Google's Superior SEO Strategy
Notice anything odd about your Google+ profile? Does it rank incredibly well in Google’s search results for your own name?
Colleagues note that their G+ profile now outranks other online identities that they’ve worked for years on. My own Google+ profile, just 5 months old, ranks #2 for my name. It now ranks higher than both my Twitter and Facebook profiles, even though I use those services far more often.
Profiles aren’t the only thing ranking. Individual Google+ posts frequently appear in search results as well.
Ranking for people’s names is one of the Holy Grails of search, like Amazon ranking for every book in print. With 7 billion people in the world, ranking on the first page for even a small portion of these is lucrative territory.
As search and social focus more on the individual, the war over names has begun.
How has Google won so much real estate on their own search pages in such a short period of time? Do they cheat? No, not really - more on this later. Google wins by employing really smart Search Engine Optimization techniques – the same SEO practices available to any online business.
For Facebook especially, this is a sensitive issue. Facebook actively prevents Google from crawling most of its content, allowing big G to access “Fan” pages, but limiting information from regular profiles. Now that Google+ has entered the social game, this policy puts Facebook results at risk of dropping in rankings and losing search real estate.
I often work with websites and startups wanting to build SEO features into their platform. If I were to build a social media service for SEO domination from scratch, I would build it exactly like Google+.
Here's the takeaway: Use SEO to your competitive advantage, no matter your niche.
1. Incentivize Inbound Links
Not long ago, Google started displaying author photos in its search results. In order to display a photo, Google asks authors to add links from their webpages to their Google+ profile. This creates potentially millions of high quality links from the world’s most influential online publishers, all pointing to multiple Google+ profiles.
Twitter and Facebook both benefit from similar links, but never before has a social media service offered such an incentive.
Google's SEO Tactic: Require Authors to Link to their Google+ Profile
2. Internal Linking
One thing noted about Google+ when it was released was just how easy it was to be in lots of circles, or add lots of people to your own. People who struggled on Twitter for years to build up 1000 followers, suddenly found themselves in 2000 or 3000 Google+ circles, seemingly overnight.
Google’s strategy to connect everyone on the planet also makes for good internal linking. Following more than 1000 people may not create a practical social experience, but it creates a great SEO opportunity. The more your content is shared in other people’s streams and profiles, then the more your content is crawled, indexed, and deemed important by search engines.
Google's SEO Tactic: Encourage Large Circles Counts
3. Lots of Indexable Content
My public Google+ profile contains a wealth of information, all visible to search engines, including:
- Biographical Information
- Full Text of Public Posts
- Photos
- Links to people who have added me to their circles
- Everything I have ever +1’d
Compare that to my Twitter account – limited to 160 characters of biographical information, or my Facebook profile, which reads like an auto-generated pamphlet.
Consider how a search engine sees these pages. Take a look at the source code of any Google+ profile or use a tool SEO-browser (a search robot simulator) to see how many words appear on each profile.
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Facebook – 275 Words
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Twitter – 491 Words
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Google+ – 2621 Words
Google structures content to provide a wealth of information for search engines, to index and serve in search results.
Google's SEO Tactic: Search Engine Friendly Profiles
4. On-Page Optimization
Google+ makes it easy to share posts from others – a feature much like retweeting on Twitter or reblogging on Tumblr. These Google+ posts frequently show up in search results as their own entries.
As the title tag is one of the most important aspects of on-page optimization, Google wisely choose longer, more descriptive title tags. Compare these to the shorter title tags offered by Facebook and Twitter, which often run no longer than three unique words.
Here’s the title tag to 3 different posts, all by Rand Fishkin. Each of these posts is indexed by Google.
- Facebook – Yesterday, I…
- Twitter – Twitter / @randfish: Running test of Google+’s …
- Google+ – Rand Fishkin – Google+ – Shocking how many of the folks featured in this post form…
Which do you think ranks better for a query with “Rand Fishkin” in the search?
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Google's SEO Tactic: Descriptive Title Tags
5. User Generated Content
Every post I’ve ever written on Google+ has been public. As a result, every post has been crawled and indexed by Google search. The privacy settings on the profiles are simple, intuitive and encourage openness.
The big green button screams, “Pick me! Pick me!”
