Last week, Google rolled out " Search Plus Your World," an update to Google's universally popular search engine that biases logged-in users to receive socially shared content and markup in the results. Danny Sullivan wrote two excellent must-read pieces on the topic - Google's Results Get More Personal and Real-Life Examples of How "Search Plus" Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy. Thank God for Danny. If it wasn't for his tireless coverage, I'd feel obligated to spend hours writing those pieces myself (and they probably wouldn't be as good).
SEOmoz received a lot of requests for coverage, but typically we don't like to rush into writing about a new service/technology/change until we've got at least a few days of playing with it, watching the tech news cycles spin and evaluating how it might change practices for inbound marketers. To be honest, we still don't really know - our own accounts sometime get access to SPYW, and other times it seems to go missing (right now, for example, my Gmail account, which was showing SPYW results all last week, is suddenly back to regular, non-personalized Google). However, we felt that this was a momentous enough to shift to warrant a video on the changes and some discussion.
It's my opinion that if SPYW continues to roll out to all logged-in Google users and Google stays as aggressive as it's been in the last 10 days with pushing Google+ for even logged-out users, the service will become a necessity for search and social marketers. In 2009 and 2010, Google's integration with Twitter was remarkable - helping content get indexed in seconds, earning featured spots for logged-in users who were connected to each other on Twitter and showing up in all sorts of specially-marked-up results. Google's taken that much, much further with SPYW, and while I'm no particular fan of using your market power to force users onto a platform they may not want, I'm also a realist. When I see this:
I know that as a marketer, there's missed opportunity if I'm ignoring Google+ (the search above is done totally logged-out).
BTW - if you liked the video above and Whiteboard Fridays in general, check out our SEOmoz Google+ page which features a few more and will continue to host some unique, interesting content that doesn't necessarily make it to the blog. Like everyone, we're still experimenting with G+, and suggestions are welcome!
Look forward to your thoughts around the necessity of Google+ (and watch this space as we plan on having some more tips + tactics on that front soon).
Video Transcription
Howdy, SEOmoz fans. Welcome to a special edition of Whiteboard+. Today we're actually talking a little bit meta about Google+and Google Search Plus Your World, which is Google's new effort to take their social network, Google+, and involve it more in exceedingly intricate ways with your search results and with everyone's search results. I want to talk a little bit about what this means and why, in my opinion, every web marketer needs a Google+ strategy for their site, for their content. If you don't, I think you're going to be missing out very, very quickly. I think Google has really forced marketers' hands in this way, businesses in particular that have content on the Web. I'll show you what I mean by this.
So I've got some reasons why I believe this. Number one, Google+ is in the search results like you have never seen before. Let me illustrate for you really briefly with some search results that I've drawn up here. I even made the little icon with my finger. So, when I perform a search, like "Rand Fishkin," and if you are connected to me on Google+, you'll actually see results remarkably similar to this where my Google+ profile outranks all my other content. There was a great rant from someone whom I'm not usually a big fan of because of his denial of the power of SEO, but Jason Calacanis actually had a nice rant on Google+ itself where he noted that his Google+ profile was outranking all the other content - his blog, his Twitter profile. My wife noticed the same thing for her Everwhereist account for her travel blog, how essentially Google+ had taken over the number one spot for a lot of brand names and personal names, obviously, with the intent of hoping that people will contribute more to Google+, that they'll keep their profiles updated because if you don't, it looks kind of bad.
So what you see here is my Google profile. You'll actually see a photo of me. You see that I'm in Seattle, Washington. It's pulling some metadata in here, and then they'll give you some links to other places where I am on the Web that I've chosen for my Google+ profile. So obviously, this is almost like having to claim a LinkedIn profile so that people can find me on LinkedIn or a Facebook profile so that people can find me on Facebook. Google is really making this essential, and the way that they're doing it is through Google+.
Now it's not just personal brand names and personal profiles. They do this for some pretty big sites too. In fact, you'll also see a ton of other Google+ stuff inside the search results. I'll show you what I mean here. So you can see obviously the +1, but they will often have a count of +1's that come from that. They'll also have people who in your network have +1'd or shared a particular result, and those are essentially almost rich snippets, rich data that you can't get any other way. There is no other way to get people in your network, whose profiles are connected. It's not like they're going to show you people who liked SEOmoz's Facebook page or people who follow SEOmoz on Twitter who you also follow. This, Google+ has become one of the only ways to get this social proof that you used to be able to get through all sorts of Google social search.
