Could Google Plus be the future of SEO?

[The Buzz]

As Google's Hummingbird update places more weight on social signals for search rankings, Google Plus could become more important for marketers looking to boost SEO.

Read more from Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/article...-Future-of-SEO

[PROFRBcom]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't I reading just a month or three ago that Google pretty much abandoned G+ insofar as rankings and SEO is concerned due to lack of adoption rates?

[RacingJim]

I definitely don't think it is the future!

[Notspot]

...and isn't Hummingbird about context and language rather than off the page external factors?

[TheGooner]

As Google's Hummingbird update places more weight on social signals for search rankings,

As these "Social signals" are gamed by cheap places on FFiver offering 1000 irrelevant likes or links from fake users for $5 I would have expected social network signals to be depreciated rather than becoming more significant.

Using raw numbers of likes is an awful metric now.

[sampendleton]

Isn't Facebook and Twitter are the ones who are most likely to give social signal than Google+?!
Just saying...

[muffincrumbs]

Used to have some weight. Believe me I know! But those days are long gone.

Now it is just a day late and a dollar short...

Nowadays the type of social signals I think are measured is consistency, unless something goes viral, which in our industry is near impossible.

[sweetbet]

It probably carried some weight in its early days, but now, I don't see it playing any significant role in rankings.

[PROFRBcom]

Meh, I still wouldn't mind having 5+ likes and +1s on all of our posts. I tend to make sure we get at least 3 on every single one of them, but I would prefer more. Our rankings have been steadily improving, but then again, it could be many other factors at play, though I think there is some positive effect. Hard to know exactly what the root causes are, but I can't see it hurting or being a waste of time to get a few likes and +1s for posts you want to rank better.

I wouldn't mind befriending an affiliate or two who isn't a direct competitor, and exchanging constant +1s and likes for all of our posts

[edgarf76]

The SEO value google plus holds is consistant with the people in your circle or following you. If they search on google something that your wrote about, it may come up in the SERPS, other than that, it is, and should be used, as a regular social network. My two cents.

[TheGooner]

I wouldn't mind befriending an affiliate or two who isn't a direct competitor, and exchanging constant +1s and likes for all of our posts

And here ... in this one sentence ... from a quality affiliate is why +1's need to be ignored as a metric by Google and other SEs!


Not picking on you mate, but you can believe that most of the bad spam that is listed high in the serps has gone down this path ... multiplied by 1000's ... using third-world sweat workers clicking away to order.

[Sherlock]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't I reading just a month or three ago that Google pretty much abandoned G+ insofar as rankings and SEO is concerned due to lack of adoption rates?

Yes. Google+ is not a valid signal. Because not many people really use it. I think socialsignals are very strong, but social signal is not Facebook like button being pushed or G+ button being pushed (by robot or real person), but social signal is real people coming from any social link. And since not many ppl use G+ to share things compared to Facebook or Twitter, it can only imply that G+ is dead as social signal.

Even Google is not that crazy that he would rank sites higher only because they wish G+ to be in place of Facebook. Google can not gain anything from it. They want real signals for their search engine and the real signals I believe they do not care if come from their own websites or apps or from 3rd parties.

[Sherlock]

Meh, I still wouldn't mind having 5+ likes and +1s on all of our posts. I tend to make sure we get at least 3 on every single one of them, but I would prefer more. Our rankings have been steadily improving, but then again, it could be many other factors at play, though I think there is some positive effect. Hard to know exactly what the root causes are, but I can't see it hurting or being a waste of time to get a few likes and +1s for posts you want to rank better.

I wouldn't mind befriending an affiliate or two who isn't a direct competitor, and exchanging constant +1s and likes for all of our posts

I do not believe Google bots even look at total numbers of social shares, tbh. I think the only reason, and that reason is strong, why to buy or get some social shares from robots or peoplewho exchange, is to start snowball effect or add fake legitimity to any site. Yes, people are sheeps and thus fake likes can produce some real likes. But no other reason IMO to bother with it.

[TravG]

Keeping a Google+ page that gets updated with relevant information isn't a bad thing. Its not very powerful but I personally think having a Google+ page for your website and updating it from time to time with relevant posts does help. For all the more time it takes to maintain it I think it is time well spent.

[happyasia]

[QUOTE=The Buzz;770305]As Google's Hummingbird update places more weight on social signals for search rankings, Google Plus could become more important for marketers looking to boost SEO.


I'm 99% sure it works for Google search! Started a G-plus account a week ago and getting ranked for the content I published from the blog, to the g-Plus account, using our domain name for the search.
It's all in Thia, but it's getting picked up with in 24 hours.

Would like to play around with this a little bit, to try different key words to see it works.

Good luck.

Bob

[happyasia]

[QUOTE=happyasia;771278]

As Google's Hummingbird update places more weight on social signals for search rankings, Google Plus could become more important for marketers looking to boost SEO.


I'm 99% sure it works for Google search! Started a G-plus account a week ago and getting ranked for the content I published from the blog, to the g-Plus account, using our domain name for the search.
It's all in Thia, but it's getting picked up with in 24 hours.

Would like to play around with this a little bit, to try different key words to see it works.

Good luck.

Bob

Quick Follow up, I'm now going to go after the long tail keyword "G-Club Slot Machines" I'll see how it does over a week.
I'm linking my blog content with G-Club Slots as the key word to (Google+) to see if it works.

[DanHorvat]

The purpose of social media is to share content among friends. You do well if your content is shared and interacted with, but the benefit in terms of SEO starts when people start interacting with your site, not with the social media post.

After all, when you post on Facebook you are leaving a comment on someone else's site (Zuckerberg's). If anything, you're making Facebook more popular, and not your own site.

One of these days people are going to realize Zuckerjerk didn't do much for the world except allowing mankind to share ridiculous amount of content such as pics of kittens, puppies and hamsters. Awwwww.

That doesn't have anything to do with our industry, as muffincrumbs points out. Our content doesn't go viral.

I don't think Google are counting on Plus to beat FB and Twitter. They just want to be present in the social media game and have a nice addition to some Google services.

BTW, the article Buzz linked to is about one blogger quoting another blogger slash advertiser. Just saying. "Social signals have replaced links in importance for SEO" (Merry Morud) is a ridiculous sentence.

I'd be more concerned with Google Speak, as spoken search queries will radically change the way in which Google is used. Hummingbird is all about trying to understand the context of the query and not only looking at individual words like so far. So if you want to do well, you got to adapt to that mindset.

[universal4]

One of these days people are going to realize Zuckerjerk didn't do much for the world except allowing mankind to share ridiculous amount of content such as pics of kittens, puppies and hamsters. Awwwww.

I hear that Dan secretly likes looking at pictures of kittens and puppies.......awwwww.

I have to agree Dan, that is an interesting theory about learning to adapt to the spoken search.

Rick
Universal4

[-Shay-]

I'd be more concerned with Google Speak, as spoken search queries will radically change the way in which Google is used. Hummingbird is all about trying to understand the context of the query and not only looking at individual words like so far. So if you want to do well, you got to adapt to that mindset.

I believe this as well and it makes me happy when I am (often) accused of speaking exactly how I write or writing exactly the way I speak.

[TomPregon]

IMO I think it is not. You can (if you wanted to) create several Google accounts and plus your own content up, so I think Google would not have you make use of it. On the other hand, if you have thousands of real Google plus followers, and you do a new post on Google plus, all of your followers would see this as a result. You've got to get the real followers first. I think that this Google plus thing has flawed as much for Google as that it does for us.