I don’t know about you but every where I go online, I can’t stop running in to a story about Google +1 and what’s it going to do for people doing business on the net.
If you haven’t heard anything about it yet then I’ll give you a quick synopsis. Ahem. .
Google has been trying for years to break into the social media space of the web but has generally failed to make any real impact. This goes back to 2004 with the creation of the Orkut social network (who? yep, exactly) and purchase of Picasa (photo sharing site) up to the Google Buzz privacy fiasco and now +1.
Plus 1 is a clear attempt to get in on the goodness that Facebook almost unilaterally enjoys in that their “Like” button has been plastered all across the net (allowing them unprecedented access to your behavior patterns. . .). Especially as Facebook’s Open Graph markup starts to build up steam. Google wants in so that it can give that data to their advertisers and not lose their dominant position in the market.
So what does this mean to you. Well, in a nutshell – visibility. 2010 saw the confirmation that social signals are becoming an increasingly important ranking factor on the search engine although many of us have seen correlations for years! If you have avoided social media up to this point, you may want to consider jumping in now.
There are many more aspects as to why Google +1 will be important for you, in addition to Facebook Likes and Tweets, but I defer explanation to those who write much better than me. Here are a few sources that break down the importance of adding +1 to the mix:
Huffington Post
Google has made its latest foray into social media with the launch of its +1 button, a tool that the search giant hopes will accomplish two feats: make Google a legitimate player in the social space while helping return more relevant search results to …
Web Pro News
Google +1 Button: 31 Things You Should Know
- The +1 button will influence search rankings. Here is the exact quote from Google’s David Byttow, from when the feature was first announced: “We’ll also start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals we use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, including social signals from other services. For +1′s, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality over time.”
- When a user searches, while signed in, their search result snippets may be annotated with the names of their connections who have “+1′d” the page. When none of the user’s connections have +1′d a page, the snippet may display the aggregate number of +1′s the page has received.
- Google says publishers could see “more, and better qualified traffic coming from Google” as potential visitors see recommendations from friends and contacts beneath their search results
Click here for the remaining 28 reasons
What is Google Plus One?
www.eversparkinteractive.com Jason Hennessey of Everspark Interactive details the new Google feature Google Plus One.
Using Google+1 On Your Website
If you want to position yourself ahead of the curve, no matter if this latest effort from the Goog is successful or note, here are a couple of places you can get the button.
For wordpress sites, here is the button I use for now.
For any other site, you can go to Google directly and get the button code you need – Click here.
I hope this was helpful for you. The moral of the story is that every interaction online is becoming more social which means you should too!
Alright, let me know your thought. Will +1 be a hit or a miss? Do you plan on using it in your marketing at all? What do you think about the increasingly socialization of the web?
Tags: google, plus one, social media
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