Most Twitter posts are public by default, although unless a tweet becomes famous the 140 character limit prevents most tweets from reaching the definition of “rich” content. Facebook, in contrast, only shares posts from fan pages with Google, and not posts from regular profiles.
Google's SEO Tactic: Encourage Public Sharing
6. Show Google+ Author Profiles in Search Results
The first 5 items on this list represent SEO tactics that anyone can use, but in a way #6 belongs to Google alone. By linking to Google+ profiles in search results, they create an advantage that no other social media service can duplicate.
Is Google “cheating” by favoring it’s own property? Some say yes, but on the other hand, is there a more relevant result? To me, it makes more sense to connect my author profile with the website that actually hosts the content, such as my profile on SEOmoz.
This demonstrates the power of rich snippets. Since Google introduced author photos in search results, webmasters have scrambled to get their mug included – the idea being that rich snippets of all kinds increase click-through rates. The question is, are we increasing the CTR of our own website, or Google+?
Google's SEO Tactic: Creative Rich Snippets
What Can You Do?
Except for #6 above, most of these techniques are available to any online business. Google has found a way to create large amounts of search engine friendly content, and do it at scale.
The lack of diversity this creates in Google's search results is troubling to some. Google risks turning into McGoogle, where every result and every page looks the same. With any luck, more companies will adopt strong SEO strategies to raise themselves in search.
Now that the adoption of Google+ has hit 62 million users and growing, expect to see far more Google+ in your search results soon.
A Google+ result in the SERPs is much more impressive than those of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
Try searching for Rand Fishkin or any other person with a great SERP: https://www.google.com/search?q=rand%20fishkin
The Google+ profile has:
Google just need to allow "custom"-URL instead of the meaningless numbers.
I looks great, have great tools, integrations I just miss my friends that why I still use Facebook for now.
Hi Frederick, although the results I see with the search query you've added here looks the same you have been seeing the same thing I was referring to in my post below (https://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-plus-seo#jtc164780) don't suppose you have a link to a screenshot so I could compare it to what I've seen?
@GrowTraffic
Unfortunately, I have not been able to recreate what you've described. It's sound very interesting though. It would make sense to include the little map from the Google+ profile in the SERPs.
Apparently this is what you saw: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html
In the future, might Google+ add an option for resume information, turning it into a LinkedIn alternative?
Google is clearly trying to take over as much of the SERPs as possible* - this would not be a suprising move at all. It would make it possible to show even more information on the SERP of name searches.
Google's market share combined with the ability to heavily integrate Google+ with SERPs and all their services is the main reason I believe Google+ will succeed.
* Dr. Pete's post "Counting to 10 the Google Way" is a great example of this.https://www.seomoz.org/blog/counting-to-10-the-google-way
@Cyrus I think the resume information is a logical step. Like you said, Google+ lends itself to helping people develop industry circles. And as @SuperlativB states - FB is for friends.
It makes a lot of sense we are seeing a growth in personal branding - half with all these comments are made by Simon Dalley instead of GrowTraffic however I suppose I'd best stick with the path I've started on.
I googled my profile and I am #1. I love SEOmoz for the latest, interesting and up-to-date information on SEO!
@Frederik
Bit confuse here, please clear.
May be here also ... Google+ is getting advantage from Google and Google + know what portion of profile will show up ONLY in GOOGLE search result.
Because in BING you will not get avatar and similar details -
https://www.bing.com/search?q=rand+fishkin&go=&qs=n&sk=&filt=all&first=11&FORM=PORE
@Lalit Burma
You are right, a Google+ profile is only this "impressive" when shown in the Google SERPs. I'm aware of the fact that Bing has a fair market share in US, but in Denmark where most of my clients are based, Google has a market share of 97%(!). Bing is not even in the picture here :)
Now if only I didn't share the name of a very famous author I might have half a chance of ranking #1 for my Google+ profile. Sucks to be me...
What would happen if Google decided to let G+ profiles rank better than that of their competitors? Would they legally be allowed? Wouldn't it also carry a risk of anti-trust investigations?
Excellent question. Google ranks everything by the algorithm. In fact, G+ profiles often do rank better than their competitors, but as long it's the algorithm doing the ranking, Google can claim immunity. This helps keeps the Google honest and the playing field even.
Critics ask is it fair if Google is the only one with access to the algorithm? Doesn't this create a conflict of interest?
