Google has recently announced a new social button called “+1” (plus one). Facebook already uses this social imprint, it is referred to as the “like button”. Google’s new +1 button will allow users to share the websites and advertisements in search results that they enjoy. A Google profile is required but users will have the ability to share amongst there social friends and the public.
This feature could have a major impact on search engine ranking positions and SMM (Social Media Marketing).
Here are some things I believe it will have impact on:
+1 Paid Advertisements on Google Adwords – A high +1 score will increase the CTR (Click Through Rate.) If a paid ad is given +1 by someone in there social network the user would be more likely to click this add. Thus increasing the CTR and yielding a higher ROI for the advertiser.
SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions) – Google always aims to provided users with the search results they are looking for. A high +1 score indicates that users are satisfied with the information they found in the search results. Hence, its is likely that Google will factor the +1 score into their ranking algorithm.
Index Rate – Google already mines data from social media sites (twitter,facebook, etc) for popular and trending topics. The more popular a topic/site is, the more frequent Google will crawl and index the information. Thus we can expect +1 to effect crawl rates and the depth of pages indexed. Social media imprint will be a key factor in future Search Engine Ranking Positions.
In the future I hope to post some test results from +1 and its effect on Search Engine Optimization. I may even request some help for testing so we can measure the results together.