Since the launch of the Google +1 button, many SEO’s and business owners have had the question, will the Google +1 button have any effect on my SE rankings? In order to best investigate that question, it is important to look at the idea behind the +1 button.
Failed Attempts
Google has had many failed attempts at getting involved in the social media scene (Google Lively, Google Friend Connect, Google Wave, and Google Buzz, to name a few). Each time Google released a social media platform, it failed to appeal to the majority of internet users, while things like Facebook and Twitter powered on, gaining more and more popularity.
However, Google seems to be in the game with the new +1 button. As of July, Google +1 is the second most used website plugin to the Facebook “like” button, even over twitter!
What is Google +1?
Very similar to Facebook’s “Like” button, Google +1 allows users to make a kind of “vote” for a website, alerting other users that they liked the website. It is very easy to add the +1 button to a site, simply visit Google here for directions on how to install the button.
While similar to a “like” button, the +1 button has many differences to a Facebook like that website owners need to be aware of.
Effects on SERPs
First, when you click the +1 button on a website, your vote data is shared with people on your Gmail or Google Talk contact lists. This means that when one of your contacts who has had data shared searches for a keyword where you have voted for a page, that page may show up higher on their search results as a kind of recommended site.
Your own search results will be personalized as a result of clicking +1 on a website. Google has also indicated that the +1 votes may indirectly affect Quality Score rankings for PPC campaigns in the near future. This means that having the +1 button on a landing page for PPC ads will be a must.
For now, anybody you are not connected to through Gmail or Gtalk will not be affected by your votes, other than them being able to see the aggregate number of +1 votes on a site. But this may change in the future.
It has become clear that Google is very interested in using social data to help them improve their search results. Since this data is sent directly to Google, it stands to reason that a site with more +1 votes will, over time, rank higher in the SERPs than a site with no +1 votes.
Please leave comments below, and let us know if your rankings have been affected at all yet by the +1 button.