The latest rounds of Congressional hearings dealt with the question of whether or not Google favored it's own properties in search. Although all search engines do this, folks are concerned about Google doing this because of their dominant market share.
I'm a big fan of Google. Hopefully the success of Google+ encourages other companies to up their game.
Well I am mixed on this issue. For one thing Google is a privately owned company and can(and should) do as they wish. But they have 80% market share (9x % in Germany) and so they have a quasi-monopoly, just as Microsoft did. On the other hand this power means that Google can virtually quench a whole lot of companies if they wanted to. How many web based companies could survive if Google one day decided to not to let them rank at all?
I didn't know about the congressional hearing, but heard of court claims against Google after their products integration, as well as Google's problems with the ITA acquisition. So the stakes are high to treat their own pages differently. The banning of the chrome browser page seems to indicate, that they actually are playing by the rules...but nobody knows.I personally like G+ way better than facebook, but that is just my taste.
Google is not forcing normal users to use Google for their queries, people are using it to get answers.
So if Google will start showing their products and if such results wont satisfy the normal user query than downfall of Google will start.
This is a political question, not economic. In economic theory there are only 2 types of monopoly - natural (as a result of economics of scale) and governmental.
The task of government as a political body is to "police" these two if the political will is such.
The only problem is the money that such companies (Google, MS) can pay to get politicians to vote :)
I had same query in my mind also so I did little research. After that I have found that Google has made this Google+ by keeping major SEO factor in mind. I think this mind game. Because Google is biggest search enfine in the world and facebook is the biggest competitor of the Google.
Well, facebook has to make some serious money though. Here is an interesting article about Google's revenue and facebook's.
https://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-31/tech/30575734_1_google-and-facebook-social-networking-pageviews
Great article Sebes, thanks for sharing.
Sebes +1 for such article.
Like this line from your given link -
"When you search for a product, you are telling the world you are interested in that product. And there is no better and more efficient time for those who make and sell that product to try to get your attention than at the moment you announce that you are interested in it."
Well, that should be quantifiable, right? The G+ profiles are supposedly ranking organically (even if their richness is pretty beefed up) unlike the Universal Search inserts that were causing Dr. Pete those counting headaches the other day. So if they rank because of the Google+ team's excellent SEO efforts, then in theory they should rank just as well on search engines that aren't Google. I'm reasonably sure that Google aren't fudging their results, especially with all the media scrutiny they've been receiving lately, but if we want to make sure, comparing rankings across search engines (especially ones without a stake of their own in the social market) sounds like the most sensible approach to me.
Facebook shares much more information with Bing than Google. So the rankings are totally different in Bing/Yahoo search alliance for these queries. Testing a few names, it appears Facebook ranks higher in Bing for most people than Google, most likely because of this data sharing.
I know your not making the argument here and just asking a question but I hate the monopoly arguments. Especially since Google search services are free to use for the general public it just does not make sense to me (at least until an update kills some of my clients than I whine about it just like everyone else).
I think they do have an unfair advantage since they have access to the inner workings of the algorithm. Its sort of like insider search trading.
Toss a twitter profile, Facebook fan page, LinkedIn profile, and a Google+ page into the Open Site Explorer tool see who wins. The cool thing is My profiles take the whole first page for my name now. I guess hiding from the ex-wife or bill collectors is longer an option for me L.
This is no surprise that Google is doing everything they can to beat Facebook and Twitter by getting more social media marketshare from their existing Google search users. I love Google+. For me its more interesting than Facebook although most of my personal friends are still on Facebook, and Twitter is my place to share anything spontaneous.
Google's techniques applied on Google+ should also be implemented to our own sites.
With the growth of facebook, google is uncomfortable and we saw how google wanted to cope up with it (orkut, buzz and all). Thumbs up to Google for never die attitude. Now with the power of their search engine they are turning table towards their side.
But we must notice that at the moment Google+ is using by maximum those people who are tech savy while facebook can be used by mine grand ma. Would love to hear Google+ name from my grandma, at the moment its only facebook on her lips.
When you know all hiding paths than its easy to reach at destination and that's what big G is doing at the moment.
Lets hope that they will do all promotion work for Google+ within a certain limit. We just crossed the Google Chrome episode.
