With the launch of Hummingbird and the whole "revolution" in SEO, Google + is the trendy word that shows very often on the web. The trend nowadays is to glorify the social network from Google+ as the "key", the ultimate tool for your SEO. Apparently if you get your Google+ account and work on it , you will enter the highway to high ranking, like Google + is where the magic happens. So let's see if Google + is as powerful as everybody seems to think, and if yes how to benefit from this tool.
I will start with something very general that is more a hindsight than a real discovery: Google+ is linked to Google... As a branch of the search engine leader, the social actions happening on Google + will have an impact your ranking. As the new algorithm of Google is focusing on content and social interactions instead of links, we can bet that the popularity of your page on this network will help your business.
Furthermore, with the new display of the search result page, your Google+ page will show directly on top right of the screen. Let's take the example of my page:
Google + gives visibility to your page. The fact that it shows on top first page is a good motivation to create a Google+ page. Then last but not least, Google + page is directly managed under android OS systems for smartphone, the first OS in the world. As for today, most of the online traffic comes from mobile devices, and the majority of those devices runs on Android OS... That proves the point. Google + is getting bigger ...
So Google+ helps the visibility and helps traffic coming from mobile devices. But is it the magic tool we all hope for to send our website on first page of Google in a matter of hours ? The answer is no.
First of all, Google + doesn't have an audience big enough to be the corner stone of your strategy. The social network of Google claims 250 million users, when Facebook has over a billion. It means that with your Facebook page you can virtually engage 4 times the audience you could find on Google +.
Second on the list : The short terms effects. The announcement of Hummingbird and its links to social media created an increase of sign ups for Google +, kind of a panic effect.
Matt Cutts himself said at the Pubcon in Las Vegas last month that the social signals won't have any short term impact on your performance, or in other words, it won't affect your ranking in the short term (it is around 18:00 on the video). And let's not forget that for the moment, we don't have any data, any facts to prove the effects of Google+ pages on your ranking more than any other social media.
So at the end of the day, what is happening? Google + may be growing, it is still relatively small and it will not save your SEO right away. A good website with keywords, content linked to a blog and to social media ( including Google+) is still the best way to get your SEO right.
Because it may not be a magic tool, but a tool is a tool and it is always good to use all the tool at your disposal.
And don't forget that It is a Google product, the same Google that makes the rankings, and it is linked to other Google products such as Blogger, Google Search, Google places, Google map, Android, YouTube All these other sites and product are good for your ranking and the fact that they are really strong on mobile devices is a big plus.
So to summarize, a good tool in your social media and SEO toolbox, but not THE ultimate tool. So create and animate your Google + page, share content, make sure that all your sites and social media are linked and you can go smoothly from one to another, and take it EZ.
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