How do Google+ Social Signals Affect a Website’s Ranking?

How do Google+ Social Signals Affect a Website’s Ranking?

June 2011 marks a new trend that has changed completely  the social network and the SEO landscape. This was the month when the most popular search engine launched its own social media platform – Google+.

SEO experts knew from the very beginning that Google+ will have its effect over the website optimization process. Although Google+ is yet to demonstrate its full potential, the social network has introduced some very important changes that are here to stay.

Google+ and Social Signals

Google has made some very ambiguous statements about the manner in which social media marketing is connected to search engine optimization. Still, observations and some new trends establish a clear connection between the two techniques.

Social signals are one of the important factors that webmasters have started tracking. The social signal is used to determine the manner in which an audience is engaged in a social media marketing campaign.

The most important Google+ social signal is the +1s that a page or a piece of content receives. Although +1s are very important for marketing purposes, they are also beginning to affect the search engine positioning of a piece of content.

Personalization

Google+ is much more than a social network and the manner in which search results are getting transformed demonstrates its importance for search engine marketing.

Google is moving towards personalization of the search results. The goal is mainly achieved through membership in Google+, expansion of one’s network and provision of +1 to pieces of content that are considered useful, intriguing or unique.

A person that is a member of Google+ will see specific items when searching for a particular keyword. If someone in that person’s network has given a +1 to a relevant page, the page will appear among the top search engine results. The +1 can be considered a recommendation that one person gives.

In January 2012, Google blogged about its development of “Search, plus Your World” which was the beginning of what is known as Google’s social search. This means that the Google search engine will not only be able to understand content, but also people and relationships. Three of these features are currently being implemented, and you probably might have noticed some of these changes already:

• Personal Results: enables you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page
• Profiles in Search: enables you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following
• People and Pages: helps you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks

Google’s “Search, plus Your World” simply becomes better with your world in it, and that’s only the beginning.

This is a major change in the world of search engine optimization. Until recently, webmasters had to think solely of the search engine algorithm. Now, Google has added human involvement to the formula. Personalization means that achieving long-lasting and sustainable optimization results will be heavily dependent on social networking efforts.

Local SEO

Apart from personalization, Google has introduced another major concept to the search engine scene. Local optimization is becoming a technique of key importance for the success of a website.

Google+ is involved in the geo-targeting of search results. Companies are given a chance to create their local pages. A Google+ local page will appear among the top search engine results for a particular service/product in a specific place.

The local pages are seeing integration in numerous Google products including the search, Google Mobile and Google Maps. All of these come with tremendous traffic generation potential.

Social signals, especially the ones connected to Google+ are gaining more and more importance. Google has implemented some highly ambitious changes that will make optimization more challenging. The results, however, will make all of the efforts worth it.

Do you think Google’s doing it right for social search, or are they just interfering with our private lives?