Excellent insight, Cyrus. I'm not entirely sure why some of these never ocurred to me, but I agree with you completely.
I could also see this as a crafty way to encourage Twitter/Facebook to open their pipelines to Google. If Facebook wants to start ranking for names, they'll have to let Google crawl/index their profiles. It might be a little thing, but it could be the foot-in-the-door that Google's been after.
In the past it was to Facebook's advantage not to share information with Google, although they now share most of it with Bing in a strategic alliance. With Google+ that advantage may be eroding.
In the interest of the Internet I hope Facebook's next move is awesome!
This is just the start Google will do every thing in their power to push Google+, Log into Youtube and the main page is all Google+ activity.
I mean utalizing SEO and giving it a little extra authority is just the start, at least they have not highlighed Google+ profiles in yellow lol.
But I know one area Google is pushing hard is stars using Google+, they really are using every thing in their power to get big stars on board becuase once you have stars profiles indexed and brining the users in it is a key focal point, it is pretty much how Twitter became popular.
To be fair, you can also connect your Facebook, Twitter and, for some reason, Orkut account to Youtube as well. But yeah, Google+ is linked by default, so if you don't really tamper with your profile settings you'll be served G+ content exclusively (also I'm finding that the Facebook integration isn't catching all videos posted there, while G+ works seamlessly).
This is how I expect G+ to grow effectively anyway. Aside from their excellent SEO efforts outlined here, when Google step up their G+-integration into other Google products and Android, it's going to significantly impact the adoption rate.
Connecting something manually add one more task layer and can not be as effective as if it come by default.
If Google+ will get success with these SEO practices and normal marketing than it will be quite good otherwise in coming months Google will do and will employ all its product to make Google+ successful.
James +1 for celebrity and twitter link up.
2 metrics I've been tracking on G+ are:
I suspect a Ripple will carry more social and seo value then merely having your post rank at the top of a G+ search, but both are desireable.
Great post but I do not understand to the fullest why some think this may be The evil empire forcing us into something.
WebtProTechnoligies said it best. The Google + initiative is mainly aimed at enhancing the quality of search results" Google has simple after many years of tell us what to do, also given us the tool / tools to tell them what we as searchers think is most relevant. And that is what they are doing here.
Agreed, I think Google's intention is to improve information sharing on the web. Hopefully lots of good things come out of it.
On the flip side, ReadWriteWeb featured an interresting piece called Google+ is going to Mess Up The Internet.
Like all things, there's good and bad in every product.
And here I was thinking G+ was slipping into the failed bin
Nice post, user 108621512304373089316 aka Cyrus.
"Existence, as you know it, is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
-Star Trek
Great piece, as usual—thanks for the insight. I'd like to see more discussion around how this might influence brands as authors. For example, I work for Orbitz, and I'm trying to get my head around the advantages of putting some effort and resources into establishing Orbitz as an author for all of our unique content. At minimum, it seems to me, it serves as a bit of a hedge against having my content scraped. But it must be more than that.
And when you combine it with anecdotal evidence that users logged into Google are seeing brands and pages they've +1ed or added to circles rank higher in the results than they would have if they were logged out, it really begins to get interesting as far as G+ is concerned.
Really interresting scenerio - a brand as an author. Very science fiction-like idea, like recognizing a corporation as a human entitiy. Thanks for the sharing the concept, and let us know if you have any success with this.
Cyrus, this is a great post. YOU have convinced me to use Google+ over the other two. I guess the 3rd sock is replacing on of the first two! (MOZCON JOKE). I would rather build a following on Google+ than on Facebook.
As far as Twitter goes, I use it like a newspaper.... to be read while sitting on the toilet!
+1 for the MozCon joke. The Twitter reference... shame on you. :)
I suggest SEOmoz put a link to their Google+ account in the "Stay In Touch" box in the lower right-hand corner of their page.
That would be hillarious! I would so love to see that!
hi Cyrus,
I have read A TON of SEO articles over the last few years. On SEOMoz and elswhere. Hell, I've written my fair share of SEO related articles. What you wrote here has been the best article on SEO I've ever seen. #ThatIsAll
And this is not all! If you have your page directly connected with Google+, now Google shows in his SERP below your domains link, your lastest posts on Google+.
You could do it from here: https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/
Try it, directly connect your website with your Page on Google+ and you will see it!
