Google Plus – The Game Changer
Google Plus, making big moves.
Google + as we know it is evolving into becoming not only a way to leverage your SERP rankings, but it is apparently also taking the lead in the social media industry as one of the most powerful platforms. Google Plus launched in mid 2011 and today has well over 600 million users, they are making a strong impression in the industry and are progressing a rate that is record breaking. With Twitter and Facebook as the biggest rival competitors, Google + is really making some progress considering that it has not been around nearly as long as the veterans in the game. There are a lot of case studies that are floating around that are pretty impacting, it is no secret that Google + is on course to become the most powerful social media platform. We will briefly touch on some of the more common topics in respect to this area of discussion in this blog post.
Better Rankings and Better Click Through Rates?
One of the most commonly asked questions in this area of discussion would probably be if Google Authorship will help you obtain better rankings in the SERP’s. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to gather any type of real answer with so many uncontrolled variables, at the end of the day we hear many opinions that are worth listening to but the real pro’s will even tell you themselves, it is all opinion based. A great post that recently came for SEOMoz’s blog by Andrea explains in detail about the benefits of using rich snippets and more specifically Google Authorship. What we can conclude with certainty about utilizing Google Authorship is that you will experience higher click through rates. But this is really just common sense guys, we all know that human’s are always going to be gravitated towards images rather than text because most people are visual learners and are accustomed to visual representations.
Another topic that is commonly being debated on the web is whether or not Google Plus is going to take over the industry and beat out their competition, mainly Facebook and Twitter. Below you will see a chart that shows a comparison of the major players in the industry and what they are working with in terms of number of profiles and some other metrics from Top Ten Reviews website. It is clear that Google Plus is making a huge impression as a industry player taking position as one of the top three players in the game after joining the game years after Facebook and Twitter.
Recently a well known industry guru by the name of Rand Fishkin posted some interesting statistics that implies Google Plus may be more fruitful in terms of audience engagement than Twitter. One the of the main points of Fishkin’s post described that his Titter follower count was more than twice of his Google Plus follower count yet the engagement he received from Google Plus was equal to that of Twitter’s engagement from a post he recently made on April 4th, 2013.
One thing is clear, Google Plus should not be overlooked as it is getting some serious attention from the global population. Having your business in the Google Plus community would certainly not hurt if you are trying to build brand awareness or market through social media platforms alike. We would love to hear what you have to say about Google plus and the impact it has had in your business or personal ventures into the online community. Thanks for reading and happy blogging!
About The Author
Jason Hawkins / http://www.themiamiseocompany.com
Jason Hawkins is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Miami SEO Company. He has over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and lead generation. His core responsibilities include identifying ways to increase value of services rendered, training staff on advanced SEO topics, and A/B testing internal processes to consistently improve client return on investment.
