Allan Todd's Blog on Internet Marketing Strategy & SEO Tips for Business Owners in Colorado and Nationwide - 2011

Since its official launch in July 2011, the Google +1 button has created significant buzz in the Internet marketing and search engine/social media marketing circles. But should business website owners care about Google +1? The short answer is "yes" if you depend on business and traffic to your website from Google search. You will need to incorporate the Google +1 button on your website.

What is Google +1?

Google +1 is a way for people to put their stamp of approval on a website. But is it a social network? Is it an enhancement to Google search? Why is it important for your business? How will it help your website increase traffic and improve results? What do you need to do to add Google +1 to your arsenal of existing Internet and SEO marketing tactics? This article explores and offers my response to all these questions.

Google +1, pronounced "Plus One" is a button that is displayed in the Google search results at google.com. You have to be signed into your Google account to see the +1 button. The button is displayed next to the websites listing in the search results. See screen image below.

Note: the Google +1 button is different than the newly announced Google+ social network. I will be writing about Google+ soon.

The +1 button is very similar to the Facebook "Like" button in that the +1 button lets you recommend websites and share your recommendations with your friends. According to Google, the +1 button is shorthand for "this is pretty cool" or "you should check this out." While the "+1button" and the "Like" have a similar purpose, the +1 button is integrated directly into the world’s most popular search engine. Your web customers see the +1 button in the search results, right where they are making decisions about what to click.

To click on the Google +1 button you must be logged in to your Google account. Your Google account has a profile which is public and everyone can view, not just friends or friends of friends.

Is it a New Social Network?

So is the +1 button a Social Network? My answer to this is Yes and No, and I lean more toward the No side of the answer. There is currently (i.e. 2011) only one important social network in terms of friends recommending stuff to friends and that is Facebook. People do not have "Google Friends" like they do in Facebook. Rather, in Google your "friends" are you contacts in gmail, your Google Buzz friends and other Google relationships. These are not really friends in the same sense as Facebook.

Google +1 is nothing close to Facebook in terms of social interaction. However, I do see Google +1 as social from a "pubic review" perspective, similar to the very popular Amazon customer reviews. Millions of people use - and trust - the product reviews on Amazon, and most people don't care who the reviewers are as long as the reviews are well written and provide valuable information.

So in the same way Amazon reviews have become very important to people selling products, Google +1 "votes" could become a powerful public trust booster to website owners.

Why should you care?

So why should website owners care about Google +1? Well as I just mentioned it could be a way to improve your public trust factor, the more votes the more trustworthy you website.

Here is a really good reason for web business owner to care about Google +1. Because it's a really big Google project, so website owners dependent on traffic from Google must give +1 the respect it deserves. Google envisions +1 being used by millions of web surfers, and probably not just peopled logged into their Google accounts.

Google guru Matt Cutts says that "assuming people use +1, the social data is very likely to be the key ingredient to the future of Google Search."

As a professional SEO consultant, I'm wondering if Google will associate +1 clicks with the search keywords. I will keep an eye out for this and let you know if it happens.

Enough said, website owners must take action to incorporate the Google +1 button.

What's required to use Google +1?

Similar to the "like/vote" buttons offered by Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and dozens of other recommendation type sites, you can add a Google +1 button to your website. Website owners will need to do this, and the sooner the better.

To place the Google +1 button on your website you do not need to have a Google public profile. This differs from Facebook where you need to have a Facebook Page or similar presence in order to have a Like button.

To actually click on the Google +1 button you do need to have a Google public profile. Your profile is by default visible to everyone who has a Google profile, meaning people can see who recommended a particular page or website using the +1 button. So this means you have to be careful on what websites you click the +1 button as it becomes visible to potentially all the world, not just your Friends as in Facebook. You can choose not to have your +1 clicks displayed publicly on your Google Profile, but by default they are public.

When a user clicks on the +1 button the vote applies to the URL of the page they’re on. So clicks on your home page +1 button are different that a click on a +1 on a blog article.

How will the +1 Button help your web business?

The official Google line right now is that the number of +1 button clicks your website recieves will not affect Google rankings, however Google has stated they are "very interested"in incorporating the +1 button in search results at some time.

My opinion is that in the very near future the number of +1 votes for your content will influence the search ranking of your website home page and content. Higher rankings typically mean more traffic, so the +1 button could eventually increase the traffic to your website.

In addition, searchers may be more inclined to click on your website in the Google search results page if you have a high number of +1 votes. Think back to Amazon, when you are shopping don't you typically click on products with a large number of reviews and higher number of stars? The same effect could happen with +1. Google is betting on this, so you need to make sure your in the game.

What should website owners do now?

Simple, add the Google +1 button to your website. It's very easy to add a +1 button to your website, Google provides a snippet of code that you simply place on your site and voila the Google +1 button appears.

If you have a Joomla or Wordpress website, there are already several extensions available for incorporating Google +1 on your website.

If you've got some free time and you have a gmail or other Google account, then create your Google Public Profile. You can add the typical "social" info about yourself such as personal description, education, employment, photos, etc. Once you have the profile ready for pubic consumption, you can log into your Google account and start clicking on +1 buttons in the Google search results and websites displaying the +1 button.

Resources

Google Official +1 Page