'Net Features : google +1 button

+1 Button Moves to Ads

Michael Garrity — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:00:00 GMT

We're going to be hearing a lot about social networks in the coming days with Google+ finally opening up to the public and Facebook making several big changes, and this post is no exception.

Coinciding with the public opening of Google+ is a new feature on all display ads that will be served through the Google Display Network, which currently holds about 15 percent of the online ad network marketing share. Starting in early October, all of these advertisements will come with a +1 button attached to them, allowing users to recommend the ads to their friends on Google+. Google has already been using this button so that Plussers can recommend content, search results and websites.

Google will start taking these recommendations into account when they are serving ads, so if a user takes the time to endorse a particular advertisement, that ad will have a much better chance of showing up on Web pages (served by the Google Display Network) that their friends visit, as well.

According to Google, "The Google Display Network gives ads that have been recommended an extra boost by including them in the auction for any page a friend visits."

All in all, this should be very useful for advertisers, as users are probably going to be less likely to ignore ads that have been recommended by their friends, which puts more of an actual social spin on the social media side of advertising.

This is all part of an attempt by Google to "extend the +1 buttons as broadly as possible," which is something that only Google can really do, since no other advertising networks have any kind of social networking outlet near what Google has accomplished with Google+. There is even talk that they are looking to make the button available to ads outside of the Google Display Network.

Of course, it's beneficial for Google, too, as it can now collect data about the effectiveness of these ads, even if it doesn't get money from the advertisers. Eventually, this will probably lead to improved relevance and clickthrough rates for the ads that are sold.

Google+ Starts Sharing

Michael Garrity — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Google added a new, very extensive feature to its popular +1 button on Wednesday, allowing users to share links to the Web pages they like with their Google+ circles by simply clicking the button.

Now, when a Google+ user decides that they like some online content enough to give it their +1 seal of approval, a box will open up on their screen for adding a comment that other users can see. In addition, it lets the user customize the piece of text (aka a "+Snippet") and image(s) that will show up in his or her stream.

The user also has the option of including in-line annotations, like with the Facebook "Like" button, so that the names and faces of Google+ friends who have affirmed the worthiness of the content in question with their trusty +1 buttons will be available to the rest of the original user's circles.

The +Snippet is a nifty feature that bestows upon your feed all of the information that you could want to share, including a link, image and description of the content, which makes sharing on Google+ really easy and really customizable. This allows a Plus user to surf the Web freely and, when he or she comes across favorable content that they want others in their circles to see, he or she can quickly and efficiently post a short review, include an image and link back to the content without ever having to enter G+. This mimics a Facebook user's current ability to share links on their profile, with the added bonus of not requiring users to go to their profile.

Factor in the information just recently released on Google's blog, that their +1 button is linked to over one million sites that get viewed more than 4 billion times a day, and the potential for the +1 button as a marketing tool becomes even more pronounced.

Does this mean that the +1 button is now becoming the more sought after click by those who provide content online? After all, if a user can easily share something without ever even leaving the original Web page, won't they be more likely to use that service over the one that requires a brief jaunt all the way to their profile?

If Google+ continues to roll out these types of features -- you know, the type that make you go, "Why didn't anyone think of that before?" -- they're going to start to win over more and more people. It seems obvious that Facebook will soon offer some type of similar feature to keep up, as well, so this is really a win-win situation for people who operate online. Now, having your business or brand shared and discussed will become quicker and simpler, greatly increasing the likelihood that online social network users will rant and rave about your great brand or content to their friends or circles.

Google +1 Added to Conductor's SEO Management Platform

Michael Garrity — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT

While the world of search engine optimization (SEO) is ever-changing, Google's creation of the +1 button to go along with their new social networking site, Google+, has helped to reinvent the game once again.

Ever since the launch of the +1 button to rival Facebook's "Like" feature and Twitter's retweet option, many in the Web and SEO industries have been curious as to how that button will play into search engine results, especially because we don't really know exactly how relevant other social networking icons are in search algorithms.

But, according to SEO management company Conductor, the +1 button does have an impact on search results, which should surprise no one. This has led the them begin including the metrics of the +1 button into their Searchlight SEO platform and running analytics on them to help brands better understand when Google uses these social signals to rank websites.

Conductor will also be including data from clicks on the LinkedIn "Share" button into the platform.

Over the past couple of months, Conductor has researched the role that social signals play in search engine results and found that the top five companies or brands that show up in Google's organic search typically have about 3 times as many Google +'s on their pages, and about twice as many Facebook Likes, as the companies ranking 6-10. In addition, the reports indicate that approximately 90 percent of the time, the top ranking search results had more Google +'s and Facebook Likes than the results ranking from 6 and below.

According to Conductor CEO Seth Besmertnik, Searchlight organizes the information garnered from across tens of thousands of URLs and then uses that to discover which keywords help with Google +1 and which do not.

Within seconds of a Facebook Like, Google +1 or LinkedIn Share, Searchlight customers should be able to view, analyze and report on social signals for their own domain and a competitors, as well as seeing who the highest performing brands for any particular keyword or phrase are.

In all likelihood, social signal interaction is going to play a huge part in SEO management and analysis for years to come, so good on Conductor for jumping right in there and figuring out a way turn that data into something definite that can be analyzed. It seems pretty clear that this is going to be the next big thing in search engine optimization.

Google +1 Reporting with Webmaster Tools

Linc Wonham — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Last week was a busy one for Google, and summer vacationing Webmasters may have missed the global release of +1 buttons to Google search sites, as well as the introduction of the Google+ project.