Now, this being said, Matt Cutts did point out - Matt Cutts is one of the search quality engineers at Google, runs the web spam team there - he did point out that for a few other networks, Flikr, Quora, FriendFeed, which was bought by Facebook, and a couple of others sometimes those results can be in here as well. It's extremely rare. You can find it, but it's tough to see, and Google+ is clearly the best and easiest way to get into this type of markup, into these kinds of results. And remember this stuff, not only is it appearing, it's pushes results higher.
So for example, if I am searching for something and let's say Kenny Martin from SEOmoz has shared something on Google+ or he's +1'd it, I am likely to see that higher in my search results because Kenny is in one of my circles on Google+. What this means, obviously, is that the size of your network, if my network on Google+ is quite small, the people that I follow are quite small, I'd better hope that one of them has done the sharing of the content that I care about. But what I'd really like to do is have a huge network. I'm not illustrating it well. A huge, huge, huge network that encompasses, hopefully, hundreds of thousands of people who are following me. You can see Danny Sullivan I think right now has something like 390,000 people who are in his circles. When you think about the power of that, everything that Danny has ever shared, ever +1'd, ever put on Google+ is going to appear in those hundreds of thousands of people's search results higher than it normally would. Right now Google is being extremely liberal about this, ranking things that may not even have the keywords in the title tag, maybe only have ancillary relevance to the keyword search that's going on. So they are really, really pushing this forward.
Then in one of the most aggressive moves I've ever seen Google make they have a new box on the side of the search results. This box says, "People and Pages on Google+." So for example, I did a search, a logged out search for news, and I could see entities that have their Google+ pages featured over here with their pictures. There were no pictures over here. I was logged out. I wasn't getting any of the "so and so +1 this," but here I was getting suggestions of brands that I should be following on Google+. These weren't major brands. They were smaller brands - I didn't even recognize them - with a few hundred thousand people in their circles.
Kenny was sitting next to me at the computer, side by side, here in the Whiteboard Friday room, and he did a search for "SEO" and up popped myself, Rand Fishkin, and Danny Sullivan. Think of the power of that. If you can have your brand, your personal brand on Google+ associated with a broad term like SEO, or web marketing, or surveys, or used cars, or whatever it is that you're selling or the idea that you're trying to promote, insanely powerful. This is one of the biggest reasons why I think Google+ is going to force its own success inside Google Search results.
Remember, when we talk about the power of Facebook marketing, we're talking about 800, or so, million Facebook users. Google Search has literally billions of users performing billions of searches a day. So the user group for this is absolutely phenomenal, just tremendous. It's not just in the US, although Google Search Plus Your World is much more US focused right now. I suspect it will be rolling out in the weeks and months to come.
So obviously, Google+ in search results, the personalization that we talked about where these results are ranking higher, you can see an example of that down here. Your images related to you, you'll see this little icon, this guy here. When you see that icon, that means it's being personalized. Google+ is essentially personalizing your results inside of Google Search to show you content that they think is either your content or content of people that you're connected to. Photos is one of the most obvious ones that they're showing right now. But they'll show you profiles, they'll show you links and URLs that have shared, that you've shared, that they think are part of your world. Fascinating stuff, but definitely a bias towards Google+ related content. If you're sharing on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, you're rarely ever going to see this here unless you have some very deep social connections, often through Google+ or through Quora, which is kind of how Google is accessing social data to Twitter and Facebook right now.
Number Three, Google+ adoption. I think things like this, look at this, "Learn how you could appear here too." There's a link right there so for those searches, when CNN does a search for news and they go, "Where are we?" Well, "Learn how you can appear here too." "Oh, well we'd better get on that. We've got to get a campaign going. If we don't, we're going to be losing out," because they know people are going to be clicking on these results rather than on these results. The adoption of Google+, something over 60 million users right now, I would suspect that number rises to 100 million very fast, almost certainly by the end of this year.
The richness of the snippets and mark up, you can see the visuals in here, the visuals on the side, the visuals with the personal elements, with the images, with the icons of people that you know and follow, and entities and brands that you know and follow on the service. It's going to be absolutely huge. Imagine having the ability to have endorsements of your brand from people that your customers already know. I think that's going to be a big one.
Number Five, I see Google using this long term, perhaps even in the short term if they can get enough adoption, for web spam and search quality signals. Essentially saying, "Hey, this brand, this entity, this website, these URLs, they have no activity whatsoever in our social graph. They haven't been shared through any service that we can connect to, nor have they been shared on Google+ or +1'd. I'm not so sure that this website is of high quality. It just seems to have a bunch of links pointing to it. Perhaps we should be discounting some of that link graph unless there are social supporting elements." I think over time that's one of the ways that they intend to fight manipulative link spam. So definitely, people need to be thinking about that from a marketing perspective.
