Maybe you want to join in the fun and grow your circles of friends, family & acqaintances, but if you rely upon SEO to gain traffic to your websites you might want to learn about Google+ even more. Right now there doesn’t seem to be a direct impact and you are likely going about your business as usual, but you should keep your eyes open to developments with Google+.

Be social; collect data

There are several speculations regarding its impact on Search Engine Optimization and SERPs. The effect of social signals on SERPs has always been a subject of study among SEO experts. It was observed by many SEO professionals that shares and likes on Facebook meant high popularity of a link and this had direct impact on how Google ranked a page.

Google isn’t going social just because it’s popular – they don’t want to kill Facebook or Twitter. They are primarily after data collection. Users of social networking sites willingly hand over tons of information about their life, location, friends & family and, most importantly, what they love & hate. This is valuable information that Google can use in the search engine. However, earlier, Google had to extract data from social sites like Facebook, Twitter and so on in order to determine social signals associated to a site or a page.

Now, Google+ makes it even simpler, as it serves as a database for Google to easily extract social information, signals and more. The aim of the Google search engine is to take the info that their customers (or researchers) want to find and deliver a list of relevant, high quality websites, blogs, videos and images. The more accurate they are in doing this and the better content suggestions they offer, the more researchers will come to them rather than to other search engines.

And what can help them deliver the most relevant and useful sites better than cold hard figures telling them which websites, blogs, images and videos real people find most useful? The data can be collected through the circles functionality on Google+ and then directly applied to the ranking of websites in the Google search engine. This has a direct impact on everyone who is using SEO to generate website traffic. The sites that get the most “+1″ clicks could rise to the top of the search engines even though they might not be the ones using the best SEO strategies. This creates a whole new game that you have to play if you want to be – and stay – highly ranked.

But how? Let’s find out!

Real Time Search

It has been speculated that Google Real time search had been turned off one month before the release specifically to incorporate results from Google+. Previously, results from Twitter were shown on real time search. It is being predicted that soon Google will re-launch its real time search, now in a more relevant manner, with real time results from Google+. If you have relevant content, updated regularly on Google+, you can feature on the real time search often, and thus promote news and information on your website.

Sparks Streaming

Google+ has a content aggregator feature called Sparks which allows users to choose their favourite activity or interest such as media, sports, entertainment, ... Users can get content streamed right onto their profiles according to their indicated interests. This could be a great way to promote your website or blog, if you produce good content of course.

Public Posts

If you select the visibility of your posts as ‘public’, they are indexed by Google and can reach the top of search results if it gets enough shares and +1s. However, it is still not very clear how Google is deciding ranks from the feed of Google+. But, watch out! Since Google+ will have an effect on SEO, you will be tempted to share every single thing you ever wrote. Fight the urge and just try to create good compelling content that others will be motivated to share on your behalf. Keep a good ratio of solid content to promotional content. So, share about 5 to 10 articles written by someone other than yourself before you share your own.

Business Pages

Google is soon to bring out products and features to support brands and businesses on Google+. Given the exponential growth and popularity of Google+, presence of your brand on this social networking site is an absolute necessity.

But be careful!

Most people are now aware of Google+, but not everyone has figured out how it could affect them. Some believe it’s just another social networking tool and don’t yet see how it could impact the world of search engine optimization and online marketing in general. Those that take SEO seriously are watching to see how fast Google+ progresses and what they decide to do with the data they have already collected.

But, what does this mean to you? Are you scrambling to get your foot in the door with Google+? Are you trying to figure out this new system so you are among the first to get your page rank up? Do you have some ideas of how Google+ could be used for marketing and SEO? 

If not, don’t worry. Just don’t forget to keep your eye on this latest Google development.

-- by Nele Waelbers - @lafillenelle