he is more likely to visit the +1’d content suggested by his friend. Even without logging into Google Plus, the +1 feature works on all Google tabs.
When a user searches for something on the search engine, the Google results page will include snippets of +1’d that have been approved by his circle, confirming that the site is trustworthy. However, it does not mean that +1 really ranks your page higher on the search engine results page, but rather has an indirect effect on the number of clicks you get.