Thanks for your information, Cyrus!
I had no idea that there was so much to Google+!! Great write up Cyrus. It def opened my eyes to the Google+ of 2012.
I never considered the as a linking incentive - but it's true!
But it's cheating isn't it? Basically telling media owners - link to us or you won't get your pic in the search results... I think that's a bad precedent because there's clear value for media owners to do it, but all the control is in Google's court.
Google+ was really great attempt after the miserable failures in the social side by Google that includes Google Wave mainly. Google is actually a search focused company and with Google+ data Google will be able to deliver better and more focused results in the SERPs.
Although with My name, Twitter is still ranking no.1 and Google+ profile comes somewhere at no. 10 but i have seem lot of other profiles that are ranking incredibly higher in Google against their name.
UGC, is the best part I know about Google+. This is incredibly helpful for search engine to crawl new relevant pages and from where they are coming from.
Thanks for a brilliant read Cyrus. I have a problem with the assertion that Google are merely incentivising people to link to their Google+ profile though. Surely by demanding that people link to their Google+ profile in order to have their author picture in the search results, they are actually 'bribing' them?
They know and we know that such an image can drastically increase CTR. If the only way to get this is to link to your Google+ profile then they are essentially forcing us to create a profile, and to link to it, aren't they?
I actually personally haven't done much work with my own Google+ because of social media overload. It's actually suprising how quickly you can jump in audience reach compared to twitter based upon your expereince.
Great article, shared on google+
thanks Cyrus
Except for LinkedIn, my Twitter, FB, and Google+ pages/profile does not appear on page 1 for my name when searched on Google. Not sure if I should be thankful. I think anywhere you can get inbound links should be ok. FB / Twitter matters as that is where a lot of traffic comes from for a lot of sites now.
Had google search engine been not associated with this social media network, it would have been hard for it to survive. Google is abusing its monopoly and forcing people to relate to it.
For our brand, the Google+ page make a really great change in search results! This works from .com and .ca Google sites (in french). So, we're now occupy the same space than when 12 sitelinks "option" was available. Note the site was linked to the Google+ page since mid-november.
I like the fact that Google+ isn't included in the Moz community :-)
Yeah. What is the deal with that?
To author: Great article.
I really think it will hurt them long term if they don't put it there. You look at Google, every Google's Bonus is based on the success of Google +.
Do you think that is going to hurt them in the long run?
Thanks for this very good explanation, we from Globeview use Google Plus not much. Think you we can make additional sales?Perhaps more visitors but more leads?
Hey Cyrus
Interesting points made, however I can't see my G+ account on the first page. Could it be geographic issue (I'm in Australia)?
Raz
Would be interesting to have your point of view on the evolution of SEO in 2012 due to "Search plus your world" in an upcoming post.
The comment stream had a lot of value to add to this post. While Google may be a "monopoly" this did not come about because they are the only search engine in the market. We have seen a lot come and go - there is a lot to be said about competition.
For now - they are on target and have a well laid out plan to be tops in the search market while maximizing their monetiziation without being offensive.
I think they have done it well thus far. Only time will tell - but for now - G+ is the place to be and we can see that in the Search Engine Results Pages on Google.
Thanks for sharing SEOMOZ...
Hello! I have a little question!
My website 374.am is a free business directory and i have 25.000 companies listed in! All this pages indexed by google and I don't know dose google +1 helps me in SEO and high place in search!?
I'll be glad if you give me true answer!
Thmxx all!
This is really cool to learn about, awesome post. Quick question tho, do you know if Google will rank heavier for profiles and will it have different search results than Google+ pages?
Great post Cyrus
You mention that everything you +1 are open to search engines. I looked for this myself, but to me it appeared to be hidden in javascript. Am I missing something?
Best regards Jesper jørgensen, GroupM Search
Twitter, Facebook and Google are all betting on the power of social graph, as trusted recommendations from users is what will dilver most relevant content to users. However Google's still got some way to go. In my opion we have to treat Google+ as it's own website, just as Cyrus did when providing his recommendations.
This vid is a definite watch - https://www.distilled.net/store/boston2011-social/
Thanks for the post Cyrus!
Cmon, they would be absolutely mad not to boost there own services position. I know they boast impartiality but it would be idiotic for them to not at least give there own services a little push.