Number Six, the biasing to social and Google+ in Search. For a long time, search results had, yeah you could do a search like this, you would see some social results. They'd generally be the one or two bottom results if there was something relevant. But nowadays, you're seeing that Google is essentially saying, "You know what? We are willing to forego a little bit of quality and relevance in favor of showing Google+ and social stuff in our results more heavily." I think that's them saying, "We're going all in, baby."
Now this being said, I won't get into it, but I think there are certainly some risks for Google, that quality and relevancy stuff, there are a lot of examples out there on the Web, on blog posts, all over the place, on Mashable, on TechCrunch, on Paris Lemon's blog. Danny Sullivan wrote about it on Search Engine Land, that Google's not doing the best job with relevancy because they're biasing to this Google+ stuff. That being said, if they keep doing this, if they stick with it, I think marketers, and brands, and companies, and pages will embrace this and make sure that these results are good. Over time, Google can pull back and show the more and more relevant stuff as more stuff gets shared on Google+.
So I think the only institutional risk that I see with this program that Google's rolled out is the governments of the world essentially saying, "Hey, you're doing monopolistic behavior using your vast market share advantage in Search to force people to use your social network." I don't want to comment on that. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a political expert, or anything like that, but what I can say is, as a marketer, Google's very, very clearly forcing our hand and making sure that we use Google+. If I were you I would be setting up a Google+ content strategy. I would be making sure that whatever social sharing I'm currently doing also applies to Google+. If you are tweeting it, you're Facebook sharing it, you're posting it to LinkedIn, you're putting it in your Pinterest board, for God's sake man, put it on Google+! You're losing out if you're not because the biasing is so heavy right now.
All right, everyone, I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Whiteboard+. I look forward to the comments, participating in those. We will certainly have more content coming soon around specific tactics and strategies for Google+. I hope you will join us again. Take care.
momentous shift as you say Rand. This is a really welcome WBF.
I agree there is no rhyme or reason as to availabilty of SPYW. i'm sure dust is still settling.
Two things I'm looking at right now is how many people +1 content that is not their own. At least if this is the "new linking" then there is a general holding back from what I see even within the SEO community.
Also, the connections we have within Google that determine our SPYW Serps are avaiable to any logged int person to examine at the little spoken about https://www.google.com/s2/search/social?hl=en#socialconnections I'm finding the scale of those secondary connections a true eyeopener.
Wow, thanks Paul. That link answers my question about how SPYW chooses who to include in personal results. Lots of Quora connections in my list!
Funny you mention that link Paul - it's incredibly hard to find in your Google account, but massively important. I almost feel like I should do a whole post on just that particular page - the connections they show are fascinating and almost spooky.
I think we'd all love to see this post!
Paul, offering that link is like finding the Golden Ticket in the Wonka bar. I'm passing this on to my colleagues and clients. Thank you.
That link... put it in a graphic a you have the Google Social Graph.
Nice link, I love how it shows every link you add too your Google+ profile.
I love it too. I wish I could get to the same performance someday
Paul your comment with that link is a treasure.There is no doubt that you are the hero of this article.I am grateful to you mate.
+1 for the AWESOME link
Is one of the key as far as logged in results would be to encourage others to add you in as a Google Contact? Or just adding you to their circles would suffice?
While I believe this post to be extremely helpful (Thanks Rand), I'm just wondering if anyone else is resentful about how Google is integrating Google+. As far as I'm concerned, G+ hasn't been as successful as initially hoped and now SPYW is forcing it down our throats. Though this may be a great tactic to get people to utilize it more (or, it seems, be left behind), it's also making me a bit bitter. Am I alone in this?
Amber, I'm resentful. I don't want to be forced to use something. Furthermore, I don't trust that the people in my circles filter information as I would filter it - yet google would display these things (useless) things to me. I'm extremely good at finding what I want on Google now.
Google is a tool and, in my eyes, it will always be a tool. To force me to use it for my online social experience only pisses me off. That's what I have facebook for.
I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately the backlash that we all hope happens will more likely be ruined by people trying to get the jump on ranking their sites. Monkey see monkey do. I hate to admit it, but we're all just going to have to roll with the punches on this one. Google plus is going to be a important step in all SEO campaigns moving forward. Damn it!
I'll agree with you on this Amber. From everything I've read/seen, they are in fact using widespread SEO techniques to push G+ and [in theory] nothing behind the curtains, but who knows these tecniques better than Google themselves. In this article: https://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-plus-seo, Cyrus Shepard goes in depth on how Google is using these techniques to rank above the other social networks.
