Who could be surprised to learn that Google’s sought-after organic search rankings improve for those using Google+ social media? Not us, but we are glad to hear it.
Moz (formerly SEOmoz) released a study showing the correlation between higher search rankings and the amount of Google +1 posts that have been shared. This was the most influential factor found to influence search results besides “page authority” — Google’s own recipe of commonly understood trust factors for a website.
For those of you unfamiliar with Moz, they are a highly credible search engine marketing consulting firm, and they have their own suite of tools which Obu utilizes daily. Their people are pretty top-notch as well. I mean, the dude handling this particular study is Matt Peters, who has a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics. Feel free to call him “Doc.”
A Few Quick Takeaways
- Google+ posts pass along link “juice,” or link equity. This is always valuable, and you may not be getting it with shares on Facebook. Google doesn’t like to tell.
- You don’t have to wait for Google crawl your blog — that is, to find it and rank it. If you post to Google + and get a few shares, you can expect the page to be crawled right away and therefore be found in the search engine itself a short time later.
- Sharing a post will create unique URL structures and hashtags. This makes the posts themselves unique pieces of content, ever expanding your web presence.
If you are reading this and not using Google+, here is what you should do:
- If you are blogging or working to improve or maintain your positioning in search engines, you need to be using Google+.
- Post something relevant to your goals and worth sharing. Another slideshow of old castles may be cool, but you really don’t care to promote old castles.
- Find others that are using Google+, including close friends, and add them into your “circles.”
- Encourage people to share your post.
For those of you ready for a mental download of the whole enchilada, you can find it here. Also included is a dense flowchart if you’re wondering who, exactly, will see your Google+ posts.
And one last thing: Find me on Google+ and share!
Photo Credit: Moz