It was only a matter of time for Google to find some leverage on the social end of the spectrum. May be good for SEO in the long run too. Great details Mr. Shepard, been studying G+ for some time now and your post is filling and yet concise. Thank you.
Great. Glad I stumbled on thi read prior to setting a few accounts; Keep the posts coming. Thanks!
I think it's very smart of them. I've switched all my sites to use rel author text. I think that it's something that is going to be huge in the future
Slowly google is converging all outside good data to itself.
I did notice other people's Google+ accounts showing up in the first page a few months ago. At first glance I thought that was just google giving itself creditability. Now that you break it down, Google+ is really well optimized. In fact it shows what works.
Great post! I've seen so many articles about Twitter and Facebook being angry about Google "favoring" results and this really clears the air. Lots of things I didn't even think about.
2012 is going to be a big year for Google+ and I expect most companies AND people to take some sort of strategy to utilize the platform.
It isn't just a social media network, its much more as it is tightly integrated with everything the big G has to offer.
Thank you for the post. My prior intuitions now feel vindicated. I was talking to a cohort the other night about my feeling that we were only seeing the beginning of Google+'s influence.
I try to be objective in theorizing how you go about operating your brand when you provide an SE along with platforms directly related and intertwined.
As Rand mentioned in a post a few days ago, you hope those with great power use it justly. However, considering the Chrome mishap and this blaringly-obvious observation, Big G is not coming out looking squeaky clean.
I'm glad we have great "sleuths" within the industry, who make savvy obervations and spread awareness.
Altough both my LinkedIn- and Twitter-profile rank higher than my Google+ profile, the Google+ profile has much more rich metadata surrounding it. This probably means a higher CTR.
Especially the picture next to the link (the author profile image) makes it easy to spot in all the results for people who are looking for me.
And than there is the meta description. This is simple, (white-hat) SEO stuff. For Facebook it's people with a simliar name. At Google+ it's my actual bio!
Facebook results in the SERPs often confuse me because of the meta description just showing "random" names.
Great post! I especially love point #3, which should help in explaining to clients that it is still as effective as ever to increase the # of words of crawlable content on each page.
Woo Google is doing white hat SEO to optimize Google + that sounds amazing! I think Google is applying all techniques that Rand had mention in his posts. Let see where this Giants (G+, FB) fight is going!
Google + is next game changing thing for SEO! So we must wait and watch,
Since internett is just a baby and google owns the world wide web with there everchanching searchengine it's just time.. Google has better functions och look but facebook has all users and that is a problem. No friends no fun (facebook thaught us that)
So true, gotta get more friends! lol
Google is doing more effort to bring these results up, and in my humble opinion G+ is much more optimized and user friendly.
I can tell that 2012 is the year of SMO.
Finally Google seems to be achieving the much needed stand on social media via Google+ . Google is very much focused on search and according to me the Google+ initiative is mainly aimed at enhancing the quality of search results and by integrating the social signals into search Google has got opportunity to cater to the social scene too.
Google+ is not only a social media platform it is a consolidation of your overall web presence quantifying your online personality. It is becoming kind of a passport for an online identity.
On a wider perspective Google is trying to converge all the data from other Google owned platforms on Google+ and all these signals should finally affect the search results.
IMHO Google is currently equipping itself with all the necessary social and search integration features which will be applied suddenly like the Panda Update was applied to the algorithm for content.
Search is all about content and intent and this is being well monitored by Google+ and point #3 (More Indexable Content) caters to this very effectively.
This time Google does not have to depend on any third party to give them the data They have control and ownership of all the data they will be using to integrate the social signals with search for the web or mobile or local. Yes, Search is all about SOCIAL, LOCAL & MOBILE which is very well being spun and interwoven by Google into the fabric of Google+
If I were Google, I'd just ban Facebook. That's the easiest thing to do :)))
good but that idea will not work because as Google must to follow their own rules. As per rules Google can't block FB results because then not done any wrong thing and link building so that's not possible.
Actully I am quit impress when come to know Google Chrome get penalty after getting known by other webmasters that Google Chrome buys a sponsors link (Paid links) and don't follow their own Google Webmasters guidline. So they penalize their self for a 60 days.
I know that was kind of a joke...