Both are key elements to Google’s social networking initiative, designed to compete directly with Facebook by making it easier for users to connect with friends and colleagues online. The +1 button aims to bring recommendations from friends and trusted contacts into actual Google searches – potentially giving it similar weight for marketers as the Facebook Like button.

Google may make up for being late to the party by providing the kinds of analytics that marketers have been yearning for in the social space. Late last week, the company released a number of reports within Google Webmaster Tools that will show website owners the actual value that +1 buttons are bringing to their sites.

The +1 metrics in Google Webmaster Tools will show how the button affects traffic in the following ways:

•    The Search Impact report gives an idea of how +1’s affect organic search traffic. Webmasters can find out if clickthrough rates change when personalized recommendations help their content stand out. You can do this by comparing clicks and impressions on search results with and without +1 annotations. Google will only show statistics on clickthrough rate changes when there are enough impressions for a meaningful comparison.

•    The Activity report shows how many times pages have been +1’d, from buttons both on your own site and on other pages (such as Google search).

•    The Audience report shows aggregate geographic and demographic information about the Google users who’ve +1’d your pages. To protect privacy, Google will only show audience information when a significant number of users have +1’d pages from your site.

The +1 Metrics menu on the side of the page can be used to view reports. Sites that have not yet been verified on Google Webmaster Tools can get access here.

Site owners can also see how users share content using other buttons besides +1 by using Social Plugin Tracking in Google Analytics. Once the JavaScript for Analytics has been configured, the social engagement reports help to compare various types of sharing actions such as the following:

•    The Social Engagement report shows how site behavior changes for visits that include clicks on +1 buttons or other social actions. This allows site owners to determine whether people who +1 their pages during a visit are likely to spend more time on their sites than people who don’t.

•    The Social Actions report tracks the number of social actions (+1 clicks, Tweets, etc) taken on a site, all in one place.

•    The Social Pages report compares the pages on a site to see which are driving the highest the number of social actions.
When adding +1 buttons to a site, Google will automatically enable Social Plugin Tracking for +1. Site owners can enable tracking for other social plugins in a few steps.

What to Know About Google +1 for Web Professionals

Mike Phillips — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:20:00 GMT

Another change is taking place with Google's search rankings, on the heels of Google's Farmer Update. This one, +1, is all about the intersection of social and search.

From the official Google blog: "Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages."

Social in search is nothing new to Google results. For a while now, we've all seen Twitter updates in Google's SERPs, for example. But +1 marks a whole new era. In short, by clicking a button next to search results users can recommend a result to everyone in their social graph, via Google profiles (see image below). This provides a citation from a "friend" -- and the new inbound link for SEO. So, whenever a user searches in Google, results voted up by members of that user's social graph will be profiled in the results.

Whether this is an admission of Facebook fear from Google or simply a natural evolution of search in an increasingly social Web, this has big implications for Web professionals.

What it Means to You

So what does this mean to the Web professional? The easiest and most appropriate answer is ... we're not sure. This appears to be a significant change to Google -- one of the most important companies on the planet that doesn't take change lightly. You can be sure that plenty of fail-safe's are in place and a kill switch is within reach. It's simply much too early to know how (or how much) this will change search, much less tried-and-true SEO practices. But, there are some things we can do to prepare for any such changes.

If you don't yet have a Google profile set up and optimized with your company information and pertinent links and Web pages, do so. Right now.

You can then check your current connections in the "Social Circle and Content" section of the Google Dashboard. This is who you currently might influence in search results, and who might influence your results. It should go without saying that expanding your Google social circle is an immediate priority for Web businesses. The more people in your circle, the more you can influence search results for them.

If you have an email newsletter and/or an email subscriber list, import the data. Look for those individuals with gmail accounts and start adding them to your Google social graph.

There's also a little Google property known as YouTube. Video is already indexed and prominently displayed in search results. Expect even more, now. That means not only creating and uploading video to YouTube, but branding your company's YouTube channel and making social connections through YouTube.com, in channel subscribers and friends.

Google is also offering +1 buttons for website owners to embed in their own sites. Users can then "like" the page and it should, therefore, become a more prominent page in search results. The +1 button can be obtained at google.com/wembaster/+1button.

AdWords, +1

You didn't think this algorithm change would be limited to organic results, did you? AdWords ads will also feature the +1 button so that users can recommend useful ads, based on their searches. Seen in the image here, if a personal contact cites the ad you will see that very personal recommendation.

For advertisers, this means great care should be taken to creat relevant, accurate and perhaps even entertaining ads. Think like Groupon – although you don't have near the same amount of characters to use, their descriptions of services being sold are highly engaging. What's more, +1 votes could ultimately affect Quality Score, thus bringing down advertising costs.

Staying Social

Google +1 obviously changes things and puts renewed importance on Google social tools. It's also in its very early stages. There will be questions and concerns, such as how much rankings are influenced by votes, whether the average user will vote for search results, and if the system is susceptible to gaming.

Keep in mind, too, that other social networks and websites should not be abandoned in any way. Facebook, Twitter and some others have emerged as powerful resources for Internet business and it will remain so. Even Google's blog acknowledges that the social Web is far bigger than just Google products: "Soon we may also incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible."

In short, we cannot ignore Google at any time and it appears that we will be forced to participate in Google's version of the social Web. But keep a balanced approach. Not everything Google is gold.