Ok, time for a more appropriate comment. Search plus is here to stay, but -cad always with Google - we will various versions of it. I'd like to remind you that actually there are 3 (+1) Google SERPS: 1) the SPYW one, which is totally personalized and where us as marketers can enter only if we were able to have our page or profile enclrcled; 2) the not SPYW one, but still heavily personalized SERPS, which are the ones we were used to until few days ago; 3) the not logged in ones, which shows the enormous G+ profiles/pages suggestions (and that I suspect are somehow personalized still; 4) the neutral ones, which show our old beloved SERPS and which, honestly, just us SEOs use.
What can we conclude? That G+ is a necessity now, and that to be strong with it we must pay attention to: 1) relevancy of our page/profile and 2) be authoritative and 3) take care to not only becoming an influencers, but also to have strong relation with other influencers and not only in our strict target. In fact, even if they are personalized, those SERPS have a reason to have those rests ranking that way, and IMO authority and relevancy are the most important factors, while keywords seem a lesser one.
Finally, for all those ones who live outside of the USA. Our Gooes are still "classic", but that is a one more reason to finally work seriously with Google Plus, do to have a competitive advantage when SPYW will be live also for us... Don't do the same mistake you may have done when panda rolled out in .com first :)
Would you post the same content on your Google+ as your twitter or facebook postings?
You're right on. We can't ignore this. The early adobpters will benefit by getting started with Google+ immediately. We were hesitant to suggest Google+ buttons sitewide when +1 first launched. It had an impact on load times and was a potential conversion distraction, but now the benefits clearly outweigh any potential downside.
Change is fine, as long as we keep up to date on the latest SEO changes. This is exacly how we can add value to our services.
Thanks for the post and reference links, Rand. I celebrate your patience in waiting to "take it all in." One thing I would be concerned about if I was on the immediate SPYW team (from a PR and rep standpoint) is the "watering down" effect. As a consumer, I have it re: most paid listings. I've grown accustomed to dismissing them, favoring organic listings. I may start getting that way re: Google+ results, especially if exceptionally proflific on my SERP pages.
I'm a realist as well. Of course, it seems obvious to get on the Google+ train, but I wonder if at some point, consumers (and brands using the platform) will see Google+ results much like the "Sneetches" starting seeing themselves in the Seuss tale. Does SPYW team have the benefit of all at heart, or is this another incarnation of Sylvester McMonkey McBean?
Finally this WBF managed to escape Google plus and reached SEOMoz blog. Very nice WBF. Thumbs up Rand.
This hasn't launched in Australia yet, but thanks for your post Rand - great article and video. Information like this helps us Aussies prepare ourselves before the changes finally make it over here!
Thanks for the video! About to work on my Google + Campaign now. Right after I send this video to my co-workers.
Ironically, Rand, there are 1000+ Tweets, 77 Facebook shares and only 44 Plus Ones for this article. It is like the momentum of the web leans towards Twitter socially and towards Google for search, making this an interesting play to watch. Can our search habits be enlisted to reshape our social habits? Time will tell.
Google+ will die a slow death and end up where Google Buzz went. Nobody likes G+ and nobody actually uses it outside hardcore tech people. Google isn't Facebook and they will never be Facebook no matter how hard they try to shove it down our throats.
I certainly have not seem any real traction in comparison to the hype in UK.
"If you throw enough it will stick?"
Once it is integrated into search this way it is not going away so easily.
I think it's a great idea right now but hard for me as a person that does a lot of client work. My results are all across the board. Not to mention, do I set up my clients pages through their account or my own personal account? Which one would help get the best results?
I'd say through their own accounts but I've set them up through my own accounts so I can manage multiple accounts - Google have said that multiple account admins will be live in the first quarter - so I don't think it will be an issue in the long run.
Do you think it gives it a more positive influence if me with a much higher Google profile than my client that only logs into their account every blue moon?
I'd guess so however I'd also guess in the long run Google would discount some of the benefit as the page accounts would have similar and unnatural looking interactions.
Very true, thanks for the reply.
Multiple admins is live now: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/google-few-big-improvements-before-new.html
Greetings Champion!
If you think about in the manner of salvaging your less profitable content then farming a Google+ account seems easier in a matter of seconds. I implemented several "sallvaging" campaigns where I posted on my Facebook to convert my FB to G+ and I recieve a few every day, but in the long run I'm keeping my fan base that I worked so ahrd for with Facebook as well as Twitter. If you think of it in this manner, Google+ becomes very manageable. Also I have my own personal account, and a business account linked to my persoanl account.
Does anyone have a sense if a Google+ profile is better to have over a google+ "page" for SERP visibility? So for example when I search "seo" in a logged out google search, I see Rand and Danny's personal profiles on the top right - not SEOmoz and searchengineland.