On a serious note, the fact that Google is (at least pretending to be) using its fair game to use proper SEO to rank its own profiles on top of search results is something worth some respect.
Or was it? I see this as a plausible future for Facebook.
Might be they change their rules in future in an effort to kick Facebook out of market.
Personally, I would love to hear that.
Thanks God you are not.
You wont cure cancer ... you will kill the patient.
@Ann Smarty Good to see humour is welcomed... Maybe you should have added a winking face, to make it clear ;)
I added three smiles - now I know a winking face would make it clearer ;)
Must admit Google+ seems to be a robust platform and I am quite excited to see what it can do. I'm managing a few accounts at the moment for clients (must be more active on my own account though). I have always felt that they developed + to offer people a new way to find content (the social way) whilst enhancing their existing, traditional search offering.
I made a search the other day (and I’m kicking myself for not having taken a screen grab) but when I searched on my name, there was a box around the first listing which featured my website, Google+ account with my photo, a few links and a map. Has anyone else seen this?
I predict 2012 is the year of Google+. I wouldn't be surprised if Google+ becomes Google and becomes an integrated platform that does everything from sending emails, watching videos (and TV shows etc), searching for information as well as interacting with friends and colleagues.
Everyone who's doing these name-search tests should log out of their Google account first. When you do that, your Google Plus page will likely be much lower in the SERPs, unless you are in fact using GP much more heavily than FB, Twitter, your blog, or other channels.
Some very good points and I think this all depends on Google's strategy. Right now Google is in a pretty heated competition with Facebook in getting traction on social media and are devoting an inordinate amount of resources towards Google+. I think that most people realize that jumpstarting a social network so late in the game is a major challenge even for a company as big as Google. I think that Google's strategy will be to artificially boost up Google+ rankings in search results and essentially compel businesses to push Google+ for their own benefit. The impact that the overall business community has had in helping Facebook become dominant is a bit underrated. You have big brands promoting Facebook URLs and Facebook branding in their national TV commercials instead of their own web sites. You have small and medium sized companies using the dozens of companies at https://www.buyfacebookfansreviews.com to promote their own businesses to people. The end result of this is that Facebook gets a ton of free advertising from every company out there. Google has to see this and understand that using their one key advantage in trying to dominate this critical market will have to take place for their future. What's really interesting is seeing when Facebook uses their social data to really make a splash in search. Now that would cause a whole lot of interesting conflict and responses from both companies and something I'm predicting will happen as Facebook and Google continue to duke it out.
"Is Google cheating"? That's an interesting question because it sort of gets to whether Google is favoring its own potentially inferior property (Google+) by giving it a visibility and ranking boost in place of superior search results. They might be spending a little bit of user capital here, but I think what they are spending it on is worthwhile: trying to build an active social network. For Google to succeed in the social space they are going to have to do some integration with their existing properties. I am all for Google showing me this as Facebook is like the Surgeon General of Evil while Google is just a Captain.
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Great analysis, very interesting. Seems we all underestimated Google + when it first came out.
I'm still not 100% sold on G+. Google's search marketing plan is billiant, but a good social network entices users to keep coming back. Businesses might feel obligated to have a G+ page just for SEO reasons, but users don't necessarily have a reason to keep coming back day after day.
Good info on google+..... I picked up on a lot of things that I didn't know. Thanks for posting!
From the small amount of data I've found I don't think it's going to be possible to not focus a large portion of your social effort on Google Plus. Google is counting on this also as a way to get the major brands to start sending people to sign up to Google Plus to get deals, promotions, and more information. On the other side of things Google seems to be constantly flooding the SERP's with more of their own results which should make all of us nervous.
Wow am I using Google Plus more than ever now.. I wasn't really using it too much.. Just thought they were trying to play catchup.
Thanks for letting us know this info
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Yes, Google is counting social factor in SERP's ranking.
Google is really good at launching new applications and Google+ is comes with a many expectations. Many webmasters predicts that might google+ influence organic search rankings and searchengineland explain good, bad and ugly truth about the google+.
I agree the facts about the google+ which is shared by Cyrus. I have seen the numbers of users which are expand more and more and also the readability of the content is also high in G+. It is easy to add in circles and starting the discussion. I love to see my G+ profile in search results soon. Lastly thanks for the awesome post Cyrus.