Google Plus Search Your World — What This Means For Bloggers

January 12, 2012 in opinion, reviews, technology with 2 Comments

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Well, it came as no surprise really to most of us early adopters of Google+ that they finally completely and obviously integrated their social networking services with their search engine and its results.

On Tuesday they rolled out what they’re calling “Google Plus Search Your World.” If you’re on Google+ and have more than just 5 followers–four of whom post nothing– then you’re seeing lots of news updates about a little kerfuffle he said she said between them and Twitter, which I’ll get to in a separate post, since it’s quite ridiculous if you think about it.

But for now, I’m pleasantly surprised so far at where I project this will go for bloggers and other web users such as businesses who want to get their content indexed better on the search engine.

Right now, it’s hard to tell if this will benefit people or make people flock to Google+ in droves or not–which I doubt it really will. But if you’re a blogger or an aspiring author, and you’re not currently taking advantage of the service to raise your profile, then you are definitely doing the modern equivalent of investing in Beta Max instead of VHS.

Let me explain why you need to jump on this: to date, Facebook is the dominating force in social networking, with over 800 million followers. However, due to their licensing agreements and privacy settings, they can only make public whatever the user allows to be shared publicly. Google+ does this too however, giving you the option to share content with specific circles and not be indexed publicly if you so choose. However, Google offers a search engine and other services. Google has the largest universal audience base, demolishing Bing and Yahoo and other search engines by comparison, but they don’t have the largest social network. At least at the moment. And, they simply don’t have permission to dig deep into Twitter and Facebook to share their results or findings about you.

Google+ suggestions are also integrated into these new results if you’re searching using “personal search” instead of “global search”. If users search for broad topics, like say technology, Google will show what it considers “prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+”. Again, Google is gauging social authority from Google+ and is only pulling these “prominent people” from Google+, not Facebook or Twitter.

Why Blending Social and Search is a Brilliant Move by Google

In an article at Econsultancy.com, Kevin Gibbons, Founder, SEOptimise says:

There was an interesting study by Nielsen a couple of yeas ago, and this stated that 42% of people trust search engine results, while a huge 90% trust recommendations from people they know.

When I think of my own personal habits, I find that the news I read and the articles I click on, by and large come from social networking, specifically Facebook and Google+. Then, sometimes if a catchy title or tweet comment in my Twitter feed catches my attention I visit the link, so at first glance seems true for my online viewing habits. So if someone is using Google to search for something, and they are signed into their account, they are shown results that their friends ‘plus oned’ or shared, or written about on Google+. There’s already uproar and mixed opinion about this if this is good.

Danny Sullivan says:

Google’s job as a search engine is to direct searchers to the most relevant information on the web, not just to information that Google may have an interest in.

These suggestions would be better if they included other services, and that’s the standard Google’s search results should aim for, returning the best.

I’m personally not thinking it will go over too well that users are, by default, signed into the personal search results feature instead of the global one.

Stephen Shankland points out in his blog post about it;

Here’s where Google is key. People go to Facebook and Twitter to speak their own mind and to listen to whatever is on the minds of the people they follow. But they go to Google search for specific answers.

I think I agree. So, combining those two factors–search and social–is a brilliant idea on Google’s part.

So Why Does This Provide An Opportunity For Those Trying to Raise Their Online Profile?

So without saying I think it’s right or wrong that Google is favouring Google+ in its search results, it is what it is and this matters to anybody who is making their presence known on the Internet, since over 70% users use Google for their searches, above Bing and Yahoo, and others.

It’s my opinion, based on how I’ve used Google+ these last six months, that if you’re intentionally trying to be found on the Internet, you need to be on Google+. That’s even more obvious now that the searches are integrated with what people are sharing on Google+.

So long as you have a Google profile, or you have a blog or some place on the Internet you’re putting forward your content, you should position yourself for being shared more on the network. If you’ve got content or a service you’re providing, and it’s being shared by people on Google+ the same way people have shared in the closed eco-system of Facebook, then this will be made obvious in the search results to those who may be searching for something related to what you provide or write about.

If You’re Not On Google+, You’re Not A Suggestion

If you’re hitting home runs that people are interested in sharing with their friends, in this case, on Google+ specifically, this will start manifesting itself prominently in the search results of other people, for example, who may be friends with those who are sharing. This is also why I decided to start making all of my posts, especially if I’m sharing blog content I’ve written myself–public, because I want the search engines like Google, the most used of them, to retrieve relevant content when people are searching for things that are related to me and my writings.

So, get familiar with Google+ but don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s the same as Facebook.