I'm wondering if equal activity and followers existed for their company pages, would they show up instead of their personal profiles?
So i guess the question is if I want my business to appear for a certain keyword on the "People and Pages on Google+" upperright google serp, am I better off conducting my activity on a business page or a personal profile as a representative of the business?
Would love to hear everyone's thoughts.
Cheers,
Marc
yes I've noticed this - it's much easier to find a Google+ personal account than a Google+ page when you do a brand / personal brand search.
Good question, I also noticed that pages content are less privileged in search results is it logged in or logged out search.
Only google knows they are going to change it or not. I think clever move would be to work on both, personal profile's and page's, visibility.
Great video. Very clever way of forcing Google+ interactivity with the Whiteboard+ video only being shown on Google+ for awhile. It forced us to get creative to share it on Twitter and other social networks.
I think it forces us to change up the way we tell people about it as well causing more content to be crawlable by Google as well
I've been thinking of the rollout of SPYW as the final collapse of the wall seperating SEO and social. The wall has been crumbling for a long time now, but now it's gone.
I cannot but agree to what you say, Rand and if I have expressed my ideas about Search Plus (I agree with Danny Sullivan that this should have been the right name for SPYW), also - hint hint - in the Seomoz Google+ page. Just one thing: when I search for cats now I only see photos of the Matt Cutts one!!! Please, Matt, stop uploading photos with your lovely pet, ok :D !!!
i'd used a more banal "Google YOUniversal" :P
hi gianluca, i tried "search+" on twitter but it does not create a hashtag, so #spyw or #gspyw does as it would be cool to track chatter,no?
To be completely honest (and I'm sure I'll get some disagreement here) but from a searcher's perspective, I like "Google Plus Your World". This is under the assumption, I know how to "use" it (I know how to turn it off, and also view only personal results) and I have carfully chosen who to put in my circles.
I have actually tested some informational searches and really like the results. I was looking for information on "h1" tags (to provide resources for a friend to settle a debate, but that's another issue) - and the fact I could instantly find resources from people in my network of SEOs was really powerful. And when I was seacrhing for something on a topic not "present" in my G+ circles it left social results out.
The usefulness of this from a searchers perspective is obviously directly proportional to how well you've set up your circles in G+. And the results only seem tailored to mainly who you have in your circles, is that everyone else's perception?
What I do not like, is my G+ account was never on an active Apps account, so I'm not logged in by default.
And lastly, I bet there's some really good ways to use this for research in linkbuilding - just haven't had a chance to experiment yet.
-Dan
I agree that it is useful for searchers. I think where I'm hung up is that it is Google's social product that they are basically forcing marketers to use now and it just seems so self-serving. I know that's how to stay alive in business but it just seems--for lack of a better word--uncool.
It is totally uncool but I not sure if we have a collective voice that can deter any of this. Industry insiders having been talking about the threat that social networks and especially Facebook has had on Google and connecting all of Googles vertical services in this way makes so much sense to them or should I say is another method for them to try and connect the dots across failing attempts.
But on the dark side I do not see it effecting as much were PPC campaigns are heavy. In one of my client key industry area there is no effect from this at all. Organic and PPC search areas are kept clean and at a minimal I estimate approx' £1M a month in targeted keywords across that industry, it is in Google's interest not to be disruptive without thorough testing.
And to be honest I will be in Google, Ireland soon asking some questions that protect the clients interest around PPC and Organic search. My hat as a community member has some serious fears about what goes on when I follow the data on a daily basis.
A fine line between Googles pocket and the interest of the searcher.
+1 for growing Rand beard!
I'm curious to see when more refined results evoke the "People and Pages" sidebar. It's one thing to have it come up for "SEO" or "music", but I think it'll be an even bigger deal when it comes for "used cars in sacramento" or "atlanta churches".
I suspect the reason that isn't happening yet is simply a lack of results to show. "Atlanta churches" would probably have very few relevant G+ pages to show, each with 1-5 people circling them. As those areas begin to use G+ more, I think the results showing the P&P sidebar will increase, thus encouraging more to join, and it'll be a whirlwind of growth.
Rand, I get the whys, I just don't like Google+ and can't get into it. It is something I have to work on I guess :-)
+1 to this. I was actually really excited about the future of social integrations right up until I saw the execution here. Matt Cutts posted a take showing a search for the word 'werewolf', that basically appeared to strip out all of the relevant 'search engine'-like results, to return basically the exact same thing that a Facebook search would have. What users will really find that to be an improvement?
Larry Page's Google on the whole is starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth, it seems to be straying from 'Google, the innovation leader' to 'Google the greedy'. It reeks of the mentality that almost killed Apple in the 90's, of there only being a place for one tech leader. This doesn't feel like an enhancement in searching the web as a whole (as G+ seemed like it certainly could have been at first), it feels much more like a proprietary search box on a social network site (especially following the ridiculously-growing AdWords/paid products space in the SERPs that Aaron Wall wrote on not too long ago).
I'm really keen to see how G+ gets uptake in the general community. I do work for some brands and own sites that have solid facebook followings that are made up of primarily women/mothers/parents etc, very few of whom I'm seeing in G+.
It's full of search geeks and marketers at the moment :).
So even if they push every user of google services into G+ many of these average Jones and Janes are gonna be asking the original question of why join?
I think it's incumbent of us as maketers to help answer that question for ourselves and our clients.
Great vid Rand.
Ed
I agree. Even working in Internet marketing, I don't know one single person who has kept up with their personal G+ page after originally signing up.
And while it will now be absolutely imperative as a search marketing tool, will G+ ever become a real social network? It will undoubtedly be important for businesses, but when it comes to personal use I care even less now. Facebook and Twitter started off with no ads and no businesses--a place where people could connect without constant solicitation in one way or another, and I think that model really worked.
So I think you're right, Ed. For regular people who have no interest in showing up in SERPs or optimizing their own presence online--why join?
Thanks for the video, though, Rand! It's a great one to share.
-Liz
There's a definite danger of G+ becoming an artificial network of content posted solely for SEO benefit by brand pages without much engagement by "real" users.
I think there's no need to worry if you look ahead.... Google(+) is making a good job, there's just some more time needed to reach- and get accepted by "normal internet users"... Especially the Google Services / Youtube integration (every new youtube user gets an automaticly generated google+ profile) will increase the number of google+ users. But for the moment you're right, like we can see in the sitemap there are hundred of millions inactive google users. Google has to find a way to "active" them :)
Rand,
CNN is reporting today that some antitrust experts believe Google has stepped over the line with SPYW.
The article quotes one leading antitrust attorney as saying that Google has greatly increased its risk of being found in violation of antitrust laws. The experts say that by excluding results from Twitter and Facebook or any other non-Google social media, Google will be seen to be abusing its dominant position in search. You can read more at this link:
https://money.cnn.com/2012/01/18/technology/google_search/
What do you think?
Kathryn
They arn't really excluding twitter and facebook though, are they? I still see a ton of facebook urls in the searches I make
Wow... Great info and excellent job explaining Google plus and how they are forcing its own success. I need to start taking advantage of this extremely powerful tool. Thanks for the getting me started and breaking it down so nicely.
Fantastic information Rand and great response time. Thanks for getting this out so quickly.
Google+ will stay as easy as ABC. The best idea so far in an online endeavors.
Nice insight into what you're seeing with Google +. It's been a big opportunities for local businesses as well.
Cheers thanks. Really good post. Makes me want to be even more proactive and persistent about Google+. My MD is convinced it's a waste of time.
Thanks for the excellent info, as always. When Google+ first came on the scene, we anticipated some future impact on SEO and search and now it's here. We agree that whatever users think of the network, as SEOs we can't afford to ignore it. (In fact, we just wrote a blog post on the topic this week called "Ignore Google+ at Your Peril")
This link is going in our Delicious search stack with all of the other good stuff now out there about GPYW.
Rand, I just wanted to thank you for this awesome post, especially the video! Very insightful. Wish I had come across this article before writing an article about why your business needs to be on Google+ https://zwaingowebsolutions.com/blog/why-your-business-needs-a-google-plus-page/
I would have just writting one line and linked to this :) Thanks again.
Although there are clear benefits from SEO point of view, I just think Google pushes Marketers to start communities for the wrong reasons - Not sharing and have a common interest with your audience, but just to benefit from SEO. Essentialy, that's a wrong starting point of a community.
Yes, over the last 6 months, I've really noticed more and more of my posts coming up on Google + in the rankings. I started to get back to google plus in June and then very active by end of Aug and it seems to be leading to better rankings on my site/more traffic, so it seems to be a win win.
The jury is still clearly out on Google+. It will be interesting to see if it will ever really gain social momentum. I feel like so many of the users are businesses, marketers, ect. So far it hasn't provided the social links that Facebook has, and it hasn't captured the celebrity population like twitter. Each has a reason for users to want to consistently check their profiles or feeds- is Google+ close to that yet? Sometimes it feels like marketers, marketing to other marketers. There is so much untapped potential, and I really wonder when that potential will be realized.
Google + is here well and truly... Looking forward to the next round of insight thanks Rand and the WBT team @ SEO Moz
Maybe I'm wrong, and that's I'd like to hear from you guys, but I've the sensation they are still playing around SPYW just because to me this appears to be part of the new Google unified policies schema.
What do you think about?
Great video, Rand. This seems to take social media to the next level of importance for both business and SEO. While the rate of change and increasing complexity can make your head spin it also provides incredible opportunities for businesses with an online presence and the consultants who support them.
Great post...very informative!
Awesome WB+ Rand!
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This whole thing makes me wonder. G have had the huge market share because they are a search engine and one that produces relevant results, certainly more relevant than it's competitors. I'm no fan of restricted choice in the way that they are pushing G+ but as a SEO i will jump on board because I have to. Someone else mentioned Apple earlier and G are heading that way with ensuring you have to use their products and I hate that attitude but those prejudices aside...
The SPYW results I've seen so far are damned annoying and are generally irrelevant to 90% of my searches as a human (rather than an seo). My feeling is if I'm using a search engine i am trying to find information,services or products that i am not generally aware of, when does what what my social circle say become relevant? I already know of that content, if i wanted to revisit that i would be on G+! So now I wonder if the relevancy of the search users experience gets worse will G lose some of that market share?
Obviously I'm talking long term here and its not like they will crash and burn but as a user (again not an SEO) the SPYW experince is a negative one, I guess won't be the only one to feel this way and if I'm honest i would consider looking for an alternative. Losing the drive for relevancy could be an error on the part of a Search Engine
For that reason I'm not convinced there wont be a U-turn at some point over how much of this integration remains after the initial aggressive period, as a user i would prefer none, as a SEO i have to be part of the problem.
Sometimes I hate being an SEO!
Good Video, we have rolled out numerous Google+ business pages for brands, but the thing is you need a strong content strategy and people to manage these profiles. It is all good throwing up a page yet if no strategy is behind it will go no where.
But yes I agree 100% if you do not have a Google+ business page in 2012 you have missed the boat.
Fascinating to watch this happen. Great post Rand. Do you anticipate Twitter and Facebook becoming more transparent with their content in order to be more competitive in the results?
Good WBF once again Rand.
Google obviously has a lot at stake with Google+. The fact they're ready (for the moment) to use some prime real estate revenue from their ads on the page shows they mean business.
Their goal is clearly to get companies and marketing folks to create and use Plus. I also would not be surprised to see them become less agressive in the SERP once they see the adoption curve they want.
Good info once again.
Martin
I think massive integration and centralization is not always a good thing. I can see why Google is doing this, but I think people who are not knee deep in the search world and have an appreciation for simplicity may have an averse reaction to this. This is clearly not a move to serve the customer. It's a move to serve Google. Furthermore, it seems like Google is merely imposing their will thru their vast resources.
From my perspective, it increases the workload to create popularity. Google will be weaker if their search becomes weaker. If they become a popularity/networking engine I think they are forgetting why people use search engines. But then agains they have all the data and they don't have to guess. I am sure their user info has helped them gleem a great deal about human behavior on the web.
For me, as a user, I can only hope a simple, cleanly designed, highly relevant alternative will present itself. That's what I like in a search engine. That's just me.
Since Google included Google+ data in Webmaster Tools, I have always felt that they would put a strong push behind Google+ and now we are starting to see it. Thanks for the clear explaination behind Google+ and the importance of including it as part of an interent marketing strategy.
+1 for this special 'WB+'
We see that the Google+ profiles are ranking above everything!! We all knew that personalized search results were going to happen and it seems that it is taking over the SERP. I completely agree that social metrics will be used to determine SPAM, relevancy and site quality.
"For god-sakes man, put it on Google+!!!"
Obviously it is not enough to have a G+ content strategy. Businesses and their spokespersons will need strategies for growing followers. Otherwise, no one will see your content in their personalized Search+ results.
More Google stuff to do. While it's great that we can get some easy gains potentially, it's yet another layer of "fill out your profile 100%" that clients will be getting weary of.
Hopefully, they will come out with some type of vanity url option soon to make it an easier sell to those who want to resist.
Great timing and an excellent video presentation Rand. I was explaining Search Plus Your World (not as well) to some colleagues today, both what it is & the significance this has on Search, Social & Inbound Marketing. This video will certainly help to do just that. Thank you :-)
You're right about thse personalized search not being fully implemented. The first few days I was getting the personalized search but not the toggle button to switch to the traditional search results.
I'm not getting the results on the right when logged in or out, but if it's happening in the US then it'll come over here soon so it's really great to get the heads up so we can begin to prepare some of our clients for it too.
At the moment our Facebook page is outranking my business' G+ page for our brand name and my SEOMoz profile is second to my actual website when you search for my name!
How long before our G+ profiles overtake more relevant content I don't know but long live the more relevant pages while they can!
This update makes my arrogant as a SEO thanks to Google :) but still Google is only popup for single Keyword rather then 2 to 3 keyword Phrase (in new right hand side Box)
Thanks Rand. Makes me want to be even more proactive and persistent about Google+. My MD is convinced it's a waste of time.
But if Google encourage people to search logged in (to get personal results), will we have more visits with 'not provided' keyword, right?
I can't see how that cannot be the case, yes.
but now i think it is use less in 2015
Last I looked, it's only 2014. We ask that you refrain from comment spamming and thumb manipulation in the forums.
YES, it would have to be
Firstly great presentation and videos as always Rand! The example of Cadburys utilising Google+ as a key element in the launch strategy for it's latest chocolate bar here in the UK shows brands are moving rapidly to fully embrace the new social platform. The benefits of utilising Google+ are now undeniable and any brand not utilising it is missing key opportunities. With the update to the algo, Google is announcing loudly Google+ is here to stay.
SPYW? What a revolution! The profile-networking aspect of it is particularly valuable for businesses. It will be worth testing it out for some period to really see how consistently effective it can be for SERP's.
Good White Board. I watched this video about 3 hour's ago and just got back to it. Time flies when your having fun. Anyway, as usual this is another great topic posted on SEOmoz. I have done some testing myself and found that the social search does not produce the desired results that I require when searching. The option of turning it on or off is really nice, but I recently wrote an article about how it could effect the Google "no provided" aspect of the search's. This is like the same thing accept you can shut it on and off very easily like a toggle switch instead of having to be logged out, or when using another browser not logged in. Curious to whether the data is recorded when the switch is on vs. off... I will continue testing and implementing change's as deemed necessary. My view at this time, still cloudy water; will just have to keep a close eye on it.
Rand it seems like that your Prediction #8: Google Will Make it Very Hard to Do Great SEO Without Using Google+ will comes true.Google+ is actually a wonderful product by Google but the reason it is far behind than Facebook is just the user are lazy to adopt a new thing but this time it seems like Google is all set to use the power of monopoly.
Well all I want to say is just It makes no sense to claim that the rankings and visibility is not affected, however, most search results – particularly for niche terms – largely unaffected. As Google will gets more into social factors and customization(Personalisation). Local search can become a mess, especially with the predominance of maps and other items that are already part above the organic results.
Only time will tell what the scope of these changes will, but certainly should not look to give up on yet. Just make sure you have a one button on each page of your site and maybe try to develop or create a profile of Google Plus (business and personal) to begin the commercialization which really matters the most.
This is not the last update that Google makes to its search results pages this year and I really don’t think so that this will be the biggest one. However, we may be edging towards a situation where they are likely to go all in with an integrated model for Social search. It really a good attempt to boost G+ popularity but still it all depend upon the peoples that how much they are comfortable with the privacy features or are they having a good useful result while personalization.
Well I wish Good Luck to Google but if they will fall flat it will be a bigger day for Bing first than for Google.
Sorry If I been little irrelevant but apart of it this post is simply fabulous Rand.
Ok, so now Google is actively forcing marketers to use Google+ as a must use social platform for sharing content and other brand related shareable things so that more and more people +1 the content and it appear higher in search results (logged in users) and ideally appear in News section for some very broad keywords like the few mentioned in the Post by Rand.
That’s not new that Google technically is forcing you to use the internet as they want! (In a way…). I do understand that this is un-cool to force someone to use something when he actually don’t want it… but this is what the current scenario is and in order to stay ahead and cater more and more eye balls one need to have a strong Google+ support.
Great Special White board Plus!
Greetings Champions!
As you said being in certain circles could make one more relevant for broad terms such as SEO, would this mean that one is to "cull" their social circles to make sure they give off the image they want? Or will the same results be achieved regardless of the circle population?
Justin Smith
I would love to know the answer to that question as well...
Great question Justin - it's really hard to know at this point how and whether Google will use signals like who's in your circles, what you call them, what you share/+1/comment on, etc.
For now, I'd say participating authentically, sharing the content you create and encircling others, commenting, etc. is all useful. With time, we'll likely start to see what affects what and how, but right now, it's just too early (and I think the network isn't at a scale where Google "search" can use all the Google+ signals in the right ways).
I personally don't like this feature. I have to log in to my gmail acccount first to see this feature. I understand it but I like to see things from the real world. I feel when I long it, google is looking at everything I do - way too much info trade. Just my